François-Noël Babeuf
| François-Noël Babeuf | |
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François-Noël "Gracchus" Babeuf
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| Born |
November 23, 1760 Saint-Quentin, France |
| Died | May 27, 1797 (aged 36) Vendôme, France |
| Era | 18th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | "Babouvism" (precursor to anarchism and communism) |
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Main interests
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Political philosophy |
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Influences
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François-Noël Babeuf (French: [babœf]; 23 November 1760 – 27 May 1797), known as Gracchus Babeuf, was a French political agitator and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper Le tribun du peuple ("the tribune of the people") was best known for his advocacy for the poor and calling for a popular revolt against the Directory, the government of France. He was a leading advocate for democracy, the abolition of private property and the equality of results. He angered the authorities who were clamping down hard on their radical enemies. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was executed for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals.
The "Gracchus" nickname likened him to the ancient Roman tribunes of the people. Although the words "anarchist" and "communist" did not exist in Babeuf's lifetime, they have both been used to describe his ideas, by later scholars. The word "communism" was first used in English by Goodwyn Barmby in a conversation with those he described as the "disciples of Babeuf". He has been called "The First Revolutionary Communist."
Babeuf was born at St. Nicaise near the town of Saint-Quentin. His father, Claude Babeuf, had deserted the French Royal Army in 1738 for that of Maria Theresa of Austria, reportedly rising to the rank of major. Amnestied in 1755, he returned to France, but soon sank into poverty, and had to work as a casual labourer to support his wife and family. The hardships endured by Babeuf during his early years contributed to the development of his political opinions. His father gave him a basic education, but until the outbreak of the Revolution, he was a domestic servant, and from 1785 occupied the office of commissaire à terrier, assisting the nobles and priests in the assertion of their feudal rights over the peasants. Accused of abandoning the feudal aristocracy, he would later say that "the sun of the French Revolution" had brought him to view his "mother, the feudal system" as a "hydra with a hundred heads."
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