At age 22, Whit­tie­r be­came ed­it­or of the Amer­i­can Man­u­fac­tur­er in Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts. In 1830, he be­gan ed­it­ing the Ha­ver­hill Ga­zette and the New Eng­land Week­ly Re­view (Hart­ford, Con­nec­ti­cut). In 1835, Whit­tier was elect­ed to the Mass­a­chu­setts leg­is­la­ture. From 18470-59, he wrote for The Na­tion­al Era in Wash­ing­ton, DC. Whit­ti­er was in­flu­en­tial in the an­ti-slav­e­ry move­ment, and served as sec­re­tary of the Amer­i­can An­ti-Slav­e­ry So­ci­e­ty. When he moved to Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­vania, he ed­it­ed the Penn­syl­van­ia Free­man. Mobs at­tacked him sev­er­al times be­cause of his views.

Author of al­most 100 hymns, Whit­ti­er was known as Amer­i­ca’s Quak­er po­et. His works in­clude:

• Voices of Free­dom, 1833
• Ballads and Other Po­ems (Lon­don: 1844)
• Songs of La­bour, and Other Po­ems, 1850
• The Pan­o­ra­ma, and Other Po­ems, 1856
• Poetical Works, 1869
• Complete Po­et­i­cal Works, 1876
• The Bay of Se­ven Is­lands, and Other Po­ems, 1893

• Brown, p. 251
• Julian, pp. 1277-78
• Nutter, p. 71

1. All as God Wills
2. All Things Are Thine
3. Blest Land of Ju­dea
4. Dear Lord and Fa­ther of Man­kind
5. God Giveth Qui­et­ness at Last
6. Green Earth Sends Its In­cense Up, The
7. Harp at Na­ture’s Ad­vent Strung, The
8. Hast Thou, ’Midst Life’s Emp­ty Noises
9. I Ask Not Now for Gold to Gild
10. I Bow My Fore­head to the Dust
11. I Long for House­hold Voic­es Gone
    • I Know Not What the Fu­ture Hath
12. Immortal Love, For­ev­er Full
13. It May Not Be Our Lot
14. May Free­dom Speed On­ward, Wher­ev­er the Blood
15. Now Is the Seed Time
16. O Back­ward Look­ing Son of Time
17. O Beau­ty, Old Yet Ev­er New
18. O Bro­ther Man
19. O Fair­est Born of Love and Light
20. O He Whom Je­sus Loved
21. O Ho­ly Fa­ther, Just and True
22. O Lord and Mas­ter of Us All
23. O Love! O Life!
24. O Mak­er of the Fruits and Flow­ers
25. O Not Alone with Out­ward Sign
26. O Pure Re­form­ers, Not in Vain
27. O Sometimes Gleams up­on Our Sight
28. O Thou, at Whose R­ebuke the Grave
29. O Thou, Whose Pre­sence Went Be­fore
30. O, What Thou Our Feet May Not Tread Where Christ Trod
31. Our Fa­thers’ God, from Out Whose Hand
32. Our Friend, Our Bro­ther, and Our Lord
33. Our Thought of Thee Is Glad with Hope
34. Path of Life We Walk To­day, The
35. Shall We Grow Wea­ry in Our Watch?
36. So to the Calm­ly Ga­thered Thought
37. Sound over All Wa­ters
38. Sport of the Change­ful Mul­ti­tude
39. Thine Are All the Gifts, O God
40. Thou Hast Fall­en in Thine Ar­mor
41. Today, Be­neath Thy Chast­en­ing Eye
42. We Faint­ly Hear, We Dim­ly See
43. We See Not, Know Not
44. We May Not Climb the Hea­ven­ly Steeps
45. When on My Day of Life
46. Who Fa­thoms the Eter­nal Thought
47. With Si­lence On­ly as Their Ben­e­dict­ion
48. Within the Mad­den­ing Maze of Things