Women's Rights and the Legacy of Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams was a woman born ahead of her time. She would have fit right in with the women of the twenty-first century. In a time and place where women were the property of their husbands and had no authority in their own right, we hear her telling her husband that he should be more supportive of women's rights. Though asking his opinion on the major decisions of running their farm, we know that communication took months and the reality was she was making decisions. She was making sure that he had the money to carry out his mission. She really was the better money manager and he was undoubtedly very grateful for the dedication she showed to his best interests.

Abigail Smith Adams was born into a prominent Massachusetts family. Her father was a minister and had been educated at Harvard and her mother Elizabeth Quincy was from a well-to-do Braintree family. She received the typical education of girls of her time period, she could read and write and do sums. She and her sisters spent hours reading in their father's library and were familiar with the works of Shakespeare and Pope. She developed a love for education that would remain a part of her life. She was one of the best-read women of her time.

Her choice of the slightly chubby opinionated and stuffy John Adams surprised almost everyone but it was indeed a very good choice. For all his pomposity he was very appreciative of the gem that his Abigail was and encouraged her to express herself to him, if not to the world in general. She was certainly always the woman behind the man. In one of the many letters she wrote John she told him that the Republic ought to have "learned woman, as well as Hero's Statesmen and Philosophers". And later "great benefits must arise from literary accomplishments in women".

Abigail Adams may well be the original feminist. She was very vocal in her belief that the new United States should take the opportunity to not only give women their full legal status but also put an end to slavery. She believed that women were equal to men in intelligence and should receive an education. She was always very sad that she had not received a formal education and she made sure that her daughter did. She also believed that women by their very nature were more suited to keeping the home fires burning.

Abigail was a big advocate of the family. While she stepped outside of the normal sphere of women in her time, it often made her uncomfortable. She would have enjoyed having John around to ask opinions of and even if she would have disagreed she would have felt better about having done so. As it was she spent very little time with him. During much of their marriage, they spent years apart.

It may be honestly said that Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren are the legacies of Abigail Adams. She was a woman who was not willing to be relegated to the kitchen alone and she made a very wise decision in her choice of husband. It is doubtful that any of the other great men of that time period would have tolerated the amount of opinion she expressed. Through her writing, we meet both sides of her personality. She was a very strong determined woman who opposed British oppression and also a loving wife who longed for a husband to be at her side and shoulder some of the burdens.

When she died in 1818, everyone was shocked that the tiny little dynamo had succumbed. John most of all could hardly contemplate a life without her after 54 years of marriage. He said to his children "How shall I offer you consolation for your loss when I feel that my own is irreparable." He survived her by eight years and died on July 4, 1826, the same day as his old friend Thomas Jefferson.

"Abigail Adams" by Benjamin Blythe -  Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
Additional reading:
Founding Mothers