Charles BARBAROUX (1767-1794) secretary of the Commune of Ma - Lot 351

Lot 351
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Charles BARBAROUX (1767-1794) secretary of the Commune of Ma - Lot 351
Charles BARBAROUX (1767-1794) secretary of the Commune of Marseille and leader of the famous battalion of the Marseillais, conventional (Bouches-du-Rhône); proscribed with the Girondins, he hid, was discovered and tried to kill himself before being guillotined. Autograph manuscript [late 1793]; 21 pages small in-4 with erasures and corrections (wetness with small lack affecting some words in the lower corner of the first 2 pages). Important manuscript, written by Barbaroux during his proscription, relating the events of 1790-1792 and federalism in the Midi, probably in preparation for his memoirs. In particular, he recalls the role of his friend Jean Duprat, who was a silk merchant in Avignon and who, in his love of freedom, fought to free the Comtat Venaissin from the yoke of the papacy. He evokes the struggles that opposed the "papists" to the "patriots" that led to the attachment of Avignon to the Kingdom; after having envisaged transforming the small state into a Republic, one was limited to "proposing the reunion to France. This was the object of a confederation that Avignon proposed to all the communes of the province. [...] Duprat proposed a provisional organization of the municipalities; it was done, so to speak, spontaneously and the city of Avignon charged its administration with forming a national guard." In spite of internal quarrels, the "confederates" pursued their goal; Duprat was "indefatigable, the love of liberty increased his strength and he was well assisted by the two Mainvielle brothers, by his wife who rode a horse and did not flee from perils. The siege of Carpentras begins with Jourdan (known as Jourdan Coupe-Tête) at the head of the army, "a drunkard had to please drunkards", and it is only exactions. Duprat went to Paris "as a deputy of Avignon and the Comtat to request the reunion with France". But disorder set in; then came the massacre of the Glacière in October 1792 at the Palais des Papes, "provoked by the papists" according to Barbaroux and to which Duprat was suspected of being no stranger: "Duprat's house was plundered and his stores, which caused the total ruin of his fortune, his wife dragged by the hair was imprisoned, Mainvielle was also imprisoned, his younger brother fled on the roofs"... Duprat managed to escape and on his return was elected mayor of Avignon; arrested with the Girondins as well as his friend Mainvielle, accused "of having in the convention deffended the principles against the brigands had the honor of dying victims of tyranny next to our esteemed friends"... On the last page, Barbaroux dedicates a few lines to Deperret (native of Apt, deputy to the Convention, guillotined with Duprat and other Girondins on October 31, 1793): "It was impossible that with such principles he was not one of the most ardent friends of Liberty"...Former Patrice Hennessy collection (1958, No. 145).Attached is an autograph draft (3 1/2 pages in-4, edges frayed) of Barbaroux's report to the Convention on the proclamation of the National Executive Council for the suppression of the members of the Directory of the Somme and the Aisne; plus another autograph draft on the deliberations of the assembly and the remuneration of the deputies, on September 8 (4 p.); and 3 manuscripts of revolutionary songs.
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