Personal Narrative: The French Revolution

Words: 770
Pages: 4

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jean-Christophe Bessette, a former merchant who lived in Paris at the time of the French revolution. I am currently a refugee in Scotland due to the conflicts that occurred during the war between Napoleonic France and the allied powers of Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. During the beginning of the horrid coup d'etat known as the French revolution, I was a working merchant who made money by successfully trading with countries like Spain and Austria. I had a wife, who is currently deceased, and three children, who are also deceased. I was a member of the Third Estate, and well received by my peers and even by the lower clergy. But that changed with King Louis’ summoning the three estates in the Estates …show more content…
I befriended a lawyer, Maximilien Robespierre, and together with other Third Estate radicals, we formed the Jacobin Club, which would become one of the most influential organizations in the next four some years. Soon Robespierre and I, along with other Jacobins, became the leader of the club, after the other older, more powerful Jacobins lost their influence on the club. So anyways, in the Estates General, the Third Estate had little to no say in policy voting. The king was bias towards us and always seemed to favor rules that gave us a disadvantage. The king called us so we can discuss about the French economy, but I don’t understand why he called us the Third Estate. We want to come up with solutions and express our viewpoints on the major financial issues, but if the king is going to shun us like that and always vote with the Third Estate, then I don’t know why our presences are …show more content…
Just days after that, we realized that the monarchy was treating us like crap. King Louis didn't give a damn about the Third Estate, and while we are suffering from the economic issues, he and the royalty were in their castle basically taunting us. We weren’t going to take that. We knew that we had to do something to bring the royalty down. And on July 14, 1789, we did. Our people went to the Bastille, a fortress that represented the corruption of the French monarchy, and asked the governor of the Bastille to give up their arms and gunpowder. When those scoundrels refused, we had to seize the fortress and destroy