However, they always managed to convey these ideas to the public and Rokespierre did so with ease. He would stand up and give cutting speeches about how people, his audience, deserved to be equal to others in society. Even in France the bourgeois generals would have exposed themselves to the Enlightenment, perhaps without the help of figures like Robespierre. The American Civil War was also an event that not only philosophers and therefore educated people could be aware of. It was an event that everyone in France could understand. An event where a different country rose up and fought against the oppressors who ruled it. This is another part of enlightenment that bears a striking resemblance to what it actually is