The Guillotine During The French Revolution

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The definition of the guillotine, is a device for beheading a person by means of a heavy blade that is dropped between two posts serving as guides. (“guillotine”) The guillotine is something that would brought into use during the French Revolution, and was first used in the year 1792. However, that is what historians know and have been told. In reality it had been used years before in some other countries, maybe not the exact guillotine, but things and killing tactics very similar. During the 1790s when the guillotine was new and rather popular, children were often present at guillotine executions, some even played with their own miniature versions of a guillotine at home. Although they were later banned in some towns due to people believing …show more content…
Joseph Ignace Guilllotin, deputy of Paris. On October 10th, 1789, he proposed the idea of the guillotine. Beheading was seen as the most humane way of execution at the time. However, it was only used on people of noble birth in many countries. Regular people were slowly hung, broken on the wheel, or burnt at stake. (“The Guillotine”) Guillotin did not actually invent the guillotine but encouraged the idea as a more humane way of execution. Guillotin was never really for the death penalty, but thought if he proposed the guillotine (a machine that beheads painlessly) that it was the best way to execute someone. (“Top 10”) The guillotine was a more efficient way of execution. Before the guillotine the just had a man with an axe. Sometimes it wasn’t efficient and the process of beheading someone could take up to hours. Sometimes if the executer wasn’t exact it would cut through the whole neck so they would have to do it again. That’s another reason why the guillotine is a more humane way of execution. With the guillotine, the blade is at an angle so it has a more precise cut. The blade being at a curve makes it easier to cut through skin and bone, just like when people cut vegetables or meat, they hold the knife at an angle and cut down. Making it easier to execute someone
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