Sons & Daughters of Liberty 

     Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams as well as his confidant and advisor, was born November 22, 1744. She married lawyer John Adams in 1765.  During the Revolution as Mr.Adams was often away from their farm outside of Boston, Abigail was in full charge. Abigail Adams can best be remembered as the unofficial advisor to her husband on all matters, even presidential ones and she can be credited for often reminding her husband not to forget minority groups,such as women, when new government issues were being resolved. In this sense, she is one of the earliest feminists. She also was an important part of the Daughters of Liberty, a group that proved that women's involvement in politics could be beneficial to the country.

     After the war, Abigail joined her husband in France and when the couple returned to the United States after John Adams received the Vice-Presidency she split her time between Massachusetts and Washington, running the farm and assisting Martha Washington with hosting social and diplomatic events.

 

 

Letter Between Abigail and John Adams

MARCH 31, 1776

ABIGAIL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS

        "I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, 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.

        "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.

        "That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up -- the harsh tide of master for the more tender and endearing one of friend.

        "Why, then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity? 

        "Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the (servants) of your sex; regard us then as being placed by Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness."