Lucas Gibson

3/20/13

THE STORY OF HENRY DAVID THOREAU

WHO WAS HENRY DAVID THOREAU • Born: July 12, 1817 in Concord Massachusetts

• He was an author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, surveyor, and historian

• He was also a leader of the transcendentalist group

“It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.”

WORKS• Best known for Walden and “Civil Disobedience”

• First work was Aulus Persius Flaccus which was written in 1840

• Many of his works criticized slavery

“Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.”

WALDEN• Written about Thoreau’s experience in his two years of living

in cabin near Walden Pond

• Henry David Thoreau emphasized importance of nature in Walden

• However, many authors criticized Walden

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

JAIL TIME• Henry David Thoreau went to jail for resisting to pay taxes

• Spent one night in jail

• Led to him writing “Civil Disobedience”

“If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.”

“CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE”• After Fugitive Slave Act was passed Henry David Thoreau

wrote “Civil Disobedience”

• Wrote about how government is better when it has minimal rule

• Influenced Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and many other people.

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”

DEATH• In 1835 Henry David Thoreau developed Tuberculosis

• Eventually developed Bronchitis

• Died May 6, 1862 at the age of 44

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”