The Dames des Halles

Abstract

This chapter examines how the Dames des Halles derived their influence from their roles as retailers in the food trade and as traditional representatives of the Third Estate. It draws on evidence from 151 market women to situate them in les Halles and to establish their relationships with clients, brokers, inspectors, and wholesalers. It also demonstrates how the Dames’ ritual relationship with the king and Old Regime literary precursors positioned the Dames as the voice of the people. Revolutionary propagandists drew on the prerevolutionary “genre poissard” to appropriate stock characters of the market women. From 1789 to 1792, political pamphleteers from rival parties channeled the poissard style and deployed fictive Dames to personify popular sovereignty. Thus, the living market women’s political influence hinged on their commercial and ritual activity as well as others’ cultural constructions.