Thoreau: Resistance & Freedom - Susan Gallagher

Henry David Thoreau described himself as “a mystic, a transcendentalist, and a natural philosopher to boot,” but he is probably most famous for his refusal to pay his taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican War. Later political figures such as Emma Goldman and Martin Luther King cited Thoreau’s refusal as inspiration for their decisions to defy unjust laws, and the ongoing protest against the Dakota Pipeline on the Missouri River is often described as an act of Thoreauvian civil disobedience.  Susan E. Gallagher explores this legacy by considering how Thoreau’s call for resistance to injustice was shaped by the seeming triumph of slavery in the decades before his death in 1862.