David Henry Thoreau

1817 - 1862  (44 years)  Submit Photo / Document    Has 38 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.

• Name	David Henry Thoreau
  Birth	12 Jul 1817	Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
  Gender	Male
  Death	6 May 1862	Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
  Initiatory (LDS)	24 Feb 1998	BOISE
  FamilySearch ID	LC5F-1M4
  Burial	Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I100138	mytree
  Last Modified	25 Feb 2024

  
  

  Father	John Thoreau,   b. 8 Oct 1787, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States d. 3 Feb 1859, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States (Age 71 years)
  Mother	Cynthia Dunbar,   b. 22 May 1787, Keene, Cheshire, New Hampshire, United States d. 12 Mar 1872, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States (Age 84 years)
  Marriage	23 Apr 1812	Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
  Family ID	F31482	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 12 Jul 1817 - Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States Death - 6 May 1862 - Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States Initiatory (LDS) - 24 Feb 1998 - BOISE Burial - - Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos

  Thoreau, David H b1817 - Portrait

  
  

• Notes

  Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American autho r , poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, critic, su rv eyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for h i s book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings , a nd his essay Resistance to Civil Government (also known as Civil Diso bedi ence), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 vo l umes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural histo r y and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecol og y and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalis m . His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal ex pe rience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, whil e d isplaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee " lov e of practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea o f survi val in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natur al decay ; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion i n order t o discover life's true essential needs. He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fu g itive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and def en ding abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedien c e later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable f ig ures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau is sometimes cited as an anarchist. Though Civil Disobedience se e ms to call for improving rather than abolishing government — "I ask fo r , not at once no government, but at once a better government" — the dir ec tion of this improvement points toward anarchism: "'That government i s be st which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, tha t wil l be the kind of government which they will have." Richard Drinno n partl y blames Thoreau for the ambiguity, noting that Thoreau's "sly sa tire, hi s liking for wide margins for his writing, and his fondness fo r paradox p rovided ammunition for widely divergent interpretations of 'C ivil Disobed ience.”