Christiana Boehmer
John Greenleaf Whittier: 19th-c. Abolitionist Poet from Massachusetts
Twentieth century people memorialized John Greenleaf Whittier as a beloved Quaker poet, but Whittier was also a fierce anti-slavery activist. For several decades, Whittier devoted his working and writing life to the cause. He edited several abolitionist newspapers, organized anti-slavery societies and abolitionist political parties, and penned scores of poems expressing outrage at the brutality of slavery and the hypocrisy of pro-slavery politicians and religious leaders. Frederick Douglass called Whitter “The Slave’s Poet.” In her talk, Boehmer will share short excerpts of some of Whittier’s most impactful anti-slavery verses.
Christiana Boehmer (antislaveryinessexcounty.substack.com) is an independent historian from Andover, Massachusetts, who writes about the antislavery movement in Essex County, Massachusetts, from 1760-1860. She earned graduate degrees in education and environmental engineering, but, after retiring in 2021, turned her energies to researching and writing about local history. Her research focuses on how less-famous individuals in towns north of Boston participated in the fight against Massachusetts slavery in the eighteenth century and U.S. slavery in the nineteenth century. In her blog, “ANTIslavery in Essex County,” she shares untold stories of these people, some who were themselves enslaved or descended from enslaved individuals.
