Adams, Abigail (1744–1818), wife of John
Adams, the second President of the United States; mother of John Quincy
Adams, the sixth President; correspondent.Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, to Congregational minister William Smith and his wife Elizabeth Quincy Smith, Abigail received no formal schooling yet educated herself in literature, history, and French. Abigail and John Adams, within a decade of their marriage in 1764, had five children, of whom four (Abigail, John Quincy, Charles, and Thomas Boylston) survived childhood. During the
Revolutionary War Era, when John served as delegate to the
Continental Congress and diplomat in Europe, Abigail managed the family farm, purchasing land and livestock and negotiating with laborers and tenants. Even after she was reunited with her husband in Europe in 1784, as well as during his terms as vice President and President, Abigail took primary responsibility for the family's business. She also served as John's confidante and adviser in public affairs.
Abigail Adams is best known for her copious, perspicacious correspondence, in which she discussed politics as well as domestic concerns. She expressed opinions on a wide variety of issues, including her renowned advice to John in 1776 that Congress revise the Anglo‐American laws subordinating married women to their husbands. In private letters, Abigail Adams hailed women's actions to support American independence, heralded the strength of female patriotism, and called for improved female education. Nevertheless, throughout her life, she conformed to the roles expected of a high public official's wife in the late eighteenth century. Only her correspondents, and later generations who have read her letters, could appreciate Adams's advanced thinking on women's rights.
See also
Colonial Era;
Women's Rights Movements.
Bibliography
L.H. Butterfield et al., eds., Adams Family Correspondence, vols. 1–6, 1963–1993.
Edith B. Gelles , Portia: The World of Abigail Adams, 1992.
Jean R. Soderlund
