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Thoreau Challenges Justice with His Essay "Civil Disobedience"

Season 1 Episode 2 | 7m 14s

After refusing to pay four years of poll taxes, Thoreau is briefly imprisoned. Thoreau is adamantly opposed to supporting a state that is involved in enslavement and wars of aggression. Thoreau begins to write in earnest about society's obligations to freedom and justice culminating in the essay "Civil Disobedience," which influences the later work of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Gandhi

Episodes presented in 4K UHD on supported devices. Major funding for HENRY DAVID THOREAU was provided by The Better Angels Society and its members: The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment and Mark A. Tracy. Major funding was also provided by Jeff Skoll, the Mansueto Foundation, Tyson Foods, Inc., and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. Additional funding was provided by the Tyson Family Foundation Inc, The Neil and Anna Rasmussen Foundation, Roxanne Quimby Foundation Inc, Jim and Mona Mylen through The HeartSpace Fund, and Elizabeth Kenny.
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