Walden and Civil DisobedienceIn 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a cabin in the woods at Walden Pond to record a philosophical experiment in living: to simplify his life, to support himself entirely by his own labour, and to draw spiritual sustenance from his surroundings. The result was Walden: Or, Life in the Woods (1854). In 1846, Thoreau refused to pay a mandated poll tax, objecting to supporting a government that protected slavery and had launched an aggressive war