4b. Henry David Thoreau and Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a philosopher, naturalist, and writer in 19th century Massachusetts, United States. You could also say he was a peace theorist for articulating the concept of civil disobedience – a tactic of protest used by many peace movements.

He is known most for popular quotes such as this one ‒ on many inspirational wall posters when I was an undergraduate student in university:

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.¹

Thoreau initially worked as a teacher but resigned from his job because he would not use corporal (physical) punishment to discipline children.

He then went and lived in a small cabin on Walden Pond in Massachusetts, where he lived very simply, studied nature, and thought and wrote. He wrote a book called On Walden Pond which today we might link with ideas about environmental sustainability. His legacy is maintained in The Walden Woods Project, an organization that promotes nature conservation, and “fosters environmental stewardship and social responsibility.”

Along with his impact as an environmentalist, Thoreau is often considered the creator of the modern concept of civil disobedience, or at least he coined the term. Remember the definition offered earlier in the course:

The open defiance of specific laws in a nonviolent manner in order to change those laws or to effect a wider social change. It implies a willingness to accept legal penalties.²

After this experience, Thoreau wrote an essay about a citizen’s relation to the state and titled it Civil Disobedience.  The word civil had two meanings here: as in disobedience to civil authority, but also that disobedience should be polite or courteous. His basic points were these:

• the law of individual conscience is higher than the law of the land;
• when these come into conflict, it is a person’s duty to obey the higher law and disobey the civil law;
• if one violates the law of the land, one must be willing to take the consequences, to the point of going to jail; and
• going to jail is a positive thing because it draws attention to the bad law and thus hopefully brings about its repeal; also, if lots of people go to jail, they will clog the machinery of state.

In Thoreau’s words:

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? ... Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.³

As we will see later in this course, Thoreau’s essay and its principles became a source of inspiration for many peace movements that followed, such as the salt march led by Gandhi in India, the lunch counter protests of the civil rights movement in the U.S., and resistance movements of the Second World War. Today, his actions of over a century ago provide an example for those who refuse to pay military taxes.