BASTILLE DAY FROM THE AMERICAN VIEW POINT: IT’S ALL IN THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE’S KEY

A celebration of Bastille Day on 60th Street, NYC

Bastille Day, July 14, marks the day at the start of the French Revolution in 1789 when the French people stormed the Bastille, a Parisian prison that embodied the injustice of the Bourbon monarchy.

Marquis de Lafayette

Soon after, the French people gave the Marquis de Lafayette, who had helped the United States gain independence from Great Britain, the key to the Bastille as a gesture of good faith, entrusting him to protect France’s newly won liberties.

Lafayette, a good friend of George Washington, sent Washington the key in 1790 on behalf of the French people, to solidify the two countries’ friendship.

The key

To this day, the key hangs in the central hall of Mount Vernon, Washington’s Virginia home, where visitors can see this symbol of friendship, freedom and democracy.

Washington’s Mount Vernon home

Source: ShareAmerica (Bureau of Global Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State). Original title: “A Bastille Day Symbol of Friendship”

Images
Featured image(Bastille Day celebration, NY)/Amaury Laporte, CC BY2.0 via Flickr
Lafayette engraving by Geroge Perine. Photographed by Marion Doss, CC BY-SA2.0 via Flickr. Rotated
Bastille key/Internet Archive Book Image’s photostream, PD via Flickr
Mount Vernon, unknown author. source: US National Archives and Records Administration, PD via Wikimedia Commons