by Carol H. Morgan

Created on: July 25, 2008   Last Updated: October 28, 2008

Getting to the true story of the guillotine, the notorious execution device of The French Revolution, requires slicing through some fairly thick layers of myth and legend. And it also requires understanding one of the bloodiest episodes in relatively recent memory, not an easy task because France has not surprisingly distanced itself from this chapter of history. Very few traces of the authentic Revolution-era guillotines remain today. France has outlawed the death penalty and removed (in many ways) the shadow that the device cast on the story of its struggle for independence.

But it isn't wise to let its story of the guillotine, its creation and use, become too hazy or distant. It story is a testament to how easy it is, even in an 'enlightened' time to surrender participation in man's total inhumanity to man. Perhaps the most significant fact about the history of the guillotine is that the credit for its invention is often misattributed. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was only marginally involved in the machine's development for use in the revolution tribunals, nor did he intend even a fraction of the terror that it came to represent. In fact the terrible irony for Guillotin and his descendants, who are rumored to have changed their names in shame (though that is not certain) is that he intended to play a completely opposite role in the story of capital punishment.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GUILLOTINE

Even The History Channel has been guilty of perpetuating old inaccuracies when it comes to the true story of the dreaded execution device, and the role of its namesake, Guillotin. The new THC documentary series "Surviving History" (which has the unusual premise of subjecting its crew to the "experiences" of history's famous torture and execution devices) perpetuates the popular notion that Guillotin himself helped to design the prototype of the device that carries his name. "Surviving History" even filmed part of a recent episode of (about famous beheading devices), outside of a favorite cafe frequented by revolutionaries in France - Cafe de Chartres, where Guillotin is sometimes thought to have invented and tested a prot

The THC program claimed that just outside this cafe, with all of the drama of attempted on-the-spot footage, Guillotin was one of the designers of the prototypes of the famous French implement of capital punishment. He was NOT. He was in fact an activist against the death penalty under any circumstances. And unfortunately for his name through history, in an attempt

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