While her husband , John Adams , attend to as the second president of the United States , Abigail Adams solidify plenty of first gear of her own .
She was the first woman to service as 2d madam of the United States when John became thefirst vice presidentin 1797 . She was the first woman tolive in the White House(or the president ’s sign of the zodiac as it was then known ) in 1800 . And in 1824 , six long time after her death , her sonJohn Quincy Adamswas elected president , making her the first womanhood whose husband and Word both reach the highest elected office in the soil . ( Barbara Bushwas the 2d . )
Who Was Abigail Adams?
But before Abigail Adams became a president ’s married woman or mother , she was merely Abigail Smith . She wasborn Nov. 11 , 1744 , in Weymouth , Massachusetts , to William Smith , a Congregationalist minister and Elizabeth Quincy Smith , the daughter of John Quincy , a member of the colonial governor ’s council and colonel of the reserves . That lineage was of import to Adams ' social and intellectual development .
Thanks to her maternal grandfather ’s affair in colonial government — he hold the position of Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly for 40 years — Adams grew up understand government and with a neat interest in public Robert William Service . And while she was n’t officially educated at school , she was taught to say and save at home and had access to an all-inclusive family subroutine library that include books on law , doctrine , chronicle and the classics .
In 1764 , when she was 19 years former , she married John Adams , a young Harvard alumna fix to practise law . They were conjoin in her house home , but shortly go out to dwell on a farm — Old House at Peace landing field — in Braintree near Boston where John Adams set up his practice .
Just one year subsequently the babies started coming . The Adams ' hadthree boy and two daughters : Abigail " Nabby " Adams ( 1765 - 1813 ) , John Quincy Adams ( 1767 - 1848 ) , Susanna Adams ( 1768 - 1770 ) , Charles Adams ( 1770 - 1800 ) and Thomas Boylston Adams ( 1772 - 1832 ) . They also had a stillborn girl , Elizabeth , in 1777 .
Adams as a ‘Founding Mother’
Adams was much more than a wife and mother . Owing to John ’s extensive travels — his legal practice and journey through the circuit courts in the Boston part ; involvement in the Continental Convention in Philadelphia ; and multiple diplomatic assigning abroad — it fall to Adams to manage the day - to - day functioning of the farm and other family business intimacy . Because the Adams ' marriage was a partnership of the idea as much as it was of the heart , John ’s faith in her ability was absolute .
How do we have it off ? John and Abigail were greedy correspondents — between them they wrotemore than 1,100 letters . These letter render a coup d’oeil into , not only their with child tenderness for each other and their animation during the 18th hundred , but also a behind - the - scenes front at building the United States .
It ’s also fair to say that Adams was at the very heart of the syndicate ’s political dynasty . We talked to Sara Martin , editor program - in - top dog of theAdams Papersat theMassachusetts Historical Societyabout this memorable " found Mother . " Martin says Adams managed her house practically and resourcefully , but just say she was singular is n’t enough .
" She recollect about indue in fiscal security , " Martin say . " She wanted to ( and did ) endow in stemma and bonds where her husband believe real estate was the good style to go . I think sharp is a honest word to draw her . She was well-informed , but she had that ability in her writing to pull idea together . "
Adams would background her influence on her hubby , both in letter to him and others . She once write to John , " I never sham to the weight they attribute to me . " John ’s late critic shout her " The Old Woman " and frequently say they wished she ’d been present in Philadelphia to mollify his presidential decisiveness - making .
But protestations apart , it ’s unmortgaged Adams was influential to her husband ’s professional success , providing him with essential word as she cut up out a unique place of her own in the history of the United States .
" She served as a really important conduit of entropy for John , " Martin says . " John and Abigail are separated for calendar month at a prison term and she is able to send him information , both what ’s going on militarily , but also the pop persuasion on the ground as it touch on to the idea of independence . I cogitate that is a very important purpose that can be easily overlooked because it ’s not a undivided action . It fill the accumulative reading material of the exchange of agreement to tease that out . "
‘Remember the Ladies’
One of her most memorable varsity letter to John was write March 31 , 1776 , when he was moil off in Philadelphia at the Continental Congress , and she was feel the privation of war back on the farm in Braintree .
She made her spokesperson heardwriting the followingto John :
Adams opt her words intentionally .
" She is speaking very specially about ' husbands , ' " says Martin . " Her lyric is conscious there and that ’s because of the legal constructs of the sentence . matrimonial fair sex had fewer sound rights . They were n’t lowest on the lean because enslave people were much further down , but married women had very little legal standing . "
Does this mean Adams was a women’s liberationist ? Martin says that count on the definition .
" She for certain preach for more adequate footing and a lot of how that rent shape for her in her correspondence is through woman ’s education , " she tot . " [ Adams ] finger the lack of it because she did n’t go to school . Even though she was an fantastically well - take , well - school char for her time , she matte up the disadvantage . "
afterwards in 1776 , Adams wrote what Martin says is one of herfavorite quotes :
' If we signify to have heroes , national leader and philosophers , we should have learned woman . '
" That ’s because of women ’s lieu in high society , " Martin articulate . " They ’re the one advance the next generation of citizens , and therefore those should be educated as well . "
From First Lady to Private Citizen
When John was elected president in March 1797 , Adams served as first lady . They inhabit first in Philadelphia ( the impermanent capital ) , then make a motion to Washington , D.C.
" She was an active participant in John Adams ' executive period , " Martin says . " Abigail had social responsibilities but she also work to determine public opinion , to stand her hubby ’s policies . She actively worked to combat the press and what she study misinformation in the press . "
But throughout John ’s one term presidentship , Martin says , you read in her correspondence a desire to be out of the spotlight .
" [ Adams ] says she would be happy to turn in , " say Martin . " She believe in obligation to country as well and also saw herself having a role in that . I think that ’s the matter that is sometimes neglect when we ’re spill about the base coevals . Both John and Abigail at times talk about both sharing in this arduous journey within public life and during the presidency or both of them retiring from public life . "
That time finally came afterThomas Jefferson defeated John Adamsfor the presidency in 1800 . That allowed the couple to hark back to Peace field of honor , and focus on their large family and the farm . And though they remain interested in politics , they kept to themselves .
Adams pall at her home in 1818 at age 73 . She was buried at the First Unitarian Church in Quincy , Massachusetts . Her firstborn boy , John Quincy Adams , became the Carry Nation ’s sixth president six years later . Some of her most notable letters were published in 1848 , giving her another first — the first print book attributed to a former first lady .
