French emigration (1789–1815)

Although initiated in 1789 as a peaceful effort led by the Bourgeoisie to increase political equality for the Third Estate (the unprivileged majority of the French people), the Revolution soon turned into a violent, popular movement.

To escape political tensions and, mainly during the Reign of Terror, to save their lives, a number of individuals emigrated from France and settled in the neighboring countries (chiefly Great Britain, Austria, and Prussia or other German states), though a few also went to the Americas.

[2] Notable émigrés include Madames Adélaïde and Victoire, aunts of King Louis XVI, who on 19 February 1791 started their journey to Rome to live nearer to the Pope.

However, their journey was stopped by and largely debated by the National Assembly who feared that their emigration implied that King Louis and his family would soon follow suit.

While this fear eventually resulted in the Day of Daggers and later the King's attempt to escape Paris, the Madames were permitted to continue their journey after statesman Jacques-François de Menou joking about the Assembly's preoccupation with the actions of "two old women".

This was a significant emigration; it marked the presence of many royalists outside France where they could be safe, alive, and await their opportunity to reenter the French political climate.

Unlike the privileged classes who had voluntarily fled earlier, those displaced by war were driven out by fear for their lives and were of lower status and lesser or no means.

[5] As the notions of political freedom and equality spread, people began developing different opinions on who should reap the benefits of active citizenship.

In addition to political divisions, they were dealing with the hyperinflation of the National Convention's fiat paper currency, the assignats, revolts against authority in the countryside, slave uprisings in colonial territories such as the Haitian Revolution, and no peaceful end in sight.

[6] Kaiser states that the Foreign Plot: consisted of a massive, multilayered conspiracy by counterrevolutionary agents abetted by the allies, who allegedly—and quite possibly in reality—sought to undermine the Republic through a coordinated effort to corrupt government officials associated with the more moderate wing of the Jacobin establishment and to defame the government by mobilizing elements on the extreme left.

Rousseau, a philosophe influential in the Enlightenment, spread the idea of a "collective will", a singular purpose which the people of a nation must all unequivocally support.

This omnipresent sense of fear inspired many of lesser means to flee France, often without much preparation and therefore no money or helpful belongings.

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".

They fled following the confiscation of their estates as well as legislation in August 1792 that stipulated that these refractory priests leave France willingly or be deported to French Guiana.

As the Republic evolved into the Directory, fears that émigrés with royalist leanings would return prompted harsher legislation against them, including the Law of Hostages passed in 1799.

[7] Although there was initial hesitation, citizens quickly learned that these migrants were refugees, searching for tranquility and focusing on how to feed themselves and their family members, not agents sent by France to disrupt the political order.

[5] While this generation of individuals did not have the luxury of being very politically active, their presence in neighboring European countries and the United States caused a wrinkle in the fabric of society.

These thousands of men, women, and children had survived a popular uprising and would never be able to forget their experiences in revolutionary France, the uncertainty, turmoil, and promise of liberty.

[9] The majority of emigrants were older and left France as individuals and sought out where to live in the United States based on what professional opportunities were available there.

[9] Along with the social changes that plagued the French nobility in their new transition to America, the émigrés now had to concern themselves with the issue of finances, as a result of the seizing of their assets during the Revolution.

Those in America had prepared themselves for the return to French culture by researching the social and political climate, as well as their prospects for earning back their wealth upon arrival.

Although some émigrés were willing to leave as soon as they were legally able to, many awaited the changing of the political climate to align to their own ideals before venturing back to France.

[7] Here the French had a somewhat easier transition into English society, but to say emigrating to this district was easy is to dismiss how truly austere their circumstance; "money remained a chronic concern and hunger a constant companion" (Whittaker).

[7] Most people just picked back up the trades they had in France, and aristocrats found themselves having to seek employment for the first time in years.

It has been noted that "there was little that these émigrés had in common besides their misfortunes and their stoic perseverance in the absence of any alternative"[12] Malnutrition and poor living conditions led to an onslaught of maladies, and death did not quite put an end to their suffering for even posthumously their families were beset with the financial burden of administering their funeral rites.