Staples put Thoreau in jail, until the next morning when an unidentified woman, perhaps Thoreau’s aunt, paid the tax and Thoreau-reluctantly-went free. Thoreau refused on the basis that he would not pay his taxes to a government which supported enslavement and which was waging the war against Mexico (which lasted from 1846-1848). Bettmann / Getty Imagesĭuring this time Thoreau also published 'Civil Disobedience.' Halfway through his time at Walden in 1846, Thoreau had been met by the local tax collector, Sam Staples, who had asked him to pay the poll tax that he had ignored for multiple years.

Thoreau's Furniture from his Walden cabin. His writing focused mainly on the book he had already begun, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), which chronicled the trip he spent canoeing with his older brother that ultimately inspired him to be become a poet of nature. Most significantly, Thoreau spent his time in contemplation, reading and writing. When he was not busy with the cultivation of his food, Thoreau turned to his inner cultivation, mainly through meditation. Remaining active with gardening, fishing, rowing, and swimming, Thoreau also spent lots of time documenting the local flora and fauna. His diet consisted mostly of the food he found growing wild in the general area, although he also planted and harvested his own beans. While he would often walk into Concord, two miles away, and ate with his family once a week, Thoreau spent almost every night in his cottage on the banks of the lake. His lifestyle at Walden was ascetic, informed by his desire to live a life as basic and self-sufficient as possible. Recreation of Thoreau's Cabin at Walden Pond in Massachusetts. When he was 11, his parents sent him to Concord Academy, where he did so well that he was encouraged to apply to college. The third of four children, Thoreau spent a peaceful childhood in Concord, celebrating especially the natural beauty of the village. Actually named David Henry at birth in honor of his late uncle David Thoreau, he was always known as Henry, although he never had his name changed officially. The New England family was modest: Thoreau’s father was involved with the Concord fire department and ran a pencil factory, while his mother rented out parts of their house to boarders and cared for the children. Henry David Thoreau was born on Jin Concord, Massachusetts, the son of John Thoreau and his wife, Cynthia Dunbar. Notable Quote: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” (From Walden).Selected Published Works: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), “Civil Disobedience” (1849), Walden (1854), “Slavery in Massachusetts” (1854), “Walking' (1864).Parents: John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar.Known For: His involvement in transcendentalism and his book Walden.

Thoreau 1849