The Lausanne Citizen, an Activist from the Working-Class Neighborhoods
There are not many traces of women left from this period. And yet, they played a large role in one of the last major popular insurrections of the Revolution: the one from the spring of 1795. While conservative Republicans had removed caps on the price of bread, the harvests were poor and inflation soared: very quickly, the people no longer had the means to feed themselves. In charge of feeding their families and used to keeping an eye on the price of essentials, women were the first to rebel. They also demanded the application of the Constitution of 1793, which outlined a democratic and social republic. One of these very women lived in this building: the “Lausanne citizen.” She was arrested for threatening a grocer with more moderate opinions, at a time when troops were entering the neighborhood in order to quash the revolt.
The Departure of Parisian Heroines for Versailles on September 4, 1789
