 A small collection , Poems on Slavery , was published in 1842 as Longfellow 's first public support of abolitionism . However , as Longfellow himself wrote , the poems were " so mild that even a Slaveholder might read them without losing his appetite for breakfast " . A critic for The Dial agreed , calling it " the thinnest of all Mr. Longfellow 's thin books ; spirited and polished like its forerunners ; but the topic would warrant a deeper tone " . The New England Anti @-@ Slavery Association , however , was satisfied with the collection enough to reprint it for further distribution . 
