Guillotine The guillotine was a much more humane method of | Honest historian
Guillotine
The guillotine was a much more humane method of execution than the other forms of execution common at the time (burning at the stake, hanging, quartering). In addition, the guillotine was applied to all segments of the population without exception, which emphasized the equality of citizens before the law.
Dr. Guillotin was born in 1738. When he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, he submitted a proposal to the Assembly in December 1789 that the death penalty should always be carried out in the same way - namely by decapitation, and moreover by means of a machine. This method of execution became legal in 1791. Originally, beheading was supposed to be carried out by the sword, but this method proved to be inconvenient.
On April 25, 1792, after successful experiments on corpses, the first execution with the new machine was carried out. The guillotine was used intensively during the French Revolution and remained the main method of execution in France until its abolition in 1981.
