Clément Duval was a famous French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 anarchist and criminal

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

. His ideas concerning individual reclamation

Individual reclamation

Individual reclamation is a form of direct action, characterized by the individual theft of resources from the rich by the poor...

 were greatly influential in later shaping illegalism

Illegalism

Illegalism is an anarchist philosophy that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland during the early 1900s as an outgrowth of individualist anarchism...

.

Duval served as a member of the fifth infantry battalion in the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

, where he was wounded by a mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

 and contracted smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

. As a result, he spent 4 of the next 10 years in a hospital. Unable to work, Duval turned to theft.

Subsequent to his spending a year in prison for the theft of eighty franc

Franc

The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...

s, Duval joined the anarchists of The Panther of Batignolles

The Panther of Batignolles

The Panther of Batignolles was an organized group of anarchists in France in the late 19th century. Its members included Clément Duval.-External links:* Turnbull and Spears Printers, Edinburgh, 1911....

.

On October 25th of 1886, Duval broke into the mansion of a Parisian socialite and stole 15,000 francs before accidentally setting the house on fire. He was caught only 2 weeks later after trying to fence

Fence (criminal)

A fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale, sometimes in a legitimate market. The fence thus acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may or may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the...

 the stolen goods, stabbing a policeman named Rossignol several times during his arrest. The policeman survived his wounds. His trial drew crowds of supporters and ended in chaos when Duval was dragged from the court crying "Long live anarchy!" He was condemned to death, but his sentence was later commuted to hard labor on Devil's Island

Devil's Island

Devil's Island is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about 6 nautical miles off the coast of French Guiana . It has an area of 14 ha . It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952...

, French Guiana.

In the anarchist paper Révolte, Duval famously declared that, "Theft exists only through the exploitation of man by man... when Society refuses you the right to exist, you must take it... the policeman arrested me in the name of the Law, I struck him in the name of Liberty".

Duval spent the next 14 years in prison, attempting escape over 20 times. In April 1901, he succeeded and fled to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he lived until the age of 85. His memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

s were published in 1929.

External links

• An Anarchist on Devil’s Island
• Clément Duval Page Anarchist Encyclopedia