Alan May, Victoria Jones, Laura Dunnagan

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau’s Definition of Civil Disobedience

Excerpts from his essay “Civil Disobedience”

Henry David Thoreau

Alan May

“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”(see next slide for explanation)

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience

Thoreau says here, basically: If you can, within reason, do not support an unjust law. Thoreau appeals to his audience, telling them they should not support a government that acts unjustly, even if they have to act outside the legally acceptable range to make their disapproval clear.

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience

“I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name—-if ten honest men only—ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this co-partnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America.”

If one man, opposing slavery, were to act on his beliefs, it would be hugely effective. Thoreau is saying here that having a conscience is not enough; one must also act on it.

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience

“If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood.”

Again, Thoreau is saying: ACT. You must “walk the walk” in addition to “talking the talk.”

Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience

Abolitionist Movement

Civil Disobedience

Victoria Jones

John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry happened on October 16, 1859 where he and 21 other men attacked an armory and attempted to start a slave rebellion.

They were defeated quickly. Many were killed although a few were captured and tried for treason.

John Brown was one of the captured and was tried, convicted, and hanged.

Background: John Brown

William Lloyd Garrison owned his own newspaper called The Liberator in which he expressed his views and opinions on slavery.

His was against slavery and while some of his views were unpopular nothing stopped him from publishing each issue.

Background: William Lloyd Garrison

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery and was actually named Araminta Ross, but after getting married she changed her name.

She escaped to freedom and then went back to the South to help many of her family members and other slaves escape to freedom.

Returning to the South 19 times she used many different measures to get the slaves to freedom and she never lost a single one of them.

Background: Harriet Tubman

Even though many were killed and the raid didn’t directly accomplish much, the raid did support Civil Disobedience. John Brown and many of his followers believed slavery to be a wrong that needed to be righted. The only way they saw that this could be fixed was by arming the slaves and beginning a rebellion. Even though the raid itself was a failure in that the slaves were never armed and that John Brown was defeated and hanged, it did show support for “Civil Disobedience” because John Brown and his followers were doing what they felt was right; they were following their consciences.

Civil Disobedience and John Brown

His actions also support “Civil Disobedience” in that he wasn’t sitting by doing nothing, he was taking action. In “Civil Disobedience”, Thoreau talks about how many of the “abolitionists” thought they were protesting slavery but they weren’t doing much to try and stop it. He encouraged them to act, even if it meant breaking the law. John Brown did just that and, even though it cost him his life, he ignited a spark in some of the other abolitionists of the time.

Civil Disobedience and John Brown

William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist and even though he did nothing to the extreme of John Brown, he did express unpopular views and the idea that there should be passive resistance against such an evil. Garrison had his own antislavery newspaper (The Liberator) and he expressed many ideas that were acknowledged by society but very unpopular. He wrote about how all Black slaves should be emancipated and treated in the way that the Declaration of Independence sets forth: that all men are created equal. In his paper he stressed that a nonviolent or passive resistance should be founded against slavery, which is what “Civil Disobedience” also stressed.

Civil Disobedience and Garrison

Garrison even went so far to say that the Constitution, the very foundation of the government, was a pro-slavery document. Garrison along with a select few felt that since the Constitution allowed slavery to be legal and exist in the US it was a proslavery document. By supporting the government and in turn the Constitution, slavery was also supported. By supporting the government and the Constitution, the citizens were also supporting a document that legally allowed slavery to be present. This belief was very unpopular at the time, but that didn’t stop Garrison from taking action to put his ideas and opinions out there. He followed his conscience and did what he felt what was the right thing to do even though it didn’t support the government and wasn’t popular. He did exactly what Thoreau said to do, act and do what is right by any means.

Civil Disobedience and Garrison

One of the hardest working and most famous of all those who participated in the emancipation of slavery was Harriet Tubman. She was born a slave and escaped to freedom but, instead of simply stopping there and only caring for herself, she went back into the south nineteen times to help others. By going back into the south she broke the Fugitive Slave Act which stated that any slaves that escaped needed to be brought back to the South to their owners. Although she didn’t stand up and speak like so many who were against slavery at the time, she simply acted in her own way. She felt that her part in the antislavery movement was to help people get to the freedom they rightfully deserved. She followed her conscience and took action instead of sitting by and doing nothing.

Civil Disobedience and Harriet Tubman

She didn’t let the Fugitive Slave Act stop her from doing what she believed was right. She put herself at risk for the sake of others. “Civil Disobedience” says that men (or women in this case) should follow what their conscience tells them, even if it goes against everything in society and do what is right. It also says that action should be taken to achieve what is right. Tubman, while putting her own safety to the side, did the right thing by going back and freeing other slaves.

Civil Disobedience and Harriet Tubman

Laura Dunnagan

Civil Disobedience Influence in the Civil

Rights Movement

Civil Rights Example One: Rosa ParksInvolvement with ‘Civil Disobedience’

On December1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Mrs. Rosa Louise Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. In this time, it was required for all African American people to willingly give up their seats in the bus to any white person who needed one, and in not giving up her seat, Mrs. Parks was willfully disobeying the government. After Mrs. Parks’s rebellion, the African American population in Montgomery planned a boycott of all city buses that lasted for 381 days.

Parks willfully disobeyed the government when she refused to give up her seat to the white man. She was trying to get equal rights that she believed she deserved.

Civil Rights Example One: Rosa Parks

The Browns, an African American family, lived by an all-white school that they wanted their daughter to attend. But, because she was black, and the school was for whites only, the young girl was refused and forced to travel many miles every day to go to school. The Browns sued the all-white school in their neighborhood because their daughter couldn’t attend. The case eventually got to the Supreme Court, but there were many similar cases – families suing schools because they couldn’t attend – so the five cases were all filed under one name: Brown v. Board of Education. On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court overturned the decision of a previous court case, Plessy v. Ferguson during the Brown v. Board of Education case. The Plessy v. Ferguson case allowed for “separate but equal” public facilities, which included public schooling. The Brown v. Board of education repealed that and decided “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” They Brown v. Board decision helped to integrate the United States.

Civil Rights Example Two: Brown v. Board of Education

The people involved in Brown v. Board of Education went against the government in that they were fighting to repeal a law that had been endorsed in a court case. They knew that Plessy v. Ferguson allowed “separate but equal” schooling, but they were willing to go against that to gain the right of education that they believed they deserved.

Civil Rights Example Two: Brown v. Board of Education

Heman Merion Sweatt was denied admission to UT Law School because he was black. At the time, state law forbade the admission of African Americans to that law school. He refused an offer to go to a separate law school made for African Americans because the schools were obviously unequal. It was decided that because of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, he be admitted to the University of Texas. The Supreme Court thus proved lack of equality between whites and blacks.

Sweatt went against the beliefs of the people, as well as the University of Texas and the government, to show that he deserved the education given to white citizens.

Civil Rights Example Three: Sweatt v. Painter

Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil Disobedience.” American Transcendentalism Web. Virginia Commonwealth University, 1999. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil/>.

“Henry David Thoreau.” Photograph. N.d. Mass.Gov. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/walden/thoreau.htm>.

Works Cited(Definition of Civil

Disobedience)

Finkelman, Paul. "Garrison's Constitution." National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.

"Harriet Tubman." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 28 Nov 2011.

"John Brown." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 28 Nov 2011.

"William Lloyd Garrison." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 28 Nov 2011

“abolitionist‑art.jpg.” Photograph. Create an Anti-Slavery Magazine. Web. 28 Nov 2011.

Works Cited (Abolition)

Rosa Parks“Biography.” Rosaparks.org. Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, n.d. Web. 28 November 2011.“Rosa Parks.” Achievement.org. Academy of Achievement, n.d. Web. 29 November 2011.

Brown v. Board of Education“History & Culture.” nps.gov. National Park Service, n.d. Web. 29 November 2011.“Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.” History.com. The History Channel, n.d. Web 28 November 2011.“Brown v. Board of Education (1954).” Blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu. 10 February 2011. Web. 29 November 2011.

Sweatt v. Painter“Sweatt v. Painter (No. 44).” Legal Information Institute. n.d. Web. 28 November 2011.“Sweatt v. Painter.” Houseofrussell.com. 25 September 2008. Web. 29 November 2011.

Works Cited (Civil Rights)