Civil Disobedience

Josie Hurst, Liza Hill, and Cori Gooseberry

Definition of Civil Disobedience“One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offense never contemplated by its government…If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I hate to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”

(Thoreau, Henry David)

According to Thoreau…

0 Simply:

0Civil disobedience is peaceful resistance to civil government and the practical denial of authority.

(Henry David Thoreau)

Worries?“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it…. Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them…. They dread the consequences to their property and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate property; that would be sure to go again.”

(Civil Dis Cover)

(Thoreau, Henry David)

Explanation:0Thoreau explains why his idea of civil disobedience

wasn’t used regularly.0 People were afraid of what would happen to their

families, property, and social stature.0This was more of a reason to stand up. There shouldn’t be

any reason to be afraid of the government. The government should be there to help the people and support them, not to scare them with ridiculous laws and threats of war.

0Also, without standing up to the unjust laws, the government would have more power and eventually take the properties and heighten taxes that would effect your families, properties, and friends and perhaps endanger them. 0 ^^ This is unjust.

Why?“I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also…. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has under taken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army , and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize….there are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them… They give up only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance.”

(The Mexican American War)(Thoreau, Henry David)

Explanation:0The act of civil disobedience is important and must be

used when the government is making unjust decisions that can affect the well being of the people. 0 The Mexican-American War is a great example.

0There were many people opposed to the war that was incited by President Polk, but none of them acted on this opposition. 0 Many people died unnecessarily because those who didn’t advocate for

their cause. They simply voted against it. They should have done something more; if they really were strongly opposed to it, they would have tried harder to get the government’s attention.

0 HOWEVER: He says: “I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize…”

A Peaceful Revolution“Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail… Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.”

(Thoreau, Henry David)

Explanation:0Here, Thoreau continues to advocate his idea of putting

your complete influence in government and what you believe in.

0He also describes what a peaceful revolution is.0 He tells us about the benefits of a peaceful revolution, too.

0No blood is shed 0No violence is committed0And yet, a change is made any way.

0This peaceful revolution is one of the ways to carry out civil disobedience supported by Thoreau.

0 As he says: “I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land.”

Examples of Civil Disobedience According to

Thoreau:0 “The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by

those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own acts and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment.”

0 “If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see to it that you are never cheated again.”

(Thoreau, Henry David)

Civil Disobedience in the Abolitionist Movement

Militant Violence

• Opposition to events in Kansas, coupled with resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, helped produce a new more militant strain of abolitionism.

• Free blacks joined many younger white abolitionists in blocking the rendition of fugitive slaves from the Northern states

• The majority of political abolitionists rejected violent tactics and remained content to work with moderate antislavery Northerners inside the Republican party

Under-ground Railroad

This was the system of letting the runaway slaves get their freedom by sneaking off their master’s land and be free.The leader of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman because she went back and forth to get the slaves and take them to freedom.This was civil disobedience because slave were not allowed to leave their master’s property and they did anyway without having to harm anyone

Boston Mob of 1851

0Boston mob rescued a fugitive slave from a U.S. marshal and helped him safely reach Canada0By doing this they were disobeying the Fugitive Slave Act because all runaway slaves were to be brought back to their master and whoever finds them then they receive 50,000 dollars; these people took the slave and sent it to Canada so that the slave could keep its freedom.

Leaders of the Abolitionist Movement

Harriet Tubman -Helped 350 slaves escape from the South, became known as a

"conductor" on the Underground Railroad.

Frederick Douglass -Nation's most powerful anti-slavery speaker, a former slave.

Most famous for his book, Narrative in the Life of Frederick

Douglass.

Harriet Beecher Stowe-

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

William Lloyd Garrison -published The Liberator

newspaper

Civil Disobedience in the Civil Rights Movement

Rosa Parks0On December 1, 1995, Rosa Parks

sat in a white man’s spot on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. After many demands to move, Rosa was arrested and convicted for disorderly conduct.0 Rosa Parks was nonviolent, yet

assertive in her decision to remain in the white passenger’s seat. Using civil disobedience, she peacefully argued against what she believed was morally wrong, acting against the law.

(Rosa p2)

African-American Civil Rights Movement

Sit-ins

0A sit-in is when African American citizens peacefully protest by sitting at segregated lunch counters. The first sit-in was at a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four students from an all-black college sat at the counter to protest Woolworth’s exclusion of African Americans.0 These students peacefully protested what they believed in.

They believed it was morally wrong to exclude African Americans from society, so they protested the law.

(African American Civil Rights Movement)

(Sitinx-topper-medium)

Sit-ins

Freedom Rides0 Freedom Rides were trips on the

interstate buses to the segregated South to integrate bus seating and terminals, and water fountains and restrooms. On a bus ride into Jackson, Mississippi, they were arrested for “breaching the peace” by using white citizen facilities. Over 300 black citizens were arrested and jailed by the end of the summer.0 Citizens participating in Freedom Rides

used civil disobedience to peaceably protest the law. They took rides on interstate buses no matter what the police said, because they believed it was morally wrong to segregate.

(“dc_crop”)

(African American Civil Rights Movement)

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Historycentral.com the Largest and Most Complete History Site on the Web. Multieducator, Inc., 1999. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.

0 “Rosa p2.” Photograph. History Learning Site. Web. November 30, 2011.0 “Sitinx-topper-medium.” Photograph. USA Today. Web. November 30, 2011.0 "Slavery & Abolition in the USA." Curacao Hotels | Hotel Kura Hulanda Resort

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Commonwealth University. Ed. Jessica Gordon and Ann Woodlief. Virginia Commonwealth University, 1999. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.