The final project for our unit on the French Revolution will be combine all the information and ideas we will learn in the unit.

As a class, we will be conducting a Court Trial. You will put King Louis XVI on the stand.  If he is found guilty, he will be sentenced to death by the guillotine.

The following cast of characters are:

King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, The presiding judge and three advisors, two defense lawyers, two prosecuting lawyers, Jean Paul Marat, Maximillien Robespierre, George Danton.  Enlightenment thinkers Voltaire, Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke.  Also, two of you will represent the Catholic clergy, three will represent the Nobles, three will represent the middle class and three will represent the peasants of France. One will represent an Austrian military leader and one will represent a Prussian military leader.  

You will each individually be part of a larger group along with classmates who have a similar role.  You will each be responsible for working with your group to come up with a historically accurate position for or against sentencing the King to death.

With your group you will need to learn about the history of the French Revolution, view of the world, life experiences and living conditions within French society in the 1600’s and 1700’s.  You will need to understand the social, economic, political and environmental causes and effects of the French Revolution and be able to describe its major events.  Also, you will need to be able to analyze primary sources and use them in your research.  You will need to provide evidence to support your reasoning and anticipate counter arguments to your position. 

You will need to work effectively on your own and in a group to be successful.  Each of you will be responsible for either writing a statement of appearing in court to give testimony.

I WILL SEE YOU ALL IN COURT!