John Greenleaf Whittier was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, December
17, 1807, and died at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, September 7, 1892.
Whittier's ancestors for several generations had been New England
farmers on the same farm where the original Whittier immigrant had
settled. The family was too poor to give Whittier an education, so that
two terms at Haverhill Academy, the tuition for which he paid by
shoemaking and school teaching, completed his school training. He early
became interested in journalism, and was employed in editorial work in
Boston and in Hartford. When abolition became an agitation, Whittier
became one of the leaders. He was instrumental in bringing the English
Abolitionist, George Thompson, to America; and, while on a tour with
him, was stoned and shot at by a mob in Concord, New Hampshire. Later,
when he was editor of the _Philadelphia Freeman_, his office was burned
by a mob. During this period he wrote many anti-slavery poems, such as
the _Ballads_, _Anti-Slavery Poems_, etc., of 1838 and the _Voices of
Freedom_ of 1841. In spite of his interest in politics, for he was twice
elected to the Massachusetts legislature, Whittier led a very simple
life in accordance with his Quaker beliefs. He never married, partly, it
seems, because he had the care of his mother and sister Elizabeth, until
the latter's death in 1864. The latter part of his life he lived at
Amesbury and Danvers, Massachusetts.
Whittier's poetry is of three kinds. He is at times more thoroughly than
any other writer the poet of New England country life; again he is
essentially an anti-slavery poet; and, finally, he has written many
religious poems. His best-known poem is _Snow-Bound_, which gives an
admirable picture of a farmer's life in the hard storms of a New England
winter.