Database: Jacques Roux

Ordained in 1779, this son of an infantry lieutenant served as a lowly vicar in the of . He encouraged those who took part in anti-feudal peasant movements to come to the parish to which he ministered. Promptly removed from his parish, the "red priest" took refuge in Paris.*
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* Not the best nickname, is it? I mean it's hardly the "Black Widow". He just sounds like a permanently embarrassed member of the clergy. Which these days is many of them.
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Roux would soon earn the moniker of "petit Marat." Preaching to the ' club, his rhetoric became increasingly incendiary. He encouraged the looting of shops on February 25, 1793. All his actions focused on the issue of livelihood; the working class, the only one useful to society, was dying of hunger**. He petitioned for the punishment of speculators, usurers and employers who exploited their workers.
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**All of which sounds completely reasonable... which is why you need to keep reading.
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On June 25, 1793, he proclaimed his Manifesto of the Enragés to the National Convention. He was booted out. By June 28, was violently denounced by Robespierre*** who had him expelled from the Cordeliers. Marat also turned against him, denouncing him as a false patriot and a criminal in his newspaper, L'Ami du Peuple. No sooner had Marat met his death than Roux took over the newspaper. He lambasted the slowness of the guillotine**** and the absence of any real social measures.
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***You have to admit, 'Too crazy for Robespierre' allows this gentleman to take his place as a member of a rather... select group.
**** 'The guillotine is slow' is not a complaint you will have heard from many people of the time...
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He would later be imprisoned at , where he continued to write his journal. He was removed to another prison, where he succeeded in stabbing himself mortally*****, on February 10, 1794. The "preacher of the sans-culottes" had failed to develop a viable political system, but had nevertheless been the voice of the oppressed.
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*****That's right. He stabbed HIMSELF fatally. You know - the way people often stab themselves. No Assassins involved whatsoever. Just one of those violent and sustained self-stabbings.
 
Category:Database: People
Category:Helix database entries