Whittier, John G.

Born: 1807-12-17 Massachusetts

Died: 1892-09-07 New Hampshire

Born near Haverhill, Massachusetts, John G. Whittier was a poet, teacher, cobbler, abolitionist, journalist, state representative, and Quaker. He labored on the family farm as a boy, received limited schooling, and suffered from headaches and other chronic ailments from a young age. At age fourteen, his teacher, Joshua Coffin, introduced him to the poetry of Robert Burns. Encouraged by his mother and sister, he began composing his own verse in secret, as his father did not approve. At age nineteen, his sister sent one of his poems to William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison published the poem in his Newburyport Free Press and visited the family farm to meet Whittier. In 1827, Whittier enrolled in the Haverhill Academy, teaching and making shoes to pay his tuition fees. He published nearly 150 poems between 1827 and 1828, and, with Garrison’s aid, became editor of the American Manufacturer in 1829. He became a strong supporter of Henry Clay and an outspoken critic of slavery. After returning to the family farm in mid-1829 after his father grew ill, Whittier edited first the Haverhill Gazette, then, after his father’s death, moved to Hartford, Connecticut to edit the New England Weekly Review. He suffered a nervous breakdown soon after publishing his first book of poetry, returned to Haverhill, and composed the poem, Molly Pitcher.

He resigned from the Review in 1832, joined the abolition movement in 1833 with Garrison’s encouragement, began publishing anti-slavery pamphlets, and helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1835, he won election to the Massachusetts General Court as a Whig. The same year, he and British abolitionist George Thompson were attacked by a mob while lecturing in Concord, New Hampshire. He relocated to Amesbury, Massachusetts with his mother and sister in 1836, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1838 to edit the Pennsylvania Freeman, but returned to Amesbury in 1840. The same year, he split with Garrison on anti-slavery strategy and helped found the Liberty Party, although he also worked with the Free Soil Party. He published collections of poetry throughout the 1840s and 1850s, many of which centered on anti-slavery themes. In 1847, he joined the staff of the National Era, publishing poetry for the paper regularly until 1857, when he co-founded the Atlantic Monthly alongside other prominent New England authors. By 1860, he owned nearly $4,000 in real and personal property. A Republican from 1856 onward, he served as a presidential elector in 1860 and 1864, voting for Abraham Lincoln each time. He published poetry during and well after the Civil War, achieving fame for his poem Snow-Bound. He never married, and died in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.

Randall Cluff, “Whittier, John Greenleaf,” American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 23:320-22; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Amesbury, Essex County, MA, 366; Edward Wagenknecht, John Greenleaf Whittier: A Portrait in Paradox (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 6, 81.