Tidbit Tuesday-French Refugees

 When I think of the French fleeing the Revolution, I think of The Scarlet Pimpernel. (The 2 movies I watched, not the book which had a terribly racist section they didn't add into the movies.) You know, the one, the masked hero spiriting the hapless prisoners from under the noses of Revolutionary Guards and the Directorate themselves.

Most of those fleeing France did so after war broke out. Ok, these articles called them emigres not refugees, which is an interesting distinction.

According to “La Généreuse Nation!” Britain and the French Emigration 1792 – 1802 by Callum Whittaker, during the Reign of Terror, many fled the ubiquitous threat of being accused of going against the Republic. From the Wiki article where I found this thesis:

During the Terror, no one was safe from scrutiny or potential execution, ultimately not even Robespierre himself. This omnipresent sense of fear inspired many of lesser means to flee France, often without much preparation and therefore no money or helpful belongings. Those who left France were a heterogeneous bunch socioeconomically and professionally, although the vast majority of migrants were men. While these people came from diverse financial backgrounds, they all more or less suffered the same poverty while traveling. In his thesis "'La Généreuse Nation!' Britain and the French Emigration 1792-1802", Callum Whittaker recounts that while leaving France one aristocrat "disguised herself as a sailor, and hid for a day in the hold of a ship underneath a pile of ropes". Also, captains and sailors saw this as an opportunity to earn a little on the side, and so they levied taxes on the emigrants, leaving them on the shores of another nation with nothing. Yet still, thousands chose this path of discomfort and destitution because it at least provided the promise of peace.

In One Day with You, Louise Ardenne flees her small fishing village in France for the relative safety of England right across the English Channel. She pays a ship's captain to smuggle her across, and has to sell everything but the clothes on her back.