Abigail Adams

1. Abigail Adams Letter to John Adams

2. Abigail Adams (1744-1818) • Wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States. • Mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. • Had four sons and a daughter. • Best known to the literary world for the letters she wrote during the half century crucial to U.S. nationhood

3. Letters • Letters she wrote from the early 1760s until the end of her life represent the most complete surviving record of a woman's experiences during the Revolutionary and early national eras of American history. • Reveal her efforts to fashion herself as a model woman according to the standards of the day: a capable and faithful wife, an effective household manager, a devoted mother and sister, and a discriminating reader and writer.

4. Education • She was not formally educated herself, though she was very well read and literate. She made sure that her daughter got a formal education.

5. 1774-1784 • Separated from her husband for ten years while he was in the First Continental Congress. • Wrote many letters to him and to other family members.

6. Beliefs • Opposed to slavery in every form. • Supported women’s rights.

7. White House Years… • When her husband was elected President, he and Abigail were the first couple to live in the White House.

8. Death… • Died in 1818, at the Adams family home in Massachusetts. • 1840 – a volume of her letters was published.