Answer:
He refused to pay a poll tax as a protest against the Mexican-American War.
Explanation:
Henry David Thoreau was an American philosopher and essayist who was against the very practice of slavery in the American South. He also brought forth the genre of transcendentalism, a philosophical movement where writers focus on the goodness of nature and people and the corruptness of the society in which one lives.
His essay "Civil Disobedience" was a result of his short stay in jail after he refused to pay a poll tax for six years. According to him, the taxes that were imposed on the common people were directly responsible for the increased slavery and also funded the war between America and Mexico. He believes that if people don't pay their taxes, it will affect the funding and thus help in preventing the war and also slavery. So, he refused to pay his poll taxes which led to his arrest and night in jail.
The essay was an outcome of his experience, though short. In it, he asserts that people have the right to oppose a government and its laws if they deem it unfit or bad for themselves. He opines that people who hate the enforcement of slavery and are against the Mexican-American war cannot call themselves right and just if they continue paying taxes that are used as a support or funding system for the very issues they said they are opposing.
