Estimated Number of Victims
The precise number of victims is not known. According to Roger Dupuy, there were between 7 and 11 drowning executions, with 300 to 400 victims each time. According to Jacques Hussenet, 1,800 to 4,800 people drowned on the orders of Carrier, and perhaps 2,000 others drowned on the orders by other Republican revolutionaries in Nantes. Jean-Clément Martin wrote that between 1,800 and 4,000 people died in mass drownings. In 1879, Alfred Lallie reported that 4,860 people were drowned confirmed by Hippolyte Taine. According Reynald Secher, 4,800 victims suffered execution by drowning just during the fall 1793. For Gaston Martin, about 1800 died, for Fouquet 9000 died, for Mellinet 3500 were killed.
According to historian Reynald Secher, these murders are one component of a systematic policy of extermination (genocide) of the residents of the Vendée planned by the revolutionary Committee of Public Safety, and approved by a vote of the National Convention in Paris on 1 October 1793.
Read more about this topic: Drownings At Nantes
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