1849
Thoreau publishes Resistance to Civil Government
Concord, Massachusetts; U.S. slavery and the invasion of Mexico
Henry David Thoreau’s essay argued that individuals should refuse support to an unjust government. It explicitly challenged slavery and the U.S. war against Mexico, treating conscience and resistance as obligations beyond voting or private disapproval. It appeared in Elizabeth Peabody’s Aesthetic Papers in 1849.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The publication followed an 1848 lecture and the 1846 imprisonment discussed by Zinn; these are distinct events. The familiar title Civil Disobedience appeared in the posthumous 1866 edition. This entry uses the 1849 text. Its Black and Mexican community tags concern the oppression the essay opposed, not Thoreau’s identity. The January 1 date is only a sorting anchor.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 8, p. 156; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- Thoreau, Resistance to Civil Government (1849), paragraphs 1, 7–10 and 13–14; Digital Thoreau ↗
- Digital Thoreau, A Note on the Text, publication and title history ↗