Henry David Thoreau was a Rebel Henry David Thoreau was a rebel. Walden can be seen as an account of his rebellion. By the 1840's, life had changed throughout New England, even in the heart of America's rebellion, Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau wrote that "I have traveled a good deal in Concord" (Krutch 108). He knew what he saw there, and what he saw, he began to despise. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" (111). In 1775, ordinary men had dared to take up arms of rebellion and strike a blow for independence and freedom (Bowes 123-124). Yet, in the space of few decades, the combined forces of materialism and technology had subdued the chi