Student Example 1: My goal as a member of the Third Estate is not to completely cut out taxes, but to reduce the

amount. I believe that taxes are very expensive and at times I understand why we wouldn't want to pay them but I also believe in the importance of collecting tax money to put towards imperative causes. Another future goal of mine would be to set free the poorest group consisting of slaves and domestic servants. They may be needed at times but they should not be treated as they are now. They deserve as much respect in return as they give to us. Along with my wants and desires comes hardships. It is hard for my middle class members to have no political power and it is hard for my poorest group to come up with money for food, essentials, and even tax money and it is hardest for my Peasants who struggle financially, considering they get paid half as much as nobles and have to pay 10% of their earnings to churches and tax collectors. I need to work out a system that can allow my poorest class to have a little more financial aid because they work hard and deserve it. My Peasants need to find a way to obtain more money without having to give so much of it back and my tax payers will sign an agreement understanding the importance of tax and agreeing to pay for their taxes, as soon as they are lowered. It's been hard to focus on my goals because of the attack on the Bastille. It claimed the lives of one hundred people! On July 14th, a mob searching for gunpowder and arms stormed the Bastille. The Paris Prison became a great symbolic act of revolution to the French people but I continue working on my goals and priorities as this disastrous distraction continues going through my mind. Student Example 2: I am a banker in the third estate, I get little pay and most of it goes to taxes. With my knowledge of the enlightenment and of mathematics I deserve to be well recognized and have more privileges. For the assembly I want to make it known that much of the middle class has more skills and knowledge than the nobles and that we should be awarded for that. I also, most importantly, want

to end absolute monarchy and have more of a vote in the Estates- General. After the meeting of the Estates- General we got our own separate government known as the National Assembly. The storming of the Bastille was a massacre by the middle class, or third estate, in that they murdered guards and paraded the streets with their heads on pikes all because of a rumor that Louis XIV was going to shut down the National Assembly. When this happened i was very enraged and didn't know what to believe but at this time to stay safe and get what your party wanted you had to go with the flow of everyone else. Student Example 3: My name is Ralph van Dealore and I am currently considered to be in the Third Estate. It is July 15th 1789 and times are hard working as a merchant. To give you a background, the estate I'm in makes up most of the population and pays most of the taxes unfairly. Considering the fact that we are the poorest of all the three estates, I think and know it is horribly unfair to make us pay almost all of the taxes. It's hard enough barely earning enough money to put food on the table for my family, but with all of the extra taxes on our estate makes it even more difficult to survive. If we ever got our say to the higher class (if they ever listened), we would most definitely ask for fairer taxes on us because we make a lot less money than the other two estates. So yesterday was the storming of the Bastille- the big prison in Paris. Yes, I was in this mob and after it ended I felt very accomplished and rebellious. I was a little weary when the leaders of this rebellion stuck heads of guards and such on pikes, but it felt good to be united with my fellow sufferers. Student Example 4: 5/5/1789 There has been a meeting called for our representatives to approve yet another tax of the king's. How surprised I was to learn that this tax he

proposes is placed upon the nobility! But it is inevitable that we will be outvoted by the first and second estates. We need to voice the troubles of the third estate as we are suffering and we are the overwhelming majority. There's been talk of starting a revolution, and I feel it is not long away. 7/15/1789 My family and friends have not eaten in days. I scour the streets in search of some work or food. I cannot live under these conditions, which is why I've decided to join the revolution. I fought at Bastille yesterday and helped tear down the walls of oppression to obtain gunpowder to fight the nobles. Things are looking upward and our revenge will be swift and bloody, for the nobles.