During the French Revolution, various social groups stood out in the struggle for their rights and interests. One of these groups fulfilled an important influence for being formed by the poorer classes of Parisian society and for seeking, through radical practical actions, to execute the ideals of Liberty, equality and fraternity: were thesans-culottes.
The group's name comes from the clothes worn at the time of the Revolution. Clothes serve, even today, to protect the body and hide some parts. But they also serve to show social differences.
In France at the end of the 18th century, men of the nobility and the highest social classes wore the culottes, short, tight pants that reached up to the knee, where they were tied.
Workers, peasants, beggars and small merchants, who formed the lower classes of society, wore long, loose-fitting trousers. For not using the culottes, became known in France as the sans-cullotes, that is, those without breeches.
Thus, the use of different types of clothing served to mark social differences, but they were not only related to clothes. They were also related to political and social goals.
The political and social position of sans-culottes during the French Revolution it was marked by a radical republicanism. They defended the end of the monarchy, achieved in 1792, in addition to pressing for the execution of King Louis XVI. But they were also in favor of a form of equality that involved the direct participation of everyone in political decisions. Therefore, they were against the census vote established in the Constitution of 1791.
Women also participated in the revolution, along with the sans-culottes
But the sans-culottes they did not wait for the Constitution to change in order to exercise this form of direct democracy. In their clubs they exercised this kind of democracy in practice. In addition to having equality between all men, there was also an open space for women's participation. In 1790, they formed the Fraternal Society of Patriots of Both Sexes and the Condoliers Club.
But the action of sans-culottes it also manifested itself in the institutions created after the Revolution. You sans-culottes they were the main supporters of the Jacobins, especially after 1792, when the Republic was proclaimed. The measures taken by the Republic to guarantee social rights gained broad support from the French popular strata.
However, the reaction of the bourgeoisie and the deposition of the Jacobins also represented an intensification of the repression against the sans-culottes. From 1795 onwards, their political influence drastically diminished, and their clubs were closed and their meetings were barred.
Despite being defeated in the French Revolution, the sans-culottes they would return to the political scene during the Spring of the Peoples in 1848. The political participation of sans-culottes demonstrates that they represented one of the first forms of organization of the working class during capitalism.
By Tales Pinto
Master in History
