Biography of abigail adams

April 21, Archived from the original on April 21, The Boston Globe. Retrieved October 1, Abigail Adams. Simon and Schuster. National First Ladies' Library. Archived from the original on May 31, Retrieved September 7, National Park Service. Retrieved November 16, Abigail Adams: A Writing in Life. Barker-Benfield Early American Studies.

JSTOR S2CID Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved September 14, John Adams: A Life. University of Tennessee Press. Women's Review of Books. Archived from the original on July 1, Retrieved October 27, National Park Service ". Retrieved November 17, The White House: Actors and Observers. White House Historical Association. Northeastern University Press.

Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Portia: The World of Abigail Adams. Indiana University Press. Archived from the biography of abigail adams on July 16, Retrieved July 4, Retrieved January 28, July 12, March 4, Retrieved November 2, Appalachian Mountain Club: Boston Globe. WBZ NewsRadio London: Merrell. Accessed June 27, Coin World. Some collectors have begun receiving a First Spouse medal mule — a piece bearing the obverse for Abigail Adams and a reverse intended for the Louisa Adams medal.

Siena Research Institute. February 15, Retrieved May 16, December 18, Retrieved October 9, Bibliography [ edit ]. See also: Bibliography of United States presidential spouses and first ladies. Secondary sources [ edit ]. Historiography [ edit ]. Primary sources [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abigail Adams.

Wikisource has original works by or about: Abigail Adams. Wikiquote has quotations related to Abigail Adams. Martha Washington. Martha Randolph Acting. First ladies of the United States. Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States. Women in the American Revolution. David Wright's Guard Spinning biography of abigail adams. Agent Anna Strong Sarah Townsend.

Ann Bates Miss Jenny. Sarah Tarrant Mary Waters. She traveled with him throughout Europe for five years during his stint as a diplomat. Adams also worked for the political advancement of her son, John Quincy Adams, though she would not live to see his election as president in MLA - Michals, Debra. Date accessed. Chicago - Michals, Debra. Abigail Smith Adams Edited by Debra Michals, PhD Works Cited.

Detroit: Gale, History in Context. Accessed February 2, There Abigail Adams socialized with the city's most important families. Six years later John was elected a delegate to the First Continental Congressa six-week meeting at which representatives from the colonies discussed what to do about their problems with the British. John's role as a delegate meant even longer separations.

Although she missed John terribly when he was away on business and political trips, Abigail Adams stood behind his efforts and ambitions. She took on the responsibility of making most of the family decisions herself, including those that pertained to money. The family's life gradually changed, as the American movement to gain freedom from Great Britain grew stronger.

Adams wrote frequent letters to her friends and family in which she frankly expressed her opinions. The letters have been preserved and are honored as some of the best of her time. Their subjects range from politics, manners, and education for women to marriage, health care, and the relationship between religion and morality what is right versus what is wrong.

Abigail and John Adams often wrote to one another about their feelings and ideas. Quoting William Shakespeare in a letter to her husband, Abigail Adams wrote: "My pen is always freer than my tongue. She and Jefferson carried on a long correspondence in which they treated each other as equals. Her letters have been described as newsy, flirtatious, and full of ideas.

Adams's letters gave accounts of the history of the young country and the problems that its people faced on the road to independence. She wrote to John Adams of the conflict between their neighbors who supported Britain and those who supported the revolution. She also wrote about housing colonial soldiers on their way to attack the British, and of her own constant fear of attack by British soldiers.

Women had to undergo many hardships as the Revolutionary War stretched on from to Adams's letters told of how she dealt with such difficulties as wartime shortages and the high cost of food and other goods, lack of help to run the family farm, and, especially, loneliness. At one point, her husband served as a diplomat in Europe, representing the United States in its dealings with countries there.

In order to make ends meet, Adams was forced to sell or trade the tea, handkerchiefs, and other items her husband sent her from Europe. She once told John that, because of the loss of his companionship for half of their marriage and his reduced time for moneymaking, she believed she had struggled and sacrificed more on behalf of the American cause than most women in the country.

Throughout her life Abigail Adams furthered her education and developed her mind. For example, in she went with her husband to Paris, France, where for eight months he represented the U. While there, Abigail Adams paid close attention to French manners and morals and observed French culture. From an early age, Adams's family had taught her to be careful with money.

She was amazed by the number of servants that upper-class Europeans needed to maintain a large house and the time and money they spent on looking fashionable. She disapproved of the behavior of the wealthy French people, telling her friends that they mainly pursued luxury and pleasure, and she disliked Paris, calling it "the dirtiest place I ever saw.

As an official representative of her country, Adams carried out her duties— mostly entertaining—with intelligence and dignity. Among the people the Adamses encountered in England were former colonists who had fled America to escape revolutionary activities. These Loyalists people who were loyal to England felt deeply resentful toward representatives of the new American government.

They wrote critical newspaper articles about John and Abigail Adams and made them feel unwelcome, although officials of the British government and members of royalty generally treated them with courtesy. In London, her son, the brilliant John Quincy Adamslater an American president, served as his father's secretary. Abigail Adams believed strongly that education was as important for women as for men.

She thought it was necessary if they were to do a proper job in raising children, running their homes, and being good mates. Indeed, during her stay in London she took the opportunity to study science, an area about which most women were taught little. Adams frequently wrote in her letters about the need for women to be educated. At the same time, Adams understood the limited role that women of her time were allowed to play in American society.

For example, a woman was expected to marry, and after marriage all her belongings became the possessions of her husband. She had no rights even to her children. Only after the death of her husband could she make decisions for herself. Abigail Adams apparently accepted her role as a woman but not without voicing certain criticisms. She believed that women, like men, had the right to independence.

She objected to the legal codes that prevented married women from owning property. As early asAdams had made a very strong appeal for women's rights in a letter she wrote to her husband, who was then involved with drafting the Declaration of Independence. She begged him in doing so to "remember the ladies … and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.

In Abigail and John Adams returned to a fine new house in Quincy, Massachusetts, that served as their main residence for the rest of their lives, except when John held national political office. Abigail Adams continued to support her husband who, inbecame vice president of the United States under George Washington see entry. She developed a friendship with First Lady Martha Washingtonusing the experience she had gained visiting the European royal courts to help with official entertaining.

In health problems forced Abigail Adams to return home to Quincy. But she temporarily returned to the nation's capital, Washington, D. As First Lady, Abigail Adams resumed formal entertaining. Conditions in Washington were then quite primitive: the city was located in a wilderness, and the White House was still under construction. She shared her complaints with her immediate family but conducted her duties at dinners and receptions with dignity.

President John Adams frequently consulted with his wife about important matters, both personal and governmental. Many of the political ideas held by Abigail Adams were rather conservative. She wanted to preserve existing traditions and tended to resist changes. John and Abigail Adams's conservative attitudes were unpopular among many American citizens, who believed that America should welcome foreigners and encourage freedom of the press.

Their attitudes may have contributed to John Adams's defeat by Thomas Jefferson in the presidential election of Following John Adams's defeat in the election, he and Abigail Adams returned to their home in Quincy, where they lived together for eighteen years, without the strain of politics. Still, there were hardships. The Adamses suffered the loss of their daughter, Nabby, to cancer, and Abigail Adams had to bear her own long-term illnesses.

On October 28,seventy-three-year-old Abigail Adams died at home of typhoid fevera highly infectious disease usually transmitted by impure food or water.

Biography of abigail adams

Her husband remained heartbroken for the next eight years, but had the satisfaction of seeing their son, John Quincy Adams —become the sixth U. Today readers still enjoy learning about the customs, habits, and manners of their daily life as well as the details about the American Revolution the letters reveal. Adams, Charles Francis. New York : Houghton-Mifflin, Beller, Susan Provost.

New York : Atheneum Books, Meeker, Clare Hodgson. Partner in Revolution: Abigail Adams. New York: Benchmark Books, In an American doctor named Zabdiel Boylston — introduced the process of inoculation for smallpox to Boston. A smallpox epidemic was raging throughout the city and beyond its borders, and inoculations were the best-known way to ward off this serious disease.

Smallpox causes fever, vomiting, skin eruptions, and sometimes death and is easily passed to others. Inoculation for smallpox involved injecting a serum with the disease into a person's body in order to cause a minor form of the disease so that the person then could build up protection against getting it. Injust as America was declaring her independence from Great Britain, another smallpox epidemic broke out in Boston.

Many patients were inoculated and then quarantined in hospitals and other sites to keep them away from others who did not have the disease. Most patients recovered after the three-or four-week isolation biography of abigail adams and were protected from getting the disease again. During the outbreak, people who wanted to leave Boston were required to undergo a "smoking.

People with the disease who remained in the city were permitted to wander freely, attending church and visiting friends and family. In fact, patients were instructed to get as much fresh air as possible, as this was wrongly biography of abigail adams to be a way to help cure the disease. In July Abigail Adams and her children went to the home of a relative and were inoculated.

She brought with her straw beds, sheets, bedspreads, money for medical fees, and a cow to supply fresh milk. After the inoculations, Adams and her family suffered from sore eyes, weakness, fever, nausea, and headaches. It took some of them up to six weeks to recover from being inoculated. Two of the children tolerated the ordeal quite well, but two had to be inoculated a second time when the first shot failed to produce results.

Adams's daughter Nabby got much sicker than anyone else, and her son Charley had to be inoculated a third time. When he finally did get the disease, he was extremely ill. Fortunately, the boy recovered. The whole process lasted two months and proved very difficult for everyone. Finally protected against the disease, Abigail Adams was able to travel about Boston freely, gathering the latest information and gossip, which she sent to her husband, John, who was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the new nation's business.

Though she believed her main role in life to be wife and mother, Abigail Adams also was a behind-the-scenes stateswoman. She used her talents to maintain her family during the many absences of her husband, John Adamsthe second president of the United Statesand to advise her husband about women's rights and slavery. Her detailed letters with her husband, family, and friends provide a historical record of the times and show her to have been a woman ahead of her time.

Although many of Abigail's relatives were well-to-do merchants and ship captains, she was raised in a simple, rural setting. She was educated at home, learning domestic skills, such as sewing, fine needle-work, and cooking, along with reading and writing. Her lack of formal education became a life-long regret. As an adult, she favored equal education for women.

She once argued that educated mothers raise educated children. On October 25,Abigail married John Adamsa struggling, Harvard-educated country lawyer nine years her senior. Although John Adams was not from a prominent family, the couple was well matched intellectually and the marriage was a happy one. He admired and encouraged Abigail's outspokenness and intelligence.

She supported him by running the family farm, raising their children, listening to him, and trying to help him with his problems. During the first few years of their marriage, John Adams lived mostly in Boston, Massachusetts, building his law career and becoming involved with the growing political unrest. This political unrest was brought about by the English government's attempts to tighten control over its colonies through the passage of laws and new taxes that many colonists did not support.

Abigail, however, remained at Braintree later QuincyMassachusetts, to run the family farm. Although women at that time did not normally handle business affairs, Abigail traded livestock, hired help, bought land, oversaw construction, and supervised the planting and harvesting. During the next few years, hostilities between the American colonies and Great Britain increased, forcing John Adams away from home more often.

He was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress. The congress was a group of colonial representatives who met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniaon September 5,and took a stand against the British government's policy of passing laws over the colonists without colonial representation. He traveled constantly in addition to those duties, trying to earn as much money as he could practicing law.

He tried to make these difficult times easier by writing long letters to Abigail, sometimes several a day. She, in turn, wrote to her husband of her own loneliness, doubts, and fears. She suffered from biographies of abigail adams and chronic insomnia. Despite her own bouts with illness, she gave birth to five children. One daughter, Susanna, born inlived for only a year.

The Congress also set up a government for the colonies. A year later, on July 4,the Congress approved the Declaration of Independencein which the American colonies declared their independence from the government of Great Britain. During the war Abigail provided meals and lodging to soldiers who stopped at the Adams' home at all hours of the day and night.

In the fall ofthe inhabitants of Braintree suffered an epidemic of dysentery, an often-fatal bowel infection. Abigail had to nurse her sick relatives in addition to caring for her children. Her mother and five other members of her family eventually died from the illness. As the fighting drew closer to Boston, Abigail Adams wrote many letters describing the events of the time.

In a letter written in Marchshe urged her husband to take women's rights into consideration if and when the colonies gained independence: "In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors … If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment [promote] a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.

As the war continued, John Adams was sent to Europe to work on treaties with other countries and to seek loans for the colonies. He took one or two of his sons on these assignments, which continued after the war ended, giving America its independence from Great Britain in These constant separations were difficult for Abigail Adams, but she supported her husband.

She wrote that she "found his honor and reputation much dearer to [her] than [her] own present pleasure and happiness. After five years, Abigail and her daughter, Nabby, joined her husband and sons in England. During the years in Europe, Abigail acted as hostess for both political and social gatherings and as an advisor to her husband. In Aprilfive years after Abigail's arrival, the family returned home.

After the American Revolution ended, the newly independent country of the United States needed a president. When the votes were counted in MarchGeorge Washington — was the clear presidential winner. At the time, the person with the most votes became president, while the person with the next largest number became vice president. John Adams placed second and became vice president.

Although Abigail Adams had been upset by her husband's earlier political assignments, which forced him to be away from home for years at a time, she fully supported his decision to accept the vice presidency. The family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the federal government was located at the time. Abigail assumed the role of hostess, welcoming visitors to the Adams's home.

However, she returned to Braintree the next spring with her son, Thomas, who had fallen ill. When Washington retired inJohn Adams ran for president and won the election. His wife joined him in Philadelphia in May. Abigail Adams quickly settled in as first lady; her husband discussed many important problems with her and often followed her advice.

Abigail kept writing letters to friends and even continued managing the Quincy formerly Braintree farm through correspondence with her sister, Mary Cranch. Whereas John Adams had never been in finer spirits, Abigail Adams became exhausted and ill with fever on a trip home to Quincy in the summer of This led to yet another separation when the president returned to Philadelphia in November.

Abigail eventually recovered and returned to Philadelphia the next year, staying for the rest of her husband's term. After losing his bid for reelection inJohn Adams retired to life on the farm. Abigail Adams continued to keep herself busy maintaining her home. The family remained plagued with illness. Both Mary Cranch and her husband died within days of each other.

Nabby Adams had been diagnosed with cancer and underwent an operation. John Adams injured his leg in an accident and was unable to walk for several weeks. As always, Abigail Adams cared for them all. She died quietly on October 28,surrounded by her family. John Adams lived several more years, passing away on July 4, Abigail Adams has the distinction of being the first woman in U.

Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams. New York : Longman, Nagel, Paul C. The Adams Women. New York : Oxford University Press, November 11, ; d. Abigail Smith Adams is best known for the letters she wrote for over a half century, but also she is historically visible because she was the wife of one president of the United States John Adams— and mother of another John Quincy Adams— The stream of her letters that began in the early s and ended with her death in represents the most complete record that survives of a woman's experiences during the Revolutionary War era and subsequent decades in American history.

Abigail was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Her father was a Congregational minister and her mother descended from distinguished New England clergymen. Abigail's youth—indeed, most of her adult life—was spent in the countryside around Boston. As was typical for girls, she was educated at home. The great milestone in her young life was marriage to John Adams in The Adams marriage coincided with the escalation of events that led to the Revolution, and during the next decade, while Abigail gave birth to four children as well as others who did not survive to adulthoodJohn was lured into the politics that took him to distant places for the quarter of a century after This is significant, because Abigail remained at home in Braintree during the Revolutionary War, supporting her family and maintaining their farm.

She also began to write the torrent of letters that have become the best surviving record of a New England woman's experience of the Revolutionary era. For almost a decade Abigail took over John's role as breadwinner, supporting herself, her children, and her household. She managed their farm; she began a small business enterprise by selling locally items that John sent from Europe; she negotiated for and purchased property in his name, since married women could not hold land in their own names ; she speculated in currency and paid their taxes.

She did all of this with the understanding that it was her patriotic duty in wartime. Over the next decade, Abigail divided her time between the U. When Washington announced his intention to retire inJohn Adams emerged as the leading candidate on the Federalist side, with Jefferson as his main opponent. As first lady, Abigail maintained and voiced strong opinions about the political issues and debates of the day, including the Federalist vs.

Anti-Federalist struggle. She famously disagreed with her husband during the XYZ Affairwith Abigail thinking war should be declared against France. During the bitterly contested presidential election, the Jeffersonian press attacked Abigail as being too outspoken and imperious. President, not of the United States but of a faction…It is not right.