# 865 - 1940 Famous Americans: 2c John Greenleaf Whittier
1940 2¢ John Greenleaf Whittier
Famous Americans Series – Poets
First City: Haverhill, Massachusetts
Quantity Issued: 52,100,510
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Rotary Press
Perforation: 10 ½ x 11
Color: Rose carmine
Birth Of John Greenleaf Whittier
Whittier grew up on his family’s farm, which saw frequent visitors over the years. The farm wasn’t very profitable and only provided the family with enough to sustain their lives. Whittier suffered from poor health from the time he was a child and never really enjoyed the hard labor of farm life.
Though he received little formal education, Whittier loved to read, and would read his father’s six books on Quakerism over and over. This had a major impact on his life as he adopted many of the religion’s principles, especially humanitarianism, compassion, and social responsibility.
In 1826, Whittier’s sister sent one of his poems to the Newburyport Free Press without him knowing. The paper’s editor, William Lloyd Garrison, saw his potential and published the poem, “The Exile’s Departure” that June. Garrison and another local newspaper editor then pushed Whittier to attend the newly opened Haverhill Academy. To afford tuition, Whittier worked as a shoemaker. He then worked out a deal with the school to pay a portion of his tuition with food grown at his family’s farm. Whittier also worked briefly as a teacher to provide for his education.
Whittier briefly explored a political career, but lost his congressional election and returned home. Then in 1833, Garrison recruited Whittier to join the abolitionist cause. That same year, Whittier published his first antislavery pamphlet, Justice and Expediency. The pamphlet ended any further chances he had in politics but began his 20-year crusade. During this time, Whittier helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society and signed the Anti-Slavery Declaration of 1833, an event he believed was the most important of his entire life.
As the 1830s grew to a close, Whittier and Garrison no longer saw eye to eye. Whittier believed that they needed legislative change in order to make real progress and Garrison didn’t agree. So Whittier founded the Liberty Party and tried, unsuccessfully, to get fellow writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to join him.
By this point in his life, Whittier was under immense stress, from his editorial work, failing health, and mob attacks. He decided to return home to Amesbury, marking the end of his active abolition campaigning. He continued to work for the Liberty Party from home, by encouraging them to advocate other issues, eventually becoming the Free Soil Party. Without the added stresses of travel and attacks, Whittier produced some of his best abolitionist poetry, drawing on emotions rather than logic.
After the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery in 1865, Whittier began to explore other themes in his poetry. He was one of the founding contributors to the Atlantic Monthly magazine and published one of his most popular works, Snow-Bound, in 1866.
1940 2¢ John Greenleaf Whittier
Famous Americans Series – Poets
First City: Haverhill, Massachusetts
Quantity Issued: 52,100,510
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Rotary Press
Perforation: 10 ½ x 11
Color: Rose carmine
Birth Of John Greenleaf Whittier
Whittier grew up on his family’s farm, which saw frequent visitors over the years. The farm wasn’t very profitable and only provided the family with enough to sustain their lives. Whittier suffered from poor health from the time he was a child and never really enjoyed the hard labor of farm life.
Though he received little formal education, Whittier loved to read, and would read his father’s six books on Quakerism over and over. This had a major impact on his life as he adopted many of the religion’s principles, especially humanitarianism, compassion, and social responsibility.
In 1826, Whittier’s sister sent one of his poems to the Newburyport Free Press without him knowing. The paper’s editor, William Lloyd Garrison, saw his potential and published the poem, “The Exile’s Departure” that June. Garrison and another local newspaper editor then pushed Whittier to attend the newly opened Haverhill Academy. To afford tuition, Whittier worked as a shoemaker. He then worked out a deal with the school to pay a portion of his tuition with food grown at his family’s farm. Whittier also worked briefly as a teacher to provide for his education.
Whittier briefly explored a political career, but lost his congressional election and returned home. Then in 1833, Garrison recruited Whittier to join the abolitionist cause. That same year, Whittier published his first antislavery pamphlet, Justice and Expediency. The pamphlet ended any further chances he had in politics but began his 20-year crusade. During this time, Whittier helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society and signed the Anti-Slavery Declaration of 1833, an event he believed was the most important of his entire life.
As the 1830s grew to a close, Whittier and Garrison no longer saw eye to eye. Whittier believed that they needed legislative change in order to make real progress and Garrison didn’t agree. So Whittier founded the Liberty Party and tried, unsuccessfully, to get fellow writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to join him.
By this point in his life, Whittier was under immense stress, from his editorial work, failing health, and mob attacks. He decided to return home to Amesbury, marking the end of his active abolition campaigning. He continued to work for the Liberty Party from home, by encouraging them to advocate other issues, eventually becoming the Free Soil Party. Without the added stresses of travel and attacks, Whittier produced some of his best abolitionist poetry, drawing on emotions rather than logic.
After the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery in 1865, Whittier began to explore other themes in his poetry. He was one of the founding contributors to the Atlantic Monthly magazine and published one of his most popular works, Snow-Bound, in 1866.