The Epitome of Civil Disobedience Or Just an Attention Seeker?

As a leading transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau believed that society and its institutions corrupt the purity of the individual and that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. Taking this philosophy, Thoreau wrote his renowned and influential book 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯, a reflection on his experience living a simple life in nature. Beyond being a transcendentalist and an essayist, Thoreau was a staunch supporter of civil disobedience, a philosophy in which his contributions influenced the political thoughts and actions of well-known supporters of nonviolent resistance such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Rather than using violence and aggression to protest an unjust government, Thoreau promoted the use of civil disobedience, which is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws or demands of a ruling power. Thoreau is often praised for his display of civil disobedience when he refused to pay a poll tax.

In the summer of 1846, the Mexican-American war had already been waging for roughly two months, and Thoreau, who was on his way to Concord to run an errand, was arrested by a local sheriff for failure to pay a poll tax. Thoreau believed the poll tax supported the Mexican-American war and the expansion of slavery into the Southwest, so he had stopped paying the tax in 1842. When he was finally arrested in 1846, Thoreau planned to use his jail time and refusal to pay the tax to raise awareness about the issue of the Mexican-American war. However, news of his arrest quickly spread, prompting his aunt to pay his poll tax for him. Regardless, Thoreau still spent his time in jail to garner attention to the war.

So, civil disobeyer or attention seeker? A bit of both, truth be told. Thoreau was not the first Concord resident to be arrested for failing to pay this tax, and continuing to stay in jail after essentially being bailed out is a bit extra. But what else would you expect from the man who lived among nature for two years so he could discover himself and write a book about it so others could too?