The+Great+Fear

“O rich citizens who own property for the moment! Be so good as to leave for a time your chateaux and palaces, leave your towns where you have created new problems… be so good as to glance at those unfortunate men whose muscles are only occupied in working for you! What do you see in your villages, in our fields? A few weakened men, whose pale faces are withered by poverty and shame, their wives having too many children, each child wearing rags.”
 * Source 1: **Extract form a //cahier// (complaint) of the parish of Pleurs, Baillage de Sezanne, 1789.

“All the peasants in our neighbourhood are making ready to refuse the tithe-gatherers [church tax collectors] and state that nothing will be taken without bloodshed”.
 * Source 2: ** Extract from a cahier of Brittany, 1789

“The whole country is in the greatest agitation. Many chateaux have been burned and others plundered. The lords hunted down like beasts. Their feudal documents burned. Their property destroyed.”
 * Source 3: **Written by Arthur Young in late July 1789


 * 1) Study Source 1. What threat is implied in the first sentence of this source? [6]
 * 2) Who wrote the source? Do you think is important who wrote it? Explain why in depth. [7]
 * 3) Read source 3. Why do you think the peasants burnt documents with details of feudal dues? [7]
 * 4) Are sources 2 and 3 evidence of the results of the threat implied in source 1? Explain your answer. [7]