Law of Suspects - Estimated Number of Victims

Estimated Number of Victims

The number of accused suspects under the Terror has been estimated to be 500,000 people by Donald Greer, based research into historical records. He also has estimated that there were 35,000 to 40,000 casualties, including 16,594 executed following legal processes, the other executions corresponding to the areas of civil war. According to estimates by Albert Mathiez, which places the number of suspects in Paris – who originally numbered 6,000 Paris, and more than 8,000 on the eve of the Thermidorian Reaction – the number amounts to 300,000 people. For Louis Jacob, subsequent statements regarding the events of 9 Thermidor, including discussions with the Convention, can establish a total at 70,000 suspects. According to Jean Tulard, there were 500,000 prisoners and 300,000 people assigned to house arrest. The University of Chicago's Encyclopedia Britannica, more conservatively, puts the number detained by the law at "more than 200,000," noting that most never stood trial although they languished in disease infested prisons where 10,000 perished, and military commissions and revolutionary tribunals gave death sentences to 17,000 others. Jean-Louis Matharan, for his part, considers that "any overall figure of detained suspects remain in the state is pure conjecture," especially since, from August 1792 to Thermidor Year II, "the release of jailed suspects was uninterrupted," although there were likely fewer arrests, and that there have been claims about the rapid release of those arrested and shorter terms of imprisonment.