A study of the massacre of the champs de mars. The French Revolution

A study of the massacre of the Champs de Mars. The source is a letter from Madame Roland to a confident regarding the events that took place at the Champs de Mars on the 17th July 1791. This kind of source has many strengths as a piece of evidence when writing a study of an event such as this and added to other sources provides valuable information regarding the events that took place. Firstly, as this …

…that the municipality were unarmed. Madame Roland states that the crowds comprised largely of women carrying children, which suggests unwittingly that a number of people who died would have been women or children. She also makes it clear that the crowd had legitimate reasons for this petition. She tells of the guards' blatant disregard for the laws and states that what should have been a peaceful protest was turned into a massacre by their actions.