The Sans-Culottes

The Sans-Culottes were so named because of their style of dress. Culottes were short trousers worn by noblemen, and so the Sans-Culottes made a statement by wearing long trousers, thus separating themselves from the noblemen. They were the working people of Paris, such as labourers,  laundry women, craftsmen, fishwives or clerks.  

    The Sans-Culottes were the people who actually overthrew the king, and they hated nobles. They refused to use any word which was associated with the nobility. Instead of calling each other Monsieur, which translates literally as "my lord" or Madame, literally translated as "My lady" they called each other citoyen (citizen) or camarade (comrade).    the word "camarade" is still used in the French language today, and it means friend or colleague.  

Click here to learn about the estates.

The Sans-Culottes were Republicans, and held many ideas that were similar to communism. They hated the monarchy and they thought that power should belong to the actual people. They believed that everyone should have equal rights. They introduced the use of "tu " instead of "vous" when addressing people, that is, a non-formal form of the word "you", to show that no-one was superior, or indeed inferior, to anyone else.  The Sans-Culottes finally claimed the right to have weapons and use them against opponents. Foreigners were completely horrified by their readiness to use violence. Many cartoonists drew them as bloodthirsty monsters, dining on human flesh, carrying huge and bloody instruments around with them, hanging eyeballs off the walls and making their children eat human hearts.  

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