Bastille & National Assembly

On July 14, a mob of Parisians stormed the Bastille, an armory and prison in Paris, and dismantled it, brick by brick. The fall of the Bastille had saved the National Assembly. The peasant revolts and fear of foreign troops had a strong effect on the National Assembly which was meeting in Versailles. On August 4, 1789, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights Of Man & the citizen. Olympe de Gouges, a woman who wrote plays & pamphlets, refused to accept this exclusion of women from political rights. She insisted that women should have all the same rights as men. On October5, thousands of Parisian women - described by one eyewitness as "detachments of women coming up from every direction, aimed with broomsticks, lances, pitchforks, swords, pistols, and muskets" marched to Versailles to persuade Louis to return to Paris with his family. The royal family and the supplies were escorted by women armed with pikes. The king and his family became virtual prisoners in Paris.

Information found in Book, Pages 551 & 552