Jim Crow Law: Henry David Thoreau And The American Civil War

Poll Tax is a levied on every adult, without reference to income or resources. The tax emerged in some of the states of the United States in the 19th century as part of the Jim Crow laws. Henry David Thoreau was living in one of those states at the time while the Mexican War was going happening. They demanded that every citizen paid the poll tax and if not were put in jail. This was a struggle for Thoreau because he didn’t want to support the war. Thoreau believed you should be able to take the consequences to stand up for what you believed in. In this essay I will be explaining that you should be able to stand up against the evil, support your believes, and take the consequences of your actions. Standing up against the evil is something everyone has to do if they want to start turning the wheel. To set an example to everyone why this evil should be stopped Thoreau simply didn’t pay the war tax. He showed that the government was just a machine. A machine that was hungry for land and money and would do whatever it could do to become more powerful. The government came out and found him and sentenced him to a night in jail. He

He spent that night in jail to show how strongly his belief was. By doing this he created an example to the country to stand up for what you believe in. Thoreau wasn’t against everything the government proposed. The highway tax was something Thoreau pad because he believed in the future of education. Thoreau had felt the war is just a waste of his hard-earned money that he could be using to pay bills or to be funding more important things like the highway. He is advocating that people should disobey unjust laws and be willing to accept the consequences of their actions. Thoreau also states, “They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil.” “But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil.”