Abigail Adams: a Woman of All Generations

“Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors…Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands…[we] will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice or Representation…” lines from a letter Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, in 1776 when he was in Philadelphia during the time the Declaration of Independence was being drafted and debated upon by the Second Continental Congress. Though she was not able to convince her husband to give women equal legal status to that of men, this letter serves as one of the few early texts calling for women’s equal rights. Abigail Adams was a woman ahead of her time in her thinking, her capabilities and her determination. (Vinci, J. 2004). Adams lived in a history making era, where her life was interwoven with those who were among the makers of history and she made her own mark in history, even if it was unknowingly. (Vinci, 2004).

Abigail Adams was a daughter of a minister and came from a highly respected and socially superior family background. Her family was in the colonies for a few generations, from the paternal side her great grandfather was Thomas Smith, who immigrated to Charleston, Massachusetts from England; and maternal grandfather was John Quincy, whose interest in government and his career in public service influenced Abigail at an early age. In 1764, she married an up and coming lawyer, John Adams, to the chagrin of her mother who felt that John was inferior of family background and of profession. (Nagel, P. 1999). Her marriage to John Adams is the beginning for Abigail Adams; in John Adams she found a partner that ruled her heart and stimulated her thoughts. Due to the Revolutionary War and the formation of new government, she and John are forced to live apart for a number of years. It is during this time that their correspondence begins and the letters that are exchanged between them provide an inside look to what Abigail’s...