What is Thoreau’s argument in A Plea for Captain John Brown?
Brown’s commitment to justice and adherence to the United States Constitution forced him to fight state-sponsored injustice, one he was only affected by in spirit. A unique man, Thoreau proclaimed in admiration, Brown was highly moral and humane.
What did Henry David Thoreau say about John Brown?
On October 30, 1859, shortly after the arrest of John Brown after the failed raid on Harpers Ferry, Thoreau spoke in defense of Brown before the citizens of Concord. Brown’s movement, he said, “is, in my opinion, the greatest service a man can render to God.” Mary E. Stearns attended was present at this speech.
Why did Thoreau defend the actions of John Brown?
Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson championed John Brown’s sacrifice while overlooking the violent aspects of Brown’s character, in order to promote him as a heroic symbol for the abolitionist cause.
Did Thoreau meet John Brown?
Thoreau’s acquaintance with John Brown in 1857 (after the latter left Boston by train to Concord and dined at Cynthia Brown’s boarding house table) caused Thoreau to perceive him as an “old-fashioned man in respect for the constitution, and in faith of the permanence of this Union.” His kinship with the “heroic …
Was Thoreau an abolitionist?
Thoreau was an ardent and outspoken abolitionist, serving as a conductor on the underground railroad to help escaped slaves make their way to Canada. He wrote strongly-worded attacks on the Fugitive Slave Law (“Slavery in Massachusetts”) and on the execution of John Brown.
What kind of person was Thoreau?
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher Henry David Thoreau is renowned for having lived the doctrines of Transcendentalism as recorded in his masterwork, Walden (1854). He was also an advocate of civil liberties, as evidenced in the essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849).
Was Thoreau married?
Thoreau never married and was childless. In 1840, when he was 23, he proposed to eighteen-year old Ellen Sewall, but she refused him, on the advice of her father. He strove to portray himself as an ascetic puritan. However, his sexuality has long been the subject of speculation, including by his contemporaries.
What crime did Thoreau commit?
In July 1846, the sheriff arrested and jailed Thoreau for his tax delinquency. Someone, probably a relative, anonymously paid Thoreau’s taxes after he had spent one night in jail.
Who bailed Thoreau?
At any rate, it is true that Thoreau spent one night in jail for his principled act of tax evasion. He was released the next day after someone (probably his aunt Maria Thoreau) paid the tax for him.
What type of government does Thoreau want?
Thoreau envisions the best kind of government as on that does not govern. He supports laissez-faire (free enterprise, free trade, noninterfering).
What did Thoreau believe?
He was a well-known advocate of transcendentalism, or the belief in the inherent goodness of people and nature, making a virtue of self-reliance. In his essay On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Thoreau once wrote “That government is best which governs not at all”.
What did Thoreau study?
Harvard put heavy emphasis on the classics–Thoreau studied Latin and Greek grammar or composition for three of his four years. He also took courses in mathematics, English, history, and mental, natural, and intellectual philosophy.
Is Henry David Thoreau a leader?
Henry David Thoreau was a man who practiced, preached, and taught civil disobedience. Henry David Thoreau was an American writer known for his leadership in the transcendentalist movement and his major works “Walden” and “Civil Disobedience”.
What did Thoreau encourage?
Henry David Thoreau was a nineteenth-century philosopher and writer who denounced materialistic modes of living and encouraged people to act according to their own beliefs of right and wrong, even if doing so required breaking the law.
What does Thoreau mean by saying that he must not pursue his own interests while sitting upon another man’s shoulders I must get off him first?
In “Resistance to Civil Government,” what does Thoreau mean by saying that he must not pursue his own interest while “sitting upon another man’s shoulders… I must get off him first” (page 237) Thoreau means that he must not support government actions that hurt others.
What method of protest did Henry David Thoreau use?
He practiced civil disobedience in his own life and spent a night in jail for his refusal to pay taxes in protest of the Mexican War. (Thoreau was opposed to the practice of slavery in some of the territories involved.) It is thought that this night in jail prompted Thoreau to write Civil Disobedience.
What does Thoreau call for at the end of the selection from Civil Disobedience?
What does Thoreau call for at the end of the selection from “Civil Disobedience”? Better government as defined by U.S. citizens.
What is Thoreau saying in this passage Our life is frittered away by details?
What part of Thoreau’s philosophy is found in this passage from Walden? Our life is frittered away by details. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest.
What does Thoreau ask his readers to do at the end of the text?
4a) summarize: what is Thoreau asking his readers to do? He is asking his readers to resist what they don’t believe in.
Which of the following statements explains one of the reasons Thoreau opposed the Mexican-American War?
Which of the following statements explains one of the reasons Thoreau opposed the Mexican-American War? He believed that the war was fought to add more slave states to the United States.