Becky Memmott

Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts on July 12, 1817. He developed a love for the outdoors early in life. As youth he was constantly outside and even visited Walden Pond as early as four years old. After graduating from Harvard in 1837, he conducted a private school in Concord with his older brother John. John later died of lockjaw and the school closed. He then lived with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family. Emerson was very influential to Thoreau. He was not only a friend, but a teacher as well. Much of Thoreau’s work came from conversations with Emerson.

In 1845, he built a small cabin and lived at Walden Pond for two years and two months. There he wrote in his journal about nature and the wildlife surrounding him. He also analyzed his view on society. July 23, 1846 was the only night Thoreau did not sleep at his Walden Pond cabin during his stay. He spent the night in jail because he did not pay the poll tax as a stand against the Mexican War and slavery. In early 1847, he delivered a speech on the topic of his jail time to his townsmen. This became Resistance to Civil Government which was later renamed Civil Disobedience.

For the remainder of his life he lived with his family or Emerson’s. During this time he avidly wrote and published his work. He died at forty four years of age on May 6, 1862.

Thoreau and his writing correlate with topics covered in our class. Walden, Civil Disobedience, and Slavery in Massachusetts are especially pertinent to our class. In Walden, Thoreau recorded and analyzed his interactions with nature. Much like the Romantic period, Thoreau enjoyed the beauty of nature. Nature was no longer something to fear. It was something to conquer industrially. Henry wanted to preserve the environment and became a forerunner in the environmentalist movement. However, Walden was much more than just Thoreau’s view on nature. The book also contains insights regarding the economy, government, and personal interactions. It is focused on individualism. America at that time was growing into a more industrial way of life. Thoreau was happier without wealth and material processions.[ii] He had a more self-reliant way of life. This is similar to the movement during the Enlightenment which encouraged belief in self.

Civil Disobedience was a landmark essay. Although it is relatively short, it is very politically influential. The very first sentence states:

“I heartily accept the motto, –‘that government is best which governs least,’ and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,--‘that government is best which governs not at all’; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.”[iii]

This way of thinking is controversial even today. During Thoreau’s time he was considered a radical. However, he was a peaceful radical. Humanitarians such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and anti-McCarthy activists modeled their nonviolent style after Civil Disobedience. King especially emphasized that people should not stand for evil and unjust laws.[iv]

The United States was created because the citizens declared their independence from an unjust ruler. In a sense, this country was created on logic similarly used in Civil Disobedience. They felt there was every reason to break ties to a government that was unfair. However, by the time of the Civil War, the American government had become the overbearing ruler. Also, the country was based on equality. Even when Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal,” he owned slaves. The government seemed to be very hypocritical. Seeing all these faults in governments led Thoreau to reason that no government would be best.

Thoreau also examined the issue of slavery. In his speech/essay Slavery in Massachusetts, he discusses his stance on slavery.

“Slavery and servility have produced no sweet-scented flower annually, to charm the senses of men, for they have no real life: they are merely a decaying and a death, offensive to all healthy nostrils. We do not complain that they live, but that they do not get buried. Let the living bury them: even they are good for manure.”[v]

Once again Thoreau is fighting with reason through words, not violence. Books like the Narrative of Fredrick Douglas opened Americans’ eyes. Slaves began to be more than the contently singing “others.” They became human in the compassionate eyes of the reader. Being a white male, slavery was not an injustice to him. Still, he fought for their rights.

Thoreau influenced the world through his writing. His works varied from the intensely political Civil Disobedience to the spiritual Walden. Through them, He gave nonviolent protest power to both Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. He also related to the Romantic Period with his love of nature and became a part of the environmentalist movement. The Enlightenment was also intertwined with Thoreau via his belief in the individual.

1) Civil Disobedience was published in 1849, however, it is still easily relatable to a reader of today. Why?

2) How does Henry David Thoreau’s stay at Walden Pond relate to both the Romantic period and the Enlightenment?

[i] http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmWalden07.asp

[ii] http://www.thoreau.niu.edu/

[iii] http://www.eserver.org/thoreau/thoreau.html

[iv] http://www.scholastic.ca/titles/lifemlksamp.htm

[v] http://www.eserver.org/thoreau/thoreau.html