Reference
- Abigail AdamsAmerican First Lady Abigail Adams (1744-1818), an early proponent of humane treatment and equal education for women, is considered a remarkable woman for her times. Perhaps best known for her prolific letter writing, she is credited with having a notable influence on her husband, John Adams, second President of the United States.
Abigail Smith Adams was born in a parsonage at Weymouth, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1744. Her mother, Elizabeth Quincy Smith, was related to the Bay Colony's Puritan leadership. Her well-educated father, Reverend William Smith, was minister of the North Parish Congregational Church of Weymouth. Despite the fact that many of Adams’ relatives were well-to-do merchants and ship captains, Adams was raised in a simple, rural setting. In accordance with the times, she was educated at home. She learned domestic skills, such as sewing, fine needlework, and cooking, along with reading and writing. She took advantage of her father's extensive library to broaden her knowledge. Her lack of a formal education became a life-long regret and, as an adult, she favored equal education for women. She once argued that educated mothers raised intelligent children.
On October 25, 1764, Adams married John Adams, a struggling, Harvard-educated, country lawyer nine years her senior. Although John Adams was not from a prominent social family and his chosen profession lacked high regard, the couple was well matched intellectually and the marriage was a happy one. During their years together, Abigail Adams successfully managed the family farm, raised her children, travelled with her husband on diplomatic missions to Europe, and carried on a voluminous correspondence with many of the well-known political figures of that time. Her character was forged by the events of her life, including the United Colonies’ separation from England, the formation of the United States, her husband's political career and subsequent years of separation from him, the deaths of three of her children, and personal illness.
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Video Resources
Women First & Foremost : Abigail Adams
In her correspondence with her husband, Abigail Adams pointed out the contradictions between men seeking independence from a tyrannical authority and simultaneously oppressing their wives. She was a staunch patriot in the Revolutionary War era.
John Adams's Liberty
According to Professor Guelzo, if George Washington was the heart of republic, John Adams was its brain. Follow the Founder as he becomes the first vice president, then the second president of the nation, where he suffers catastrophic blunders that sap him of any political advantages he once had.
Source: Kanopy
Perspectives
Abigail Adams
In this vivid new biography of abigail adams, the most illustrious woman of America's founding era, prize-winning historian Woody Holton offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Adams's life story and of women's roles in the creation of the republic.Using previously overlooked documents from a host of archives,Abigail Adamsshows that the wife of the second president of the United States was far more charismatic and influential than historians have realized. One of the finest writers of her age, Adams passionately campaigned for women's education, denounced sex discrimination, and matched wits not only with her brilliant husband, John, but with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. When male Patriots ignored her famous appeal to "Remember the Ladies," she accomplished her own personal declaration of independence: Defying centuries of legislation that assigned married women's property to their husbands, she amassed a fortune in her own name.Adams's life story encapsulates the history of the founding era, for she defined herself in relation to the people she loved or hated (she was never neutral): her mother, whom she considered terribly overprotective; Benjamin Franklin, who schemed to clip her husband's wings; her sisters, whose dependence upon Abigail's charity strained the family bond; James Lovell, her husband's bawdy congressional colleague, who peppered her with innuendo about John's "rigid patriotism"; her financially naïve husband (Abigail earned money in ways the president considered unsavory, took risks that he wished to avoid -- and made him a rich man); Phoebe Abdee, her father's former slave, who lived free in an Adams property but defied Abigail's prohibition against sheltering others even more desperate than herself; and her son John Quincy, who worried her with his tendency to "study out of spight" but who fueled her pride by following his father into public service, rising to the presidency after her death.At once epic and intimate,Abigail Adamssheds light on a complicated, fascinating woman, one of the most beloved figures of American history.
The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
An intimate portrait of a colonial family and an important historical record of the beginnings of American government The Letters of John and Abigail Adams provides an insightful record of American life before, during, and after the Revolution; the letters also reveal the intellectually and emotionally fulfilling relationship between John and Abigail that lasted fifty-four years and withstood historical upheavals, long periods apart, and personal tragedies. Covering key moments in American history-the Continental Congress, the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and John Adams's diplomatic missions to Europe-the letters reveal the concerns of a couple living during a period of explosive change, from smallpox and British warships to raising children, paying taxes, the state of women, and the emerging concepts of American democracy.
Portia: The World of Abigail Adams
"... best-of-all-biographies of Abigail Adams... " --American Historical Review "Portia, a new study of Abigail Adams--modern feminism's favorite Founding Mother--is a refreshing change of pace." --San Francisco Chronicle "... very well done, highly perceptive, and full of fresh ideas." --Wilson Library Bulletin "... Adams's strength, courage, and wit (as well as her bouts of depression and gender conservatism) emerge more fully than they have in any previous work.... a well-rounded portrait of a remarkable figure."nbsp;--Choice "In this important and fascinating biography, Edith Gelles not only restores Abigail Adams to her rightful place at the center of her own story, she challenges the creaky conventions of 'traditional' male-defined biography." --Susan Faludi, author of Backlash #157;Portia, the first woman-centered biography of Abigail Adams, details the issues, events, and relationships of Adams's life. It is as much a social and cultural history of Adams's time as it is her life story.
Abigail Adams: A Writing Life
In this book, Edith B. Gelles asserts that Abigail Adams' vivid, insightful letters are "the best account that exists from the pre to the post-Revolutionary period in America of a woman's life and world." Adams' spontaneous, witty letters serve dual purposes for the modern reader: it provides an intriguing first hand account of pivotal historical events and it shows how these events from the Boston Tea Party to the War of 1812 entered the private sphere. Included in the book is a chronology, notes and reference section and a selected bibliography. This book will be a must for all scholars of American literature, history and politics seeking to understand this literary figure.
The Founders on the Founders
"I never indeed thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or stroke you could never be sure of." --Thomas Jefferson on Aaron Burr "[A]lways an honest Man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, absolutely out of his senses." -- Benjamin Franklin on John Adams "I do now know [Jefferson] to be one of the most artful, intriguing, industrious and double-faced politicians in all America." -- John Nicholas to George Washington "I shall really regret to leave Mr. Jefferson, he is one of the choice ones of the Earth." -- Abigail Adams More than two centuries after the ground-breaking events of the American struggle for independence, its key figures strike us more as players in a myth than as people who lived, worked, and interacted with one another. To recover the human dimension of the founders, we need look no further than their own words. Through a series of revealing quotations, historian John P. Kaminski profiles thirty of the era's best-known individuals, including Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry ("all tongue without either head or heart," according to Thomas Jefferson), as well as the early presidents and their first ladies. The discourse is unfailingly respectful, and yet this is no mutual admiration society. The subjects are not afraid to be sharp about one another, but this only makes their words of praise more convincing and poignant. One could hardly ask for a more clear-eyed, and touching, tribute than Thomas Jefferson's appraisal of George Washington: "He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern.... His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man." Beginning with an introductory essay that provides an overview of the relationships between the founders, the book then presents each individual, providing a biographical sketch and a chronologically arranged series of quotations, clarifying not only each person's place within the independence movement but the contours of their character. The authors strike us with their candor, their insight, and their eloquence as they make their subjects come alive for us. As this book reveals, greatness is not only a matter of responding to the times; the people themselves were remarkable.
We Hold These Truths...
Remember the ladies. A Republic if you can keep it. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. If this be treason, make the most of it. Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes. I can't tell a lie. These words and words like them, whether written or spoken, had a profound importance during America's Founding period. These are the words of legend and gravitas, referenced by generations of teachers, politicians, and commentators. These are the words that still inspire revolutionary changes in the United States and elsewhere. But what do they mean? What's the real story behind them? Why do they inspire us today, more than two centuries after first spoken or written? We Hold These Truths. . . . answers these questions about fifty-four of the best-known quotes from the Founding period. This book covers two hundred years of early American history and highlights quotes from both the founders and the founding documents. Combining each quote with a rich narratives that highlights its astounding, and generally unknown, origin. History buffs of all ages will love We Hold These Truths. . . .