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The Réveillon riots between 26–29 April 1789[1] centered in the St. Antoine district of Paris where a factory which produced luxury wallpaper was owned by Jean-Baptiste Réveillon. The factory employed around 300 people.[2] The riots were one of the first instances of violence during the French Revolution. The factory where the riot took place was unusual in pre-revolutionary France as the factory was guild-free in an era where guilds controlled quality standards.
Protests began after rumors spread that the owner had made a speech stating that workers, many of whom were highly skilled, were to be paid lower wages and, as a result, there would be lower prices. Workers were concerned with food shortages, high unemployment, and low wages after a difficult winter in 1789. However, Réveillon was known for his benevolence towards the poor[3] and actually stated that bread prices should be brought down to those that people could afford (below 15 sous a day) but his comments were misinterpreted as wage restrictions. He made the comments on 21 April when the assembly of the Saint-Marguerite was discussing its Cahier which all Estates drew up before the Estates-General was to be called.
After informal protests on Sunday 26 April, groups of protesters congregated on the Île de la Cité and in the [fr], Marais, and Faubourg Saint-Antoine the next day for a series of protest-marches. Though the first three marches - one of which targeted the Third Estate's Assembly of Electors - were resolved peacefully, confrontations between troops and participants in the fourth demonstration led to the outbreak of violence in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine that evening.
While the protesters did not manage to destroy the factory, which was being guarded by a group of around fifty troops, a factory owned by the saltpetre manufacturer Henriot was destroyed after he made similar comments.[4] However Réveillon's factory was destroyed a day later as was his home.[5] The riot killed 25 people[5] and wounded around the same number although rumour caused the casualty figures to be exaggerated. The French Guard were used to restore order.
^Sir Archibald Alison (1848). History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in M.DCC.LXXXIX. to the Restoration of the Bourbons in M.DCCC.XV. Vol. 1 (7 ed.). W. Blackwood and sons. p. 357 – via Google Books, Ghent University.
^Sir Archibald Alison (1848). History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in M.DCC.LXXXIX. to the Restoration of the Bourbons in M.DCCC.XV. Vol. 1 (7 ed.). W. Blackwood and sons. p. 358 – via Google Books, Ghent University.
Micah Alpaugh, "The Politics of Escalation in French Revolutionary Protest: Political Demonstrations, Nonviolence and Violence in the Grandes journées of 1789," French History 23, no. 3 (Fall 2009), 336–359.
