Thoreau's Role In Civil Disobedience

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‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”-George Santayana. This statement relates to Thoreau, King, and Gandhi because they all went through the same issues just in different time eras. Now that I think about it, Thoreau was an effectual role model to Gandhi and King and had an great influence and impact on them. In all honesty, these three men had a problem with the government.

Thoreau refused to pay taxes to the American government because of the Mexican War he didn't approve of. However, because it was illegal to refuse to pay taxes which are owed to the government, Thoreau was arrested and thrown in jail. Thoreau demonstrated insurrection when he sat in a jail cell, rather than pay the taxes and pay a fine to get out. He did this to make a public statement: "I refuse to support the war." Thoreau's friend, the Unitarian minister Ralph Waldo Emerson, came to visit him in jail. Emerson asked why Thoreau was allowing himself to waste away in jail when he had the money to pay the taxes. Thoreau responded with a challenge to his friend. He stated, "The question is not what am I doing in here, but what are you doing out there?" To Thoreau's frustration, his tax was paid by a relative who also could not tolerate his imprisonment, and he was promptly released from captivity. However, the experience …show more content…
The british government also treated all Indians as second-class people and black Africans as the majority of the population, much worse. Gandhi, like Thoreau, was arrested for nonviolent protest against unjust laws. Gandhi read Thoreau's essay, "Civil Disobedience". It encouraged him to not give up, even when the challenges seemed much too hard to deal with. Gandhi dedicated his entire life to nonviolence and civil disobedience for a change in the

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