Which 19th-century thinker urged civil disobedience as a moral protest?

Study for the Chronological Movements in American Literature Test. Explore key literary developments with multiple-choice questions, flashcards, and detailed hints. Get ready for your exam!

Multiple Choice

Which 19th-century thinker urged civil disobedience as a moral protest?

Understanding civil disobedience as a deliberate, conscience-driven form of protest helps identify the correct thinker. Henry David Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience, arguing that when laws or government actions violate moral law, individuals have a duty to oppose them through nonviolent means, even if it means breaking the law. He famously refused to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War, using personal action to make a moral point. This articulates a clear theory: obedience to higher moral law over unjust statutes and the legitimacy of dissent as a form of protest. Ralph Waldo Emerson, while stressing individual conscience and nonconformity, did not lay out a formal doctrine of civil disobedience as a method of protest. Washington Irving and Walt Whitman are not centered on organizing moral resistance through disobedience in the way Thoreau is, with Whitman more focused on democratic celebration and Irving on narrative fiction.

Understanding civil disobedience as a deliberate, conscience-driven form of protest helps identify the correct thinker. Henry David Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience, arguing that when laws or government actions violate moral law, individuals have a duty to oppose them through nonviolent means, even if it means breaking the law. He famously refused to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican-American War, using personal action to make a moral point. This articulates a clear theory: obedience to higher moral law over unjust statutes and the legitimacy of dissent as a form of protest.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, while stressing individual conscience and nonconformity, did not lay out a formal doctrine of civil disobedience as a method of protest. Washington Irving and Walt Whitman are not centered on organizing moral resistance through disobedience in the way Thoreau is, with Whitman more focused on democratic celebration and Irving on narrative fiction.

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