Abigail remained at home at first, keeping her husband well informed about domestic affairs in her letters. In the years after the Revolutionary War, John Adams served as the U.S. She also vigorously supported education for women, writing to John in 1778 that “you need not be told how much female education is neglected, nor how fashionable it has been to ridicule female learning.” Though her husband replied somewhat jokingly to her appeal-expressing fear of the “Despotism of the Petticoat”-Abigail later pushed back, making it clear that she was serious about the implications that liberty from the British had for the status of women in a future independent republic. During the Second Continental Congress, as John Adams and his fellow delegates debated the question of formally declaring independence from Great Britain, Abigail wrote to her husband from their home in Braintree, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1776: ABIGAIL ADAMS Quotes: Remember the LadiesĪbigail herself passionately supported independence, and famously argued that it should be applied to women as well as men. He and Abigail began writing regularly to each other during this period, beginning what would become a voluminous and historic correspondence. In 1774, as the tensions between the 13 colonies and Great Britain threatened to burst into violence, John Adams headed to Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. She would have six children in all four lived to adulthood, including Nabby Adams, John Quincy Adams (born 1767), Charles Adams (born 1770) and Thomas Adams (born 1772). Just nine months after their marriage, Abigail gave birth to the couple’s first child, Abigail (called Nabby). After a long engagement that her parents insisted on, they married on October 24, 1764, when Abigail was 19 and John was 28.
When she was just 11, she and her sisters began receiving tutoring from Richard Cranch, a transplant from England who later married Abigail’s elder sister, Mary.Ī friend of Cranch’s, a young lawyer named John Adams, met 17-year-old Abigail and fell in love.
Elizabeth’s father, John Quincy, was active in the colonial government and served as Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly for 40 years, and his career in public service greatly influenced his granddaughter.Įducated at home, Abigail read widely from the family library. He and his wife, Elizabeth Quincy Smith, both belonged to distinguished families in New England.
Her father, William Smith, was minister of the First Congregational Church there, and also made a living as a farmer. Born in 1744, Abigail Smith grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, a village some 12 miles from Boston.
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