John Greenleaf Whittier

Whittier, John Greenleaf (1807–92), U.S. poet born in Haverhill, Mass., to a Quaker family. The themes of his work were the injustice of slavery and the beauty of the New England countryside. He served in the state legislature and was active in the antislavery movement. His political poem, “Ichabod” (1850), attacked Daniel Webster for his role in passing the Compromise of 1850. He attacked what he saw as hypocrisy in a nation that espoused freedom but allowed slavery.