Henry David Thoreau stayed for two years at Walden Pond (1845–47) in eastern Massachusetts, where he lived in a cabin of his own making and survived off the land. Midway in his Walden sojourn Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay his poll tax. His refusal, a conscientious act of civil disobedience, was fueled by Thoreau’s conviction that he could not support a government that endorsed slavery and waged an imperialist war against Mexico.
Thoreau’s life at Walden Pond is recounted in his book Walden (1854). His essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849) is a statement about individual conscience and resistance to unjust forms of government.