Thoreau, Henry David

Thoreau, Henry David (1817–1862), transcendentalist, writer, war protester.Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts. A shy, quiet boy who loved the outdoors, Thoreau graduated from Harvard College in 1837, taught school intermittently until 1841, then turned to writing as a career. He subsequently led a simple life as one of the New England transcendentalists, writing poems, essays, and two books while trying to earn a living.

Although Thoreau may well have been the best remembered antiwar dissenter of his time, his protest against the Mexican War had no discernible effect on public opinion, the antiwar effort, or the conduct of the war. In July 1846, Thoreau, who had not paid his Massachusetts poll tax for several years, denounced the war in his annual brush with the tax collector, refused again to pay, and spent one night in jail before one of his friends paid the tax without his consent and Thoreau was released. Though he believed the war an immoral conflict to extend slavery, Thoreau viewed his own dissent as an individual act of protest, not an effort to work with or mobilize others to end the war. To Thoreau, it was the duty of each honest citizen directly to resist his government when it condoned or perpetuated an evil such as slavery or war to extend slavery.

Thoreau immortalized his protest in the essay Resistance to Civil Government, popularly known as “Civil Disobedience,” which was published in 1849. Although his actions attracted only local attention at the time, his essay achieved fame as the clear, well‐reasoned justification of an honest citizen protesting an immoral policy of his government. As such, “Civil Disobedience” became an influential manifesto for subsequent antiwar protesters and freedom fighters such as Mohandas K. Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
[See also Conscientious Objection; Peace and Antiwar Movements.]

Bibliography

John H. Schroeder , Mr. Polk's War: An American Opposition and Dissent, 1846–1848, 1973.
Richard Lebeaux , Thoreau's Seasons, 1984.

John H. Schroeder