Ioannes Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892), Tremebundus^[1] (Anglice: Quaker) Americanus, fuit potens editor, poeta, et dissolutionis servitutis in Civitatibus Foederatis suasor. Ut fieri solet, numeratur inter Poetas Foci.

Ioannes Greenleaf Whittier natus est filius Ioannis et Abigail (Hussey) Whittier apud eorum domum prope Haverhill Massachusettae die 17 Decembris 1807 (Wagenknecht 1967:3). Apud fundum adolevit in domicilio cum parentibus, fratre, duabus sororibus, matertera, patruo, et multis hospitibus agricolisque conductis. Fundus autem vix fuit quaestuosus. Whittier puer se cognovit esse coloribus caecum cum fraga matura a fragis immatura distinguere non potuit (Wagenknecht 1967:18). Quamquam ei solum fuit educationem levem, pertinaciter legit, et praecipue in patris sex libros de Tremitorismo inquisivit, donec eorum dogmata—quae humanitarianismum, misericordiam, et actionem socialem vehementius dixerunt—facta sunt fundamenta suae fidei.

"The Exile's Departure," eius poema primum, ad diurnum Free Press in Newburyport Massachusettae a sorore sine concessu missum est, quod Gulielmus Lloyd Garrison, editor, die 8 Iunii 1826 divulgavit (Wagenknecht 1967:5).

Anno 1832, Whittier ad rempublican accedere conatus est, sed in comitiis Congressionalibus victo, impetum timiditatis passus est et domum rediit, aetate suae viginti quinque. Anno 1833, eius vita aliter cecidit: litteras dare et accipere cum Gulielmo Lloyd Garrison iterum coeptus est, qui ut abolitionista fieret ei suasit. Eodem anno, Whittier Justice and Expediency, libellum contra servitutem, divulgavit (Wagenknecht 1967:13), et inde viginti vitae annos ad causam abolitionistam dedicavit. Unus ex conditoribus Americanae Contra Servitutem Societatis, signavit Declarationem Contra Servitutem anni 1833—quod ipse saepe habuit gravissimum suae vitae factum.

Anno 1845, coeptus est scribere libellum The Black Man ('Hominem Nigrum'), quod narratiunculam Ioannis Fountain commemoravit, nigri liberi qui, servis fugientibus adiutis, in carcerem in Virginia coniectus erat; Fountain liberatus acroasis fecit, et ad Whittier gratias pro narratiuncula egit (Laurie 2005: 77).

Whittier produxit duas congeries poematum contra servitutem: Poems Written during the Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States, between 1830 and 1838 et Voices of Freedom (1846). Elector in comitiis praesidentialibus anni 1860 et anni 1864 Abrahamo Lincoln bis suffragatus est (Wagenknecht 1967: 8).

Liber Snow-Bound, unum ex eius perennibus operibus, anno 1866 divulgatum est; prima editio pro Whittier fere $10,000 meruit (Wagenknecht 1967:7). Anno 1867, Whittier a Iacobo Thomas Fields tesseram obtinuit acroasis Caroli Dickens per eius peregrinationem Civitatum Foederatarum. Post eventum, Whittier litteras scripsit in quibus suam experientiam descripsit:

Proximo die mihi dolebant oculi ex gravitatis contemplationis. Nego eius vocem secundum naturam esse maxime elegantem, sed ea utitur ut multum valeat. Ei est mirifica vis scaenica. . . . Hic mihi placet plus quam quivis recitator communis quem umquam audivi. (Wagenknecht 1967:108–109)

Ultimos suae vitae annos, ab 1876 ad 1892, Whittier hieme habitabat in Oak Knoll, domu consobrinorum in Danvers Massachusettae (Ehrlich & Carruth 1982:46). Ipse mortuus est die 7 Septembris 1892, in familia amici in Hampton Falls Novae Hantescirae (Wagenknecht 1967:9), et corpus sepultum est in Amesbury.^[2]

Primi Whittier libri fuerunt Legends of New England (1831) et poema Moll Pitcher (1832). Anno 1833, "The Song of the Vermonters, 1779" divulgavit, carmen quod incerto auctori vulgatum in The New England Magazine inseruit. Poema Ethano Allen paene sexaginta annos falso tributum est. Anno 1838, turba eius tabularium in Aula Pennsylvaniana Philadelphiae in sede contra servitutem incendit (Sieczkiewicz 2007). Whittier hodie memoria custoditus est ob poema patriae amantem "Barbara Frietchie," librum Snow-Bound, et nonnulla poemata in hymnos conversa. Aliud opus late nota est "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind," pars poematis "The Brewing of Soma." Poeticum scripsit librum contra servitutem, Poems Written during the Progress of the Abolition Question. Sua fides religiosa inlustrata est in hymno qui sic incipit:

O Brother Man, fold to thy heart thy brother:

Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;

To worship rightly is to love each other,

Each smile a hymn, each kindly word a prayer.

Ea etiam videtur in poemate "To Rönge," pro Ioanne Rönge, persona religiosa in Germania et duce seditionis ibi anni 1848:

Thy work is to hew down. In God's name then:

But nerve into thy task. Let other men

Plant, as they may, that better tree, whose fruit

The wounded bosom of the Church shall heal.

Nathaniel Hawthorne librum Whittier Literary Recreations and Miscellanies (1854) sic detrectavit: "Liber Whittier est nugae ieiunae! Hominem amo, sed nullam existimationem bonam habeo, vel eius poeticae vel eius solutae orationis" (Woodwell 1985:252). Editori autem Georgio Ripley, eius poetica fuit iucunda, cum "lauto versificationis motu, amplitudine imaginum, fluxu maestitiae mollis et seriae, fiducia hilari," et "animo puro et honesto" (Crowe 1967:247). Edwinus Percy Whipple, criticus Bostoniae, ethicam moralemque Whittier vocem animadvertit, cum sincero animi motu mixto: "Hoc volumen ultimum legens, sentio quasi animus in aqua sancta abluerat" (Woodwell 1985:443–444).

Praedium familiae Whittier, Fundus Ioannis Greenleaf Whittier appellatus, vel "Locus Natalitionis Whittier," nunc habetur situs historicus, populo apertus (Ehrlich & Carruth 1982:50). Domicilium in Amesbury, ubi quinquaginta sex annos habitavit, nunc Domus Ioannis Greenleaf Whittier appellatus, etiam populo aperitur. Pro Whittier nominantur multa aedificia et loci in Haverhill, inter eos J. G. Whittier Middle School, Greenleaf Elementary, et Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School.

Carmina

• Lays of My Home (1843)
• Voices of Freedom (1846)
• Songs of Labor (1850)
• The Chapel of the Hermits (1853)
• Home Ballads (1860)
• The Furnace Blast (1862)
• In War Time (1864)
• Snow-Bound (1866)
• The Tent on the Beach (1867)
• Among the Hills (1869)
• The Pennsylvania Pilgrim (1872)
• The Vision of Echard (1878)
• The King's Missive (1881)
• Saint Gregory's Guest (1886)
• At Sundown (1890)

Libri solutae orationis

• The Stranger in Lowell (1845)
• The Supernaturalism of New England (1847)
• Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal (1849)
• Old Portraits and Modern Sketches (1850)
• Literary Recreations and Miscellanies (1854)

• Autobiographia et poemata Whittier
• Biographia et hymni Whittier
• Consilium "Whittier Bi-Centennial Recording"
• Domus Familiae Whittier et Locus Natalis Ioannis Greenleaf Whittier
• Domus Ioannis Greenleaf Whittier, Amesbury Massachusettae
• Interretialis Reipublicae Americanae Biographia: Ioannes Greenleaf Whittier

• Bernet, Claus: Whittier, John Greenleaf, in BBKL, 32, 2011, 1492-1500: http://www.kirchenlexikon.de/w/whittier_j_g.shtml
• Crowe, Charles. 1967. George Ripley: Transcendentalist and Utopian Socialist. Athenis: University of Georgia Press.
• Ehrlich, Eugene, et Gorton Carruth. 1982. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States. Novi Eboraci: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195031865.
• Epstein, Dena. 2003. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Sicagi: University of Illinois Press.
• Gioia, Dana. 1993. "Longfellow in the Aftermath of Modernism." In The Columbia History of American Poetry, a Jay Parini edito. Novi Eboraci: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231078366.
• Laurie, Bruce. 2005. Beyond Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521605172.
• McKim, Lucy. 1862. "Songs of the Port Royal 'Contrabands.'" Dwight's Journal of Music 21:254–255.
• Pickard, John B. 1961. John Greenleaf Whittier: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Barnes & Noble.
• Sieczkiewicz, Robert. 2007. A Green Country Town: Essays on Philadelphia History. Philadelphiae: American College of Physicians.
• Wagenknecht, Edward. 1967. John Greenleaf Whittier: A Portrait in Paradox. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Woodwell, Roland H. 1985. John Greenleaf Whittier: A Biography. Haverhill, Massachusetts: Trustees of the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead.