Barbara Frietchie
John Greenleaf WHITTIER (1807 - 1892)
MP3 CD
(IDB Productions, March 15, 2017)
It is conceded by everyone that Barbara Frietchie was real, but a praiseworthy and a very well regarded noble lady, strongly faithful and a cynic of the Slavery Rebellion, keeping her Union flag sacrosanct and protecting it with her Bible; that when the Confederates stopped before her residence, and went into her dooryard, she decried them in forceful dialect, juddered her wicker into them, and pushed them out; and when General Burnside's army trailed near on Jackson's, she swayed her flag and hailed them. It is said that May Quantrell, a courageous and faithful woman in the other part of the city, did sway her flag in front of the Confederates. John Greenleaf Whittier was a US Quaker poet and supporter of the eradication of slavery in the USA. Often enumerated as among the Fireside Poets, he was inspired by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. John is commemorated especially for his anti-slavery narratives along with his novel Snow-Bound. His parents were John and Abigail Hussey. He was born at their rural estate in Haverhill, Massachusetts. His middle name is believed to entail 'feuillevert' after his Huguenot ancestors. He was raised on the ranch in a family circle with his parents, a brother and two sisters, a mother's side aunt and father's side uncle, and a steady coming of guests and laborers for the ranch. As a child, it was found out that John was color-blind when he was incapable to distinguish between ripe and raw strawberries. Their ranch was not that lucrative and there was just sufficient finances to sustain themselves. John himself was not taken out for tough ranch work and underwent from poor health and physical fragility his entire life. However, he got a minor formal teaching, he was an enthusiastic reader who learned the six volumes of his father on Quakerism till their lessons became the groundwork of his ideology.