Abigail Adams (
''née'' Smith; November 22,
[ O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of
John Adams, as well as the mother of
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
. She was a
founder of the United States, and was the first
second lady of the United States and second
first lady of the United States, although such titles were not used at the time. She and
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush (June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously w ...
are the only two women to have been married to U.S. presidents and to have been the mothers of other U.S. presidents.
Adams's life is one of the most documented of the first ladies: she is remembered for the many letters she wrote to her husband john adams while he stayed in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the
Continental Congresses. John frequently sought the advice of Abigail on many matters, and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics. Her letters also serve as eyewitness accounts of the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
home front.
Surveys of historians conducted periodically by the
Siena College Research Institute since 1982 have consistently found Adams to rank among the three most highly regarded first ladies by the assessments of historians.
Early life and family
Abigail Adams was born on November 22, 1744, at the North Parish Congregational Church in
Weymouth, Massachusetts ("To Work Is to Conquer")
, image_map = Norfolk County Massachusetts incorporated and unincorporated areas Weymouth highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250px
, map_caption = Location in Norfolk County in Massa ...
, to William Smith (1707–1783) and Elizabeth (née Quincy) Smith.
On her mother's side, she was descended from the
Quincy family
The Quincy family was a prominent political family in Massachusetts from the mid-17th century through to the early 20th century. It is connected to the Adams political family through Abigail Adams.
The family estate was in Mount Wollaston, firs ...
, a well-known political family in the
Massachusetts colony
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of E ...
. Through her mother she was a cousin of
Dorothy Quincy, who was married to
John Hancock. Adams was also the great-granddaughter of John Norton, founding pastor of
Old Ship Church
The Old Ship Church (also known as the Old Ship Meetinghouse) is a Puritan church built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in America. Its congregation, gathered in 1635 and officia ...
in
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham ( ) is a town in metropolitan Greater Boston on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts in northern Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, t ...
, the only remaining 17th-century Puritan
meetinghouse in
Massachusetts. Smith married Elizabeth Quincy in 1740, and together they had three daughters: Mary born in 1741, Abigail born in 1744 and Elizabeth born on November 22, 1744. As with several of her ancestors, Adams's father was a liberal
Congregational
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...
minister: a leader in a
Yankee society that held its clergy in high esteem. Smith did not focus his preaching on
predestination or
original sin; instead he emphasized the importance of reason and morality.
In July 1775 his wife Elizabeth, with whom he had been married for 35 years, died of smallpox. In 1784, at age 77, Smith died.
The Smith family were slaveholders and are known to have enslaved at least four people. An enslaved woman named Phoebe took a caretaking role to Abigail and other children; later on she would work as a paid servant for Abigail after she became free. Abigail would come to express anti-slavery beliefs as an adult.
Abigail did not receive formal schooling; she was frequently sick as a child, something which may have been a factor preventing her from receiving an education.
Later in life, Adams would also consider that she was deprived an education because females were rarely given such an opportunity.
Although she did not receive a formal education, her mother taught her and her sisters Mary (1739–1811) and Elizabeth (1742–1816, known as Betsy) to read, write and cipher; her father's, uncle's and grandfather's large libraries enabled the sisters to study English and French literature.
Her grandmother, Elizabeth Quincy, also contributed to Adams's education.
As she grew up, Adams read with friends in an effort to further her learning.
She became one of the most erudite women ever to serve as first lady.
Marriage and children
Abigail Smith first met John Adams when she was 15 years old in 1759. John accompanied his friend Richard Cranch to the Smith household. Cranch was engaged to Abigail's older sister, Mary Smith, and they would be the parents of federal judge
William Cranch. Adams reported finding the Smith sisters neither "fond, nor frank, nor candid".
Although Adams's father approved of the match, her mother was appalled that her daughter would marry a
country lawyer
In the United States, a country lawyer or county-seat lawyer is an attorney at law living and practicing primarily in a rural area or town, or an attorney pursuing a rural or small-town legal practice. In such areas, the county seat is an import ...
whose manner still reeked of the farm, but eventually she gave in. The couple married on October 25, 1764, in the Smiths' home in Weymouth. Smith, Abigail's father, presided over the marriage of John Adams and his daughter. After the reception, the couple mounted a single horse and rode off to their new home, the saltbox house and farm John had inherited from his father in
Braintree, Massachusetts
Braintree (), officially the Town of Braintree, is a municipality in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Although officially known as a towBraintree is a city, with a mayor-council government, mayor-council form of government, and i ...
(a location that is now part of
Quincy). Later they moved to a second home in Boston, where his law practice expanded. The couple welcomed their first child nine months into their marriage.
In 12 years, she gave birth to six children:
*
Abigail
Abigail () was an Israelite woman in the Hebrew Bible married to Nabal; she married the future King David after Nabal's death (1 Samuel ). Abigail was David's second wife, after Saul and Ahinoam's daughter, Michal, whom Saul later married ...
("Nabby"; 1765–1813)
*
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
(1767–1848)
* Grace Susanna ("Susanna", nicknamed "Suky") (1768–1770)
*
Charles (1770–1800)
*
Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832)
Thomas Boylston Adams (September 15, 1772 to March 12, 1832) was the third and youngest son of second United States president John Adams and Abigail (Smith) Adams. He worked as a lawyer, a secretary to his brother John Quincy Adams while the latt ...
* Elizabeth (stillborn in 1777)
Her childrearing style included relentless and continual reminders of what the children owed to virtue and the Adams tradition.
Garry Wills
Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Genera ...
, ''Henry Adams and the Making of America'', 2005; p. 24; Wills cites the criticisms of Paul Nagel "and others" Adams was responsible for family and farm when her husband was on his long trips. "Alas!", she wrote in December 1773, "How many snow banks divide thee and me." Abigail and John's marriage is well documented through their correspondence and other writings. Letters exchanged throughout John's political obligations indicate his trust in Abigail's knowledge was sincere. Like her husband, Abigail often quoted literature in her letters. Historian
David McCullough claims that she did so "more readily" than her husband. Their correspondence illuminated their mutual emotional and intellectual respect. John often excused himself to Abigail for his "vanity", exposing his need for her approval.
He moved the family to Boston in April 1768, renting a clapboard house on Brattle Street that was known locally as the "White House". He and Abigail and the children lived there for a year, then moved to Cold Lane; still later, they moved again to a larger house in Brattle Square in the center of the city.
John's growing law practice required changes for the family. In 1771, he moved Abigail and the children to Braintree, but he kept his office in Boston, hoping the time away from his family would allow him to focus on his work. Nevertheless, after some time in the capital, he became disenchanted with the rural and "vulgar" Braintree as a home for his family. In August 1772, therefore, Adams moved his family back to Boston. He purchased a large brick house on Queen Street, not far from his office. In 1774, Abigail and John returned the family to the farm due to the increasingly unstable situation in Boston, and Braintree remained their permanent Massachusetts home.
Abigail also took responsibility for the family's financial matters, including investments. Investments made through her uncle
Cotton Tufts
Cotton Tufts (30 May 1734 in Medford, Province of Massachusetts – 8 December 1815 in Weymouth, Massachusetts) was a Massachusetts physician. He was a cousin of Abigail Adams.
Biography
He was the grandson of Peter Tufts, who emigrated to Ma ...
in debt instruments issued to finance the Revolutionary War were rewarded after
Alexander Hamilton's First Report on the Public Credit
The First Report on the Public Credit was one of four major reports on fiscal and economic policy submitted by Founding Father and first US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton on the request of Congress. The report analyzed the financial standi ...
endorsed full federal payment at face value to holders of government securities.
One recent researcher even credits Abigail's financial acumen with providing for the Adams family's wealth through the end of John's lifetime.
Europe
In 1784, she and her daughter Nabby joined her husband and her eldest son, John Quincy, at her husband's diplomatic post in
Paris. Abigail had dreaded the thought of the long sea voyage, but in fact found the journey interesting. At first she found life in Paris difficult, and was rather overwhelmed by the novel experience of running a large house with a retinue of servants. However, as the months passed she began to enjoy herself: she made numerous friends, discovered a fondness for the theatre and opera, and was fascinated by Parisian women's fashions, although she ruefully admitted that she "would never be in the mode".
After 1785, she filled the role of wife of the first U.S.
minister to the
Court of St James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – & ...
(Britain). In contrast to Paris, Abigail disliked
London, where she had few friends and was, in general, cold-shouldered by polite society. One pleasant experience was her temporary guardianship of Thomas Jefferson's young daughter Mary (Polly), for whom Abigail came to feel a deep and lifelong love.
She and John returned in 1788 to their home in Quincy,
Peacefield (also known as the "
Old House"), which she set about vigorously enlarging and remodeling. It still stands and is open to the public as part of
Adams National Historical Park
Adams National Historical Park, formerly Adams National Historic Site, in Quincy, Massachusetts, preserves the home of United States presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, of U.S. envoy to Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, and of write ...
.
First Lady
John Adams was inaugurated as the second
president of the United States on March 4, 1797, in
Philadelphia.
Abigail was not present at her husband's inauguration as she was tending to his dying 89-year-old mother.
When John was elected President of the United States, Abigail continued a formal pattern of entertaining. She held a large dinner each week, made frequent public appearances, and provided for entertainment for the city of Philadelphia each
Fourth of July.
She took an active role in politics and policy, unlike the quiet presence of
Martha Washington. She was so politically active, her political opponents came to refer to her as "Mrs. President".
As John's confidant, Abigail was often well informed on issues facing her husband's administration, at times including details of current events not yet known to the public in letters to her sister Mary and her son John Quincy.
Some people used Abigail to contact the president.
At times Abigail planted favorable stories about her husband in the press.
Abigail remained a staunch supporter of her husband's political career, supporting his policies, such as passing the
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of four laws enacted in 1798 that applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the United States. The Naturalization Act increased the requirements to seek citizenship, the Alien Friends Act allowed th ...
.
Adams brought the children of her brother William Smith, her brother-in-law John Shaw, and her son Charles to live in the President's House during her husband's presidency because the children's respective fathers all struggled with alcoholism. Charles's daughter, Suzannah, was just 3 years old in 1800 when Adams brought her to live in the President's House in Philadelphia days before Charles's death.
With the relocation of the capital to
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
, in 1800, she became the first First Lady to reside at the
White House, or President's House as it was then known. Adams moved into the White House in November 1800, living there for only the last four months of her husband's term.
The city was wilderness, the President's House far from completion. She found the unfinished mansion in Washington "habitable" and the location "beautiful"; but she complained that, despite the thick woods nearby, she could find no one willing to chop and haul firewood for the First Family. Abigail used the
East Room
The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence, which is a building of the White House complex, the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence; it is used for ...
of the
White House to hang up the laundry. Adams's health, never robust, suffered in Washington.
Later life
After John's defeat in his presidential re-election campaign, the family retired to
Peacefield in Quincy in 1800. Abigail followed her son's political career earnestly, as her letters to her contemporaries show. In later years, she renewed correspondence with
Thomas Jefferson, having reached out to him upon the death of his daughter
Maria Jefferson Eppes (Polly), whom Abigail had cared for and come to love when Polly was a small child in London, even though Jefferson's political opposition to her husband had hurt her deeply.
She continued to raise her granddaughter Susanna.
She also raised her elder grandchildren, including
George Washington Adams
George Washington Adams (April 12, 1801 – April 30, 1829) was an American attorney and politician. He was the eldest son of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. Adams served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives ...
and a younger John Adams, while their father John Quincy Adams was minister to Russia. Adams's 48-year-old daughter, Nabby, died of breast cancer in 1813, after having endured three years of severe pain.
Death
Adams died in her home on October 28, 1818,
of
typhoid fever. She is buried beside her husband and near their son John Quincy and his wife
Louisa in a crypt located in the
United First Parish Church
United First Parish Church is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Quincy, Massachusetts, established as the parish church of Quincy in 1639. The current building was constructed in 1828 by noted Boston stonecutter Abner Joy to designs by ...
(also known as the "Church of the Presidents") in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was 73 years old, exactly two weeks shy of her 74th birthday. Her
last words
Last words are the final utterances before death. The meaning is sometimes expanded to somewhat earlier utterances.
Last words of famous or infamous people are sometimes recorded (although not always accurately) which became a historical and liter ...
were, "Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long." Less than eight years later, on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, her husband died of heart failure at the age of 90. He was buried with his late wife and is not far from the grave of their son, John Quincy.
Political viewpoints
Biographer Lynne Withey argues for her conservatism because she: "feared revolution; she valued stability, believed that family and religion were the essential props of social order, and considered inequality a social necessity". Her 18th-century mindset held that "improved legal and social status for women was not inconsistent with their essentially domestic role."
Women's rights
Abigail Adams wrote about the troubles and concerns she had as an 18th-century woman. She was an advocate of married women's
property rights and more opportunities for women, particularly in the field of education. Women, she believed, should not submit to laws not made in their interest, nor should they be content with the simple role of being companions to their husbands. They should educate themselves and thus be recognized for their intellectual capabilities so they could guide and influence the lives of their children and husbands. She is known for her March 1776 letter to John and the
Continental Congress, requesting that they, "remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation."
John declined Abigail's "extraordinary code of laws", but acknowledged to Abigail, "We have only the name of masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely subject us to the despotism of the
petticoat
A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing, a type of undergarment worn under a skirt or a dress. Its precise meaning varies over centuries and between countries.
According to the '' Oxford English Dictionary'', in current British Eng ...
, I hope
General Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of t ...
and all our brave heroes would fight."
Slavery
Adams believed that
slavery was evil and a threat to the American democratic experiment. A letter written by her on March 31, 1776, explained that she doubted most of the Virginians had such "passion for Liberty" as they claimed they did, since they "deprive
their fellow Creatures" of freedom.
A notable incident regarding this happened in
Philadelphia in 1791, when a free
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...
youth came to her house asking to be taught how to write. Subsequently, she placed the boy in a local evening school, though not without objections from a neighbor. Adams responded that he was "a Freeman as much as any of the young Men and merely because his Face is Black, is he to be denied instruction? How is he to be qualified to procure a livelihood? ... I have not thought it any disgrace to my self to take him into my parlor and teach him both to read and write."
Religious beliefs
Adams was an active member of
First Parish Church in Quincy, which became
Unitarian in doctrine by 1753.
Her theological views evolved over the course of her life. In a letter to her son near the end of her life, dated May 5, 1816, she wrote of her religious beliefs:
She also asked
Louisa Adams
Louisa Catherine Adams ( ''née'' Johnson; February 12, 1775 – May 15, 1852) was the First Lady of the United States from 1825 to 1829 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams.
Early life
Adams was born on February 12, 1775, in the City ...
in a letter dated January 3, 1818, "When will Mankind be convinced that true Religion is from the Heart, between Man and his creator, and not the imposition of Man or creeds and tests?"
Legacy
Historian
Joseph Ellis
Joseph John-Michael Ellis III (born July 18, 1943) is an American historian whose work focuses on the lives and times of the founders of the United States of America. '' American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson'' won a National Boo ...
has found that the 1,200 letters between John and Abigail "constituted a treasure trove of unexpected intimacy and candor, more revealing than any other correspondence between a prominent American husband and wife in American history."
[Cited in Wood (2011)] Ellis (2011) says that Abigail, although self-educated, was a better and more colorful letter-writer than John, even though John was one of the best letter-writers of the age. Ellis argues that Abigail was the more resilient and more emotionally balanced of the two, and calls her one of the most extraordinary women in American history.
Memorials
The
Abigail Adams Cairn – a mound of rough stones – crowns the nearby Penn Hill from which she and her son, John Quincy Adams, watched the
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved in t ...
and the burning of Charlestown. At that time she was minding the children of
Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the
Massachusetts Provincial Congress, who was killed in the battle.
One of the subpeaks of
New Hampshire's
Mount Adams (whose main peak is named for her husband) is named in her honor.
In 2022, a seven-foot tall bronze statue of Adams was unveiled in
Quincy, Massachusetts, on the Hancock Adams Common.
An
Adams Memorial
The Adams Memorial is a proposed United States presidential memorial to honor the second President John Adams; his wife and prolific writer Abigail Adams; their son, the sixth President John Quincy Adams; John Quincy Adams' wife Louisa Catherin ...
has been proposed in Washington, D.C., honoring Adams, her husband, her son, and other members of their family.
Popular culture
Passages from Adams's letters to her husband figured prominently in songs from the Broadway musical ''
1776
Events January–February
* January 1 – American Revolutionary War – Burning of Norfolk: The town of Norfolk, Virginia is destroyed, by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces.
* January ...
''.
Virginia Vestoff
Virginia Vestoff (December 9, 1939 – May 2, 1982) was an American actress of film, television and Broadway.
Early life
Vestoff was born into a family of vaudeville performers in New York City. Both her Russian immigrant father and mother, wh ...
played Adams in the original 1969 Broadway production of ''1776'' and recreated the role for the
film version in 1972. On television,
Kathryn Walker and
Leora Dana
Leora Dana (April 1, 1923 – December 13, 1983) was an American film, stage and television actress.
Education
Dana was born in New York City and her elder sister was Doris Dana. Dana graduated from Barnard College and the Royal Academy of Dra ...
portrayed Adams in the 1976
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
mini-series ''
The Adams Chronicles
''The Adams Chronicles'' is a thirteen-episode miniseries by PBS that aired in 1976 to commemorate the American Bicentennial.
Synopsis
The series chronicles the story of the Adams political family over a 150-year span, including John Adams (draf ...
''. In the mini-series ''
John Adams'', which premiered in March 2008 on
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...
, she was played by
Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress. Having studied acting at Juilliard School (1986-1990), she became known for her complex and multilayered performances on stage and screen. She has received various accolades, ...
. Linney enjoyed portraying Adams, saying that "she is a woman of both passion and principle."
A revolution-era Abigail, circa 1781, is portrayed by
Michelle Trachtenberg
Michelle Trachtenberg (; born October 11, 1985) is an American actress and model. Trachtenberg began her career at age three, appearing in a number of commercials, films, and television series as a child. Her starring role on the Nickelodeon tel ...
, on the television series, ''
Sleepy Hollow'', in the season 2 episode, "Pittura Infamante" (January 19, 2015), her assistance being crucial in ending a series of unexplained murders from the period. Adams is a featured figure on
Judy Chicago's installation piece ''
The Dinner Party'', being represented as one of the 999 names on the ''
Heritage Floor''.
[Chicago, Judy (2007). ''The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation''. London: Merrell. p. 169. ] Novelist
Barbara Hambly
Barbara Hambly (born August 28, 1951) is an American novelist and screenwriter within the genres of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction. She is the author of the bestselling Benjamin January mystery series featuring a fre ...
, writing as Barbara Hamilton, wrote three historical mysteries set in the early 1770s told from Abigail Adams' perspective (and featuring Abigail as the detective): ''The Ninth Daughter'' (2009), ''A Marked Man'' (2010), and ''Sup with the Devil'' (2011).
Portrait on currency
The
First Spouse Program under the
Presidential $1 Coin Program
Presidential dollar coins (authorized by ) are a series of United States dollar coins with engravings of relief portraits of U.S. presidents on the obverse and the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World'') on the reverse.
From 200 ...
authorizes the
United States Mint to issue half-
ounce
The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement.
The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States customa ...
$10
gold coins and bronze medal duplicates to honor the first spouses of the United States. The Abigail Adams coin was released on June 19, 2007, and sold out in just hours. She is pictured on the back of the coin writing her most famous letter to John Adams. In February 2009 ''
Coin World
''Coin World'' is an American numismatic magazine, with weekly and monthly issues. It is among the world’s most popular non-academic publications for coin collectors and is covering the entire numismatic field, including coins, paper money, med ...
'' reported that some 2007 Abigail Adams medals were struck using the reverse from the 2008
Louisa Adams
Louisa Catherine Adams ( ''née'' Johnson; February 12, 1775 – May 15, 1852) was the First Lady of the United States from 1825 to 1829 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams.
Early life
Adams was born on February 12, 1775, in the City ...
medal, apparently by mistake.
These pieces, called
mules, were contained within the 2007 First Spouse medal set.
The U.S. Mint has not released an estimate of how many mules were made.
File:Abigail Adams First Spouse Coin obverse.jpg, Obverse
File:Adams a-o.jpg, Obverse (bronze medal)
Regard by historians
Since 1982
Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. Consistently, Adams has ranked among the three-most highly regarded first ladies in these surveys.
In terms of cumulative assessment, Adams has been ranked:
*2nd-best of 42 in 1982
*3rd-best of 37 in 1993
*2nd-best of 38 in 2003
*2nd-best of 38 in 2008
*2nd-best of 39 in 2014
In the 2008 Siena Research Institute survey, Adams was ranked in the top-four of all criteria, ranking the 3rd-highest in of background, 2nd-highest in intelligence, 3rd-highest in value to the country, 3rd-highest in being her "own woman", 2nd-highest in integrity, 3rd-highest in her accomplishments, 3rd-highest in
courage
Courage (also called bravery or valor) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in battle.
Physical courage is bravery in the face of physical pain, ...
, 2nd-highest in leadership, 4th-highest in public image, and 2nd-highest in her value to the president.
In the 2014 survey, Adams and her husband were ranked the 5th-highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple".
Family tree
References
Bibliography
Secondary sources
* Abrams, Jeanne E. ''First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role'' (NYU Press, 2018).
* Barker-Benfield, G.J. ''Abigail and John Adams: The Americanization of Sensibility'' (University of Chicago Press; 2010).
* Bober, Natalie S. 1995. ''Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution'' New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division.
*
Ellis, Joseph J.br>
''First Family: Abigail and John Adams''(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010).
*
Gelles, Edith B. ''Portia: The World of Abigail Adams'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991).
* ——. ''First Thoughts: Life and Letters of Abigail Adams'' (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998), reissued as ''Abigail Adams: A Writing Life'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).
* ——. "The Adamses Retire". ''Early American Studies'' 4.1 (2006): 1–15.
* ——. ''Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage'' (New York: William Morrow, 2009) – finalist for the 2010
George Washington Book Prize
The George Washington Book Prize was instituted in 2005 and is awarded annually to the best book on the founding era of the United States; especially ones that have the potential to advance broad public understanding of American history. It is admi ...
.
* ——. "Bonds of Friendship: The Correspondence of Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren". ''Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society'' (1996), Vol. 108, p35-71.
*
Holton, Woody. ''Abigail Adams: A Life'' (New York: Free Press, 2009) – winner of the 2010
Bancroft Prize
The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas.
It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...
.
* Jacobs, Diane
''Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters'' (2014)
* Kaminski, John P., editor ''The Quotable Abigail Adams'' (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009).
* Levin, Phyllis Lee. ''Abigail Adams: A Biography'' (St. Martin's Press. 1987). 575pp
*
*
Nagel, Paul C. 1987
''The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters'' New York: .
* Orihel, Michelle. "Remember The Ladies: Teaching the Correspondence of John and Abigail Adams in the Age of Social Media". ''Common-Place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life'' (2018) 18#1 p 3+
* Sawyer, Kem Knapp.
''Abigail Adams''(2009) for secondary schools.
* Shields, David S., and Fredrika J. Teute. "The Court of Abigail Adams". ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 35.2 (2015): 227–235.
*
Abigail Adams: Eyewitness to America's Birth' (2009), for middle schools.
Time magazine.
* Waldstreicher, David, ed. ''A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams'' (2013).
* Winner, Viola Hopkins. "Abigail Adams and 'The Rage of Fashion. ''Dress'' (Costume Society of America). 2001, Vol. 28, pp. 64-76.
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Historiography
* Crane, Elaine Forman. "Abigail Adams and Feminism". in David Waldstreicher, ed. ''A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams'' (2013) pp 199-
* Hogan, Margaret A. "Abigail Adams: The Life and the biographers". in David Waldstreicher, ed. ''A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams'' (2013) pp 218–38.
*
Wood, Gordon S. (May 12, 2011)
"Those Sentimental Americans" ''New York Review of Books''.
Primary sources
* Adams, Abigail
''Abigail Adams: Letters''(Library of America, 2016).
* Adams, Johns, and Abigail Adams
''My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams''(2007); 556 pp
* Belton, Blair, ed
''Abigail Adams in Her Own Words''(2014)
* ''The Letters of John and Abigail Adams'' ed by Frank Shuffelton (2003).
External links
*
Founders Online, searchable edition**
Adams Papers Editorial Project The Adams Papers Editorial Project is an ongoing project by historians and documentary editors at Massachusetts Historical Society to organize, transcribe, and publish a wide range of manuscripts, diaries, letterbooks and politically and culturally ...
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Adams family biographies – Massachusetts Historical SocietyCollection of Abigail Adams Letters''The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters'', Harvard University Press''Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family'', Harvard University Press''Adams Family Correspondence''. Cambridge: Harvard University PressAbigail Adams Birthplace – Museum in Weymouth, MassachusettsAbigail Adamsat
C-SPAN's ''
First Ladies: Influence & Image''
* Michals, Debra
"Abigail Adams" National Women's History Museum. 2015.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Abigail
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