American Literature / Unit 7 AML 0616 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"Resistance to Civil Government"
Captions available
The idea
Published in eighteen forty-nine under the title "Resistance to Civil Government" and long known as "Civil Disobedience", the essay argues that a citizen's first duty is to conscience, not to law, and that unjust government should be met with deliberate, peaceful refusal rather than with waiting.
In practice
Conscience first, and the law second.
Where people slip
The familiar title is not the original one.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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