- I was born on December 17, 1807, near Haverhill, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Born on a farm into a Quaker family
- I had little education
- Throughout my life I would work to my fullest extent, which frequently lead me to be ill
Poet and journalist (1826–32)
- Because my parents weren't fortunate enough to have me in school, I took fascination in reading whenever possible
- Loved to read British poetry, but I was an avid reader of the Scottish, Robert Burns
- Thus begins my passion of writing poems
- At age 19, I was able to have one of my poems "The Exile's Departure" published in the Newburyport Free Press under the editor, William Lloyd Garrison
- With my steady flow of poems to Newburyport Free Press, I became close friends with Garrison
- by 1830 I had become editor of the New England Weekly Review in Hartford, Connecticut, the most important Whig journal in New England
- I went on to contributing poems to many other Periodicals
- I became a Passionate Abolitionist after reading Garrison's Thoughts on Colonization
- So then I wrote poems on my thoughts of slavery and its abolition
- My poems are very influential to the public, making me a somewhat political figure
Politics
- I took an official and more proactive stand for the abolition of slavery
- Justice and Expediency, my response to slavery, is what turned me from a poet into a politician
- I gain a seat in the state legislature, putting my ideas into Congress
- I started the Liberty party, bringing together a force for emancipation
- I then retired from the political scene in 1840
Humanitarian
- I still write poems in the periodicals
- Also giving input on abolition.
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