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99 Main Street
Haverhill, MA 01830
(978) 373-1586
fax: (978) 373-8466

John Greenleaf Whittier

A Brief Biography

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) The Quaker Poet & Abolitionist by Howard W. Curtis

John Greenleaf Whittier was born on December 17, 1807 in the southwest Parlor of the Whittier Homestead in Haverhill, MA. He was the first son and second child of John and Abigail (Hussey) Whittier. He grew up on the farm in a household with his parents, a brother and two sisters, a maternal aunt and paternal uncle, and a constant flow of visitors and hired hands for the farm.

He attended the local school just up the hill and spent two semesters in the new Haverhill Academy. He was introduced by a teacher to the poetry of Robert burns, and began to versify. His first poem to be seen in print appeared in 1826 in the Newburyport Free Press, where the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was editor. Under Garrison's encouragement Whittier actively joined in the abolitionist cause and edited newspapers in Boston and Hartford, and was associated with the Atlantic Monthly Magazine from 1857 until death.

In 1831, he brought out a book of prose works, Legends of New England and the next year returned to his native town to run the farm after his father's death. In 1836, he moved to Amesbury. Until the Civil War he became increasingly involved in the abolitionist cause, serving in numerous capacities on the local, state and national levels. He was also involved in the formation of the Republican Party.

With the publication of "Snow-Bound" in 1866, Whittier finally enjoyed a relatively comfortable life from the profits of his published works. It is "Snow-Bound" for which he will always be best remembered as a poet. Nearly every volume of his verses published thereafter was truly a best seller. Whittier died on September 7, 1892 at a friend's home in Hampton Falls, NH, and was buried with the rest of his family in Amesbury.

His popularity continued into the next century, but has suffered since, as have most of the 19th century "Fireside Poet," but he is now being recognized anew for his abolitionist work, encouragement of female poets and writers and those poems of his which are truly great ones.

The Whittier Family Homestead

Birthplace of John Greenleaf Whittier, the Quaker Poet
by Howard W. Curtis 

Thomas Whittier, the pioneer, chose wisely in selecting the site of the homestead when he acquired 148 acres of land beside a brook which could furnish sufficient water for his farm needs and turn the wheel of his own grist mill as well. Here, in 1688, in a small pleasant valley under the shoulder of Job's Hill he built the homestead for five generations and the Birthplace of the Quaker Poet and Abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier on December 17, 1807.

The Whittier Homestead is an outstanding example of the old New England farm and has been operated as such, without interruption, since the beginning. Its charm lies in the simple and homey atmosphere which has surrounded it since colonial days.

The house itself, located on its original site, is substantially the same as when the Poet lived here from 1807 until 1836, and is the setting of his most famous and beloved poem, "Snow-Bound." The large fireplace in the kitchen is plainly recognizable to those who have read the poem. Here also is the elevated Mother's Bedroom built over the milkroom in the cellar, which was built over a rock too large to move. Some of the few books which comprised the family library many be seen in the Secretary, and among other original furnishings is his grandfather's fine desk on which Whittier wrote his first and last poems.

Outside may be seen a bridle-post where horses would be hitched, the natural stone mounting-block used by generations of children, and the doorstone on which the "barefoot boy" ate from his bowl of milk and bread.

The original barn, built in 1821 by John and Moses Whittier, the poet's father and uncle, to which the boys tunneled through the snowbank as described in "Snow-Bound,"  was burned in 1970. The present barn, of the same size and style, was moved from a nearby location in 1971.

A new building has been built on the site of the original blacksmith shop, in which the young Whittier spent a few summers making shoes to earn his tuition to attend Haverhill Academy.

Fernside Brook still flows along, and the path over the stepping stones to Job's Hill, the site of the old mill and the ancient family burial lot are to be found within the 69 acres of the present Homestead property. The surrounding land inspired Whittier to write such poems as "Fernside Brook," "Telling the Bees," and "The Barefoot Boy," with specific locations so accurately described that they may still be readily identified today. Within good walking distances are the scene of Kenoza Lake, Haverhill, In School Days, Suicide Pond, The Countess, The Sycamores, The Old Burying Bound, and the Homecoming of the Bride.

The Homestead became a site for visits by legions of pilgrims, particularly after Whittier had Snow-Bound Published in 1866. It was formally opened in 1893 after former-Mayor James H. Carleton purchased the house and land and presented it to the Haverhill Whittier Club. The Club established a Board of Trustees which to this day holds the deed in trust, with the intent and obligation to maintain the house and grounds for visitors that the love and memory of Whittier might forever be cherished.

The John Greenleaf Whittier Collection: a partial list of holdings

 The Special Collections Department of the Haverhill Public Library has one of the most extensive collections of material including books, manuscripts, letters, broadsides, photographs, paintings, and more by and about John Greenleaf Whittier, his Quaker faith, and the anti-slavery movement as well as books and pamphlets dealing with 19th century writers and other political causes.  The Whittier Collection is held in the newly renovated Trustees Room at the library and is made available by appointment only.

Whittier Poetry

• Child Life: A Collection of Poems Boston, James R. Osgood, 1873
• Choicest poems of John Greenleaf Whittier with photogravure illustrations. New York, George M. Allen, 1893.
• The Early Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1885
• Poems Written during the Progress of the Aboliton Question in the United States during the Years 1830 and 1838 Boston, Isaac Knapp, 1837
• A Selection from the Religious Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier Philadelphia: Friend's Book Store, 1934
• Song of the Negro Boatman, 1863 Broadside
• The Stranger in Lowell Boston: Waite, Pierce and Company, 1845
• The Whittier Year Book; Passages from the Verse and Prose of John Greenleaf Whittier Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1895
• The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier in Nine Volumes Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1888

Whittier Biographies

• A Bibliography of John Greenleaf Whittier by Thomas Franklin Currier. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1937.
• History of Whittier by Benjamin F. Arnold and Artilissa Dorland Clark. Western Publishing Corp., 1933
• John Greenleaf Whittier by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1902.
• Life and Religion of John Greenleaf Whittier by John Montgomery MacNab. Typescript, 1946.

Anti-Slavery Publications

• Address to the people of the United States by a Committee of the New England Anti-Slavery Convention, 1834
• Anti-slavery Hymns for the New England Anti-Slavery Convention, 1859
• Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Annual report, 1837
• The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act by Lydia Maria Child. Boston: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1860.
• The Grimke Sisters. Sarah and Angelina Grimke, the first American women advocates of abolition by Catherine H. Birney. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1885
• The Life of Arthur Tappan 1788-1873. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1870.
• Narrative of James Williams, an American Slave. New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838
• Tributes to William Lloyd Garrison, at the funeral services, May 28, 1879. Boston: Houghton & Osgood, 1879.
• Trial and imprisonment of Jonathan Walker at Pensacola, Florida for aiding slaves to escape from Bondage. Boston: Hougton & Osgood, 1879.

Quaker Material

• Byways in Quaker History by Howard R. Brinton, Pendle Hill, 1944
• Glimpses of George Fox and His Friends by Jane Budge. London: S.W. Partridge, 1888
• John Greenleaf Whitter, the Quaker by C. Marshall Taylor. London: Friends' Historical Society, 1954.
• The Journal of John Woolman with an introduction by J.G. Whittier. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1871

Please call 978-373-1586, ext. 642 for information regarding the use of the Whittier Collection.