Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher, was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. One of the great protagonists of the “American Renaissance”, is considered one of the greatest American philosophers of all time. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience (originally published as Resistance to Civil Government), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.

The short essay Slavery in Massachussets, that today we re-propose for the attention of modern readers, was written by Thoreau as an address delivered at the Anti-Slavery Celebration at Framingham, on July 4, 1854, after the conviction in Boston of fugitive slave Anthony Burns.