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When was Henry David Thoreau arrested for refusing to pay the poll tax?
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Henry David Thoreau
American essayist, poet, and Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau.
Henry David Thoreau was arrested in July 1846 in Concord, Massachusetts, for refusing to pay his poll tax.12
His refusal was a deliberate act of civil disobedience intended to protest the U.S. governmentâs support of slavery and its involvement in the Mexican-American War. Thoreau spent one night in jail before an unidentified womanâpossibly his aunt, Maria Thoreauâpaid the tax on his behalf, leading to his release the following morning.132