A Yankee in Canada: Illustrated and Annotated Edition by Henry David Thoreau.

Henry Thoreau traveled to Canada from September 25 to October 2, 1850. His account was first published serially in 1853, in Putnam's Monthly, as "An Excursion to Canada", then in book form in 1866, in A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers.

In the summer of 1846, tax collector Samuel Staples arrested Thoreau for his refusal to pay the poll tax, interrupting Thoreau’s tranquil residence at Walden Pond for a day. Thoreau had not paid the tax for several years, as a form of protest against slavery and the government’s recent declaration of war against Mexico.

The townspeople were so curious about Thoreau’s refusal that he felt compelled to explain his actions in a public lecture in January 1848. It is here collected for the first time in book form under its now-famous title, “Civil Disobedience.”