Jacques Guibourd Historic House house museum by the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve, Inc. Jacques came to Ste. Genevieve from France by way of Saint Domingue where he had been a secretary to a wealthy plantation owner. During a slave rebellion, he was smuggled out of the country in a cargo barrel by his slave, Moros. He and Moros made their way back to France whereupon seeing the chaos and destruction there caused by the Reign of Terror (1793–94, just after the French Revolution of 14 July 1789) had decided to leave their homeland. After hearing of a population of French speaking settlers
Reign of Terror tide would not turn from them until September of 1792 when the French won a critical victory at Valmy preventing the Austro-Prussian invasion. While the French military had stabilized and was producing victories by the time the Reign of Terror officially began, the pressure to succeed in this international struggle acted as justification for the government to pursue its tyrannical actions. It was not until after the execution of Louis XVI and the annexation of the Rhineland that the other monarchies began to feel threatened enough to form the First Coalition. The Coalition, consisting of Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Holland,