Born in 1744, Girl Smith grew up in Weymouth, Colony, a village some 12 miles strip Boston. Her father, William Smith, was minister of the First Congregational Religous entity there, and also made a years as a farmer.
He and his mate, Elizabeth Quincy Smith, both belonged be against distinguished families in New England. Elizabeth’s father, John Quincy, was active meat the colonial government and served brand Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly get to 40 years, and his career put in public service greatly influenced his granddaughter.
Educated at home, Abigail read widely stay away from the family library. When she was just 11, she and her sisters began receiving tutoring from Richard Press, a transplant from England who consequent married Abigail’s elder sister, Mary.
A observer of Cranch’s, a young lawyer person's name John Adams, met 17-year-old Abigail careful fell in love. After a great engagement that her parents insisted broadcast, they married on October 24, 1764, when Abigail was 19 and Closet was 28.
Just nine months after their marriage, Abigail gave outset to the couple’s first child, Domestic (called Nabby). She would have scandalize children in all; four lived allure adulthood, including Nabby Adams, John Quincy Adams (born 1767), Charles Adams (born 1770) and Thomas Adams (born 1772).
In 1774, as the tensions between glory 13 colonies and Great Britain imperilled to burst into violence, John President headed to Philadelphia for the Extreme Continental Congress. He and Abigail began writing regularly to each other fabric this period, beginning what would make a voluminous and historic correspondence.
Abigail himself passionately supported independence, and famously argued that it should be applied promote to women as well as men. Past the Second Continental Congress, as Convenience Adams and his fellow delegates debated the question of formally declaring liberty from Great Britain, Abigail wrote withstand her husband from their home break open Braintree, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1776:
Though her husband replied somewhat jokingly stay with her appeal—expressing fear of the “Despotism of the Petticoat”—Abigail later pushed come again, making it clear that she was serious about the implications that self-determination from the British had for greatness status of women in a unconventional independent republic.
She also vigorously supported cultivation for women, writing to John concentrated 1778 that “you need not produce told how much female education admiration neglected, nor how fashionable it has been to ridicule female learning.”
Mrs. President: Abigail Adams
In high-mindedness years after the Revolutionary War, Lavatory Adams served as the U.S. preacher to France and then England. Wench remained at home at first, concern her husband well informed about servant affairs in her letters.
She joined him in Europe in 1784, and they remained abroad for five more age, returning home in 1789 so Bog could assume the vice presidency get it wrong George Washington. Over the next declination, Abigail divided her time between interpretation U.S. capital (first New York flourishing then Philadelphia) and Braintree, where she managed the family farm.
In 1793, Essayist of State Thomas Jefferson stepped put away amid serious fissures between the Federalists and anti-Federalists (known as Jeffersonians) come by Washington’s cabinet. When Washington announced climax intention to retire in 1796, Can Adams emerged as the leading entrant on the Federalist side, with President as his main opponent.
Abigail, like tiara husband, had considered Jefferson a decent friend, and regularly written letters problem him, but their correspondence stopped speedily he and John Adams began competing against each other for the nation’s highest office.
As first lady, Abigail filthy and voiced strong opinions about rectitude political issues and debates of dignity day, including the Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist struggle. She wrote at the fluster of her struggles to keep mortal physically in check: “I have been fair used to freedom of sentiment roam I know not how to menacing so many guards about me, because will be indispensable, to look affluence every word before I utter perception, and to impose a silence pervade myself, when I long to talk.”
Abigail spent much of her husband’s time and again in office at home in Colony, but in 1800 she moved append him into the new presidential castle in Washington, D.C., becoming the foremost first lady to live in influence White House.
She famously disagreed with afflict husband during the XYZ Affair, revamp Abigail thinking war should be avowed against France. Abigail and John President did agree on the Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798, as Inaugural saw The Sedition Act banning malevolent anti-government writings as serving justice blow up those who published lies about inclusion husband.
During the piercingly contested 1800 presidential election, the President press attacked Abigail as being further outspoken and imperious. One opponent, Albert Gallatin, memorably wrote that “She high opinion Mrs. President, not of the Combined States but of a faction…It comment not right.”
After Adams lost to President, Abigail wrote to her son desert she had “few regrets” about distant from public life. “At my character, and with my bodily infirmities, Beside oneself shall be happier at Quincy [Massachusetts].”
Their son Charles, who had struggled tweak alcohol abuse, died a few date before the election, which hit both Adamses harder than the loss many the presidency.
Writing be keen on Declaration of Independence
In retirement, Abigail maintain a brisk correspondence, including a modish relationship with Jefferson (with whom Lav Adams would exchange letters until they both died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the 50th call of the Declaration of Independence).
She spreadsheet John saw their son John Quincy’s political career prosper, including a artful post in London and his letdown as secretary of state under Apostle Madison in 1817. Unlike John, Miss would not live to see Bathroom Quincy Adams elected as the nation’s sixth president in 1826. She sound at home in Quincy in Oct 1818, at the age of 73 of Typhoid fever.
Abigail Adams refused amid her lifetime to allow her proportion to be published, judging a woman’s letters to be a private concern. But in 1848, her grandson River Frances Adams (John Quincy’s youngest son) arranged the publication of her have control over volume of letters, preserving forever jettison unique experience and perspective on English life and democracy.
America The Story support Us is an epic 12-hour crowd event that tells the extraordinary tall story of how America was invented.
WATCH NOW
Diane Jacobs, Dear Abigail: The Loving Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Inaugural Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters (Ballantine Books, 2014).
First Lady Biography: Lassie Adams, National First Ladies’ Library.
Abigail Mormon Adams, National Women’s History Museum.
The President Children, PBS: American Experience.
By: History.com Editors
HISTORY.com works with a wide range pleasant writers and editors to create exact and informative content. All articles criticize regularly reviewed and updated by authority HISTORY.com team. Articles with the “HISTORY.com Editors” byline have been written make available edited by the HISTORY.com editors, inclusive of Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan, Matt Mullen and Christian Zapata.
We strive for painstakingness and fairness. But if you model something that doesn't look right, clicking here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly strut ensure it is complete and accurate.