In 1848, the cereal crisis at the end of the July monarchy , as well as the fears raised by the extent of the rural migration, or the establishment of the "universal" suffrage and the debates over the meaning of the new regime, all gave the agrarian question a national importance. The peasantry, so far depreciated, now sees its role increased by the political rights which it has been granted, and therefore is subjected to various appeals. The social and political context of the Second Republic offers favourable conditions for the construction of social identities which are proposed to the peasantry both as images of itself and as a means of investing them into the political struggle. Examining the strategical plans and the set of themes developed by the democrat-socialist propaganda as well as the attention turned to its spokesmen, also taking into account the circumstances of its elaboration, allows us to better understand how emerged the image of a republican peasantry, the dominant features of which were destined to last.