Abigail Adams is best remembered as the wife of one president and the mother of another. She was born on November 11, 1744, in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the daughter of William Smith, a Congregationalist minister and his wife Elizabeth Quincy. Abigail Smith did not receive any formal schooling but was well educated at home. She was an avid reader and letter writer throughout her life. In fact, as demonstrated by her letters, she had a powerful and nimble mind, quick wit, and broad base of knowledge.

When she was 15 years old, Abigail Smith met John Adams, a lawyer nine years her senior from nearby Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts. After a long courtship, they married in 1764 when Abigail was 19. It was a happy marriage that lasted 54 years until Abigail's death in 1818. John and Abigail Adams were separated for many years during their marriage because of John's activities in support of the American Revolution, first as a congressman in Philadelphia between 1774 and 1777, and later when he served abroad as a diplomat between 1778 and 1788. In 1784 Abigail joined her husband in France. During their years apart, Abigail raised four children: Abigail, John Quincy, Charles, and Thomas Boylston. Another child died in infancy. Although, like most married women in this period, Abigail could not sign contracts in her own name, she acted in her husband's stead, buying real estate and selling goods while she also managed the family farm and sustained the family's financial resources.

Owing to their frequent separations, Abigail and John Adams carried on an extensive correspondence, which is an invaluable source for how this famous couple coped with the domestic challenges posed by the Revolution. In her letters Abigail did not simply discuss domestic matters. She also expressed political opinions--for example, condemning slavery and advocating improved education for women. Famously, on March 31, 1776, Abigail wrote to John that she longed "to hear that you have declared an independency," and she cautioned him that "in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors." She made this request in the context of criticizing the legal authority of husbands over wives. Her comment has sometimes been portrayed as one of the first statements of feminist thinking in the United States. This interpretation is tempered by virtue of the fact that Abigail made her statement in the form of a request in a private letter. When Abigail joined her husband in Paris in 1784, she quickly became good friends with Thomas Jefferson. In 1785 she and John went to London, where he served as the first U.S. minister to Great Britain. In 1788 the Adamses returned to the United States. When John became the first vice president, Abigail divided her time between the nation's capital (first New York and then Philadelphia) and the family home in Braintree. Abigail befriended the First Lady, Martha Custis Washington, and became involved in the official social scene.

Abigail Adams was more than a wife to John Adams; she was his close friend and political confidant and advisor. Like her husband, she reacted negatively to the radicalization of the French Revolution (1789-99) during the 1790s and resented the intense partisanship it created in the United States. As First Lady from 1797 to 1801, she entertained government officials and representatives from other nations. But she also encouraged John to oppose the French in the Quasi-War (1798-1800) crisis. She enjoyed the popularity she shared with John as the nation flirted with war. The election of 1800, however, left a bitter taste in her mouth. Like John Adams, she felt a deep personal wound from the invective heaped upon the president by the Democratic-Republican Party newspapers, especially since the opposition was led by Thomas Jefferson. It would take many years before both Adamses could put their sense of injury aside.

After 1801, John and Abigail retired to their farm in Massachusetts. In 1804 she wrote a letter of condolence to Jefferson on the death of his daughter Mary Jefferson Eppes, whom Abigail had taken care of for several months when she was in England. Abigail and Jefferson exchanged letters for about a year in which they discussed the political breach between the two families, only to have Abigail end the correspondence despite Jefferson's appeal for friendship. (John Adams would begin his famous retirement correspondence with Jefferson in 1812). In her later years she was a staunch supporter of the political aspirations of her eldest son, John Quincy Adams, who would be elected president in 1824. Abigail Adams died on October 28, 1818.

Bibliography:

1) Charles W. Akers, Abigail Adams: An American Woman (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980)

2) Edith B. Gelles, Portia: The World of Abigail Adams (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992)

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on American Revolution at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to American Revolution and other relevant topics.