Elizabeth Hussey Whittier

Elizabeth Hussey Whittier (December 7, 1815 – September 3, 1864) was an American poet and abolitionist, who founded the Female Anti-Slavery Society in Boston in 1833. Alongside her mother, she is credited with encouraging her brother John Greenleaf Whittier's interests in literature and poetry, and was his close companion and collaborator until her death.

Life

Elizabeth Hussey Whittier was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on December 7, 1815, the youngest child of four born to Abigail (née Hussey) and John Whittier. The family were Quaker.

Elizabeth and her elder brother John Greenleaf were very close, and she was described as his "intimate literary companion". Following the death of their parents, Elizabeth remained at the Haverhill home to keep house for her brother. It was noted that her "vivacity and... readiness of speech" complemented her brother's greater reserve, Thomas Wentworth Higginson described Elizabeth's "gay raillery", which was "unceasing, and... enjoyed by him [John] as much as anybody, so that he really appeared to have transferred to her the expressions of his own opinions."

Elizabeth Whittier was active in the abolitionist movement, and present at a meeting of the Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835, when a mob interrupted the meeting and dragged William Lloyd Garrison into the street. John Greenleaf Whittier, "accustomed to submit to her all that he wrote", described to a friend how without Elizabeth's influence he could "hardly tell whether what I write is good for anything or not".

John Greenleaf Whittier published a number of Elizabeth's poems in his collection, Hazel-Blossoms (1875). In an introductory note, he wrote:I have ventured, in compliance with the desire of dear friends of my beloved sister Elizabeth H. Whittier, to add to this little volume the few poetical pieces which she left behind her. As she was very distrustful of her own powers, and altogether without ambition for literary distinction, she shunned everything like publicity, and found far greater happiness in generous appreciation of the gifts of her friends than in the cultivation of her own. Yet it has always seemed to me, that had her health, sense of duty and fitness, and her extreme self-distrust permitted, she might have taken a high place among lyrical singers.