What was the name of the peasant uprising in July 1789 known as?

The peasant uprising and rural panic of July 1789 was known as the Great Fear.

The Great Fear was a wave of alarm that spread through the French countryside from roughly 22 July to 6 August 1789. Rumours claimed that aristocrats or foreign agents had hired brigands to destroy crops and starve the population. Villagers armed themselves, formed local militias, and sometimes attacked manor houses.

In many areas, peasants were seeking documents that recorded feudal dues and seigneurial privileges. They destroyed these records, and some manor houses were burned, although the violence was not uniform across France. The panic spread through several regions from separate starting points, making it one of the Revolution’s first nationwide rural crises.

The Great Fear helped pressure the National Assembly into abolishing feudal privileges during the night of 4 August 1789. It is sometimes described simply as an uprising, but historians also emphasize its elements of rumour-driven panic, self-defence, and attacks on the feudal system. It should not be confused with the later Reign of Terror or the Champ de Mars Massacre.