On December 16, 1773, 342 barrels of tea were thrown off ships into the Boston harbor. American colonists destroyed these barrels in protest of the Tea Act of 1773, which increased taxes on imported tea (History.com staff). Every American remembers the story of the heroic colonists who disobeyed England to show them that their laws were unjust, and set the stage for successful civil disobedience throughout American history. Despite opposition, civil disobedience like that of the Boston Tea Party has a positive effect on a free society. From Thoreau to Martin Luther King Jr. history is packed with champions of civil disobedience which hindsight has proven were fighting unjust laws. However, at the time of these protests, without the bigger picture that history provides, people often criticized civil disobedience. Martin Luther King Jr. received a letter stating, “you don’t point out any faults at all of your own people, just the whites” (Matthews). This accusation seems ridiculous in modern times, yet shortly after the Black Lives Matter movement critics attacked the movement …show more content…
In modern times republicans argue that protesting Donald Trump is ridiculous because the previous president was democratic, and therefore everyone must wait until their candidate is elected. Thoreau argues in his essay Civil Disobedience, “let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine”(Thoreau). Thoreau was advocating against the beliefs of President Polk, who welcomed savery. Similarly, during the fight for civil rights Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “I think we have moral obligations to disobey unjust laws” (King). The fight to end slavery and the civil rights movement both are now indisputably heroic efforts, and these acts of civil disobedience are completely