Translate Site
Search Catalog
Thu, Jun 06
|Contact: Lindsey Gazlay ( 978-620-3615)
Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau's Involvement in the Underground Railroad
Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States history and 19th-Century American literature since 1995. He has worked in Concord as a public historian and Living History Interpreter for 25 years and has portrayed Henry Thoreau at Walden Pond.
Time & Location
Jun 06, 2024, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Contact: Lindsey Gazlay ( 978-620-3615)
About the event
“Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience”
A thought-provoking exploration of Thoreau’s participation in the Underground Railroad, his abolitionist views, night in jail and how his writings have historically inspired civil rights movements around the world.
Delivered by Richard Smith with the Thoreau Society
Near the end of July 1846, Henry David Thoreau was arrested in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts for not paying his poll tax. It was a fairly low key event; few people knew about Thoreau's arrest when it happened and it was only when he lectured on it two years later that the town of Concord became aware of his imprisonment and the reasons for his arrest.
In 1849, Thoreau published the essay "Resistance to Civil Government". It would be republished 17 years later under the title that it's best known, "Civil Disobedience." Over time, the essay gained fame and notoriety as radicals and reformers read it and…