Henry was clearly part of the white, privileged, oppressing class in 19th century America.
This would become a touchstone for both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau eloquently lays out such a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance in his essay "Civil Disobedience,” first given as a lecture in 1848. Thoreau advocated that, when something becomes clearly, demonstrably amiss in the social fabric (in his lifetime, it was the enslavement of people across this country and the perpetration of the Mexican-American war) then that deliberate thoughtfulness and direct engagement must be brought to bear in the situation. And even to widen or redefine the concept of who one’s neighbor is. To engage with thoughtfulness, openness, and directness with one's family, one's neighbors, one's government. He championed living deliberately, and part of that meant living deliberately or consciously in community. He did love nature and solitude, considered them necessary to one’s well-being, but he was not an anti-social hermit. "Henry David Thoreau was a complex fellow. *** The following is an abridged version of Emily Hancock's introduction to the Handbook, as given on 7/23/17 at the official book launch event at Black Swan Books in Staunton, Virginia.
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