Jacques Pierre Brissot

Jacques Pierre Brissot (ʒak pjɛʁ bʁiso, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), also known as Brissot de Warville was a French journalist, abolitionist, and revolutionary leading the faction of Girondins, (initially called Brissotins) in the National Convention. In February 1788 Brissot was the founder of the anti-slavery Society of the Friends of the Blacks. From the outbreak of the revolution in July 1789, he became one of its most vocal supporters. As a member of the Legislative Assembly, Brissot advocated for war against Austria and other European powers in order to secure France's revolutionary gains, which led to the War of the First Coalition in 1792. He voted against the immediate execution of Louis XVI which made him unpopular by the Montagnards. On 3 April 1793 Maximilien Robespierre declared in the Convention that the whole war was a prepared game between Dumouriez and Brissot to overthrow the First French Republic. Conflicts with Robespierre, who accused him of royalism eventually brought about his downfall. On 8 October the Convention decided to arrest Brissot. At the end of October 1793 he was guillotined along with 28 other Girondins by Charles-Henri Sanson. Brissot was born at Chartres, the 13th child of a tavern keeper. He received an education and worked as a law clerk; first in Chartres then in Paris. In 1774 he moved to London because he wanted to pursue a literary career and decided to "anglocize" his last name by adding Warville, after Ouarville, a hamlet in the village of Lèves where his father owned property. He published many literary articles throughout his time in the British capital. While there, Brissot founded two periodicals that later did not do well and failed. He married Félicité Dupont (1759–1818), who translated English works, including Oliver Goldsmith and Robert Dodsley. They lived in London and had three children. His first works, Théorie des lois criminelles (1781) and Bibliothèque philosophique du législateur (1782), dealt with philosophy of law topics, and showed the deep influence of ethical precepts espoused by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.