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Abigail Smith Adams was the wife of President John Adams and an ardent Patriot and Republican. She had a close relationship with Mercy Otis Warren and was also in frequent contact with other prominent women of the time, like British feminist Catharine McCaulay and Judith Sargent Murray. Abigail frequently talked politics with both her female correspondents and her husband, arguing on behalf of women in letters to him.

Adams came from a “puritan and elite family of New England” and had a “bookish girlhood” (Garbaye 2014; Shields 2015, 233). She “loved news” and had an “intense desire for education” that was never fulfilled in her youth, as she “never went to school” (Shields 2015, 233; Garbaye 2014). Throughout her life, she looked at “the book as a vehicle of learning and amusement” (Shields 2015, 233). Her love of reading and writing was maintained by her “friendship with Mercy Otis Warren and other women of letters” who shared similar interests (Shields 2015, 233). Despite lacking an education, Adams communicates clearly in her letters and displays her intellect and political opinions clearly in her words.

Abigail Smith Adams was “inspired by Whig writings of the beginning and of the mid-18th century, as well as by more general classical writings such as the ones of the European philosophers of the Enlightenment” just like many of her contemporaries, including Warren (Garbaye 2014). She was also deeply interested in traditional Republicanism and gave herself the pen name Portia as a reference to the wife of Brutus (Hicks 2005). She saw herself as devoted to her husband and his Revolution as Portia was to her husband and his. Adams was well aware of the sacrifices that she was making, and might have to make as Portia did, even writing to her husband “I hope the public will reap what I sacrifice” (Adams 1775).

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Abigail Smith Adams, like her husband, was anxious for the foundation of the United States. She was fearful for the future, as evidenced by Mercy Otis Warren’s responses to a letter in January 1774. In the letter, Warren writes “you was quite much affected by the socks of the political as the Natural Constitution . . . I cannot pretend to judge whether you had sufficient Grounds for your fears when you expressed so Great Concern” (Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Adams, 19 January 1774, Adams Papers, Founders.org). In another letter, written a few months before the quote above (“I feel anxious for the fate of our Monarchy or Democracy or what ever is to take place…”), Warren says “a heart trembling with the Laudable feelings of Humanity Least your suffering Country should be driven to Extreemities, and its Innocent inhabitants be made the sacrifices to Disappointed Ambition and Avarice, but I will hope yet a Little Longer for a more Favorable termination of the Distresses of America” (Mercy Otis Warren to Abigail Adams, 28 January 1775, Adams Papers, Founders.org). All of these letters shed light on the anxiety both women, but especially Adams, were feeling before and during the war.

Adams, as demonstrated, was very concerned about the future of the colonies. Although she, unlike the other women featured, generally “expressed her ideas privately only” she still had big ideas about the future of the Republic (Garbaye 2014). Instead of taking the more public route of some of her contemporaries, Adams focused on discussing politics with her husband, often offering advice and making her views known to him (Garbaye 2014). For the most part, this influence was enough for her. Throughout her life “she refused to publish her letters” and “played a public role in rare cases only–and always to contribute to her husband’s political activities” rather than stepping out on her own (Garbaye 2014)

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In the new Republic, Abigail Smith Adams was surrounded by politics. Her husband moved from position to position within the government until landing the presidency in 1796. Adams, therefore, had spent plenty of time around the center of the developing country from the beginning, giving her access for her opinions to be heard and giving her the information to form new opinions.

Adams’ powerful influence with her husband drew unwanted attention to her and that characterized her political activities during her time as first lady. She spent much of her time on handling the press, which was quick to accuse her “of having too much political influence on” John Adams (Shields 2015, 234). Some of the president’s political opponents went as far as calling her “Mrs. President” (Shields 2015, 234). However, the perception of influence by the opposition press was not incorrect, as Adams did voice her political concerns to her husband. This also “caused her to be the target of petition and persuasion” (Shield 2015, 228). People knew if they could gain Abigail Smith Adams’ ear, they could gain the president’s as well.

Adams used the power of influence she had. She was well aware of the perception of the opposition and she attempted to stay on top of any commentary; “she became an avid reader of and commentator on both Republican and Federalist newspapers in Philadelphia” (Shields 2015, 233). Adams didn’t just stay up to date on the news, but put “her perusal of the papers . . . to active use to influence public opinion” by bringing attention to “reports she deemed accurate by circulating newspapers to friends and family . . . and excerpting items to be reprinted” (Shields 2015, 234). Additionally, for reports she thought needed correction or which contained “scurrilous attacks, she forwarded letters, occasionally already printed, directing that they be published or republished” (Shields 2015, 234).

Despite her exercise of influence over the press during her stint as first lady, Adams still resented the attention. She disliked the press and “supported . . . press censorship (the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts)” (Garbaye 2014). Her position put her “more directly in contact with the political world than any of her female contemporaries” but she still saw herself as “mostly there to support her husband’s political activities” (Norton 1980, 190; Garbaye 2014). Therefore, she found the commentary by the opposition even more distasteful, as she viewed her public self as an extension of her husband’s will.

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Abigail Smith Adams’ most prominent political concern was over equality. She held “progressive ideas regarding women and African Americans; which she often expressed in intense terms” (Garbaye 2014). The main petitions she made to her husband about the country he was creating were over the rights of women and slaves. She was deeply critical of “Virginians who could not love liberty since they deprive the liberty of others” in the use of slavery (Garbaye 2014). All in all, she “despised slavery, considering it a threat to American democracy and hoped “to change things to improve the situation of women, and that of African-Americans who were then subordinated to white men” (Garbaye 2014).

Adams used whatever power she had to improve the life experience of slaves. The Adams’ own slaves were treated as free men and when one expressed a “desire that he might go [to school]” Adams “told him to go with [her] compliments to Master Health and ask him if he would take him” (Adams 1797). Adams was outraged when a neighbor approached her to “inform [her] that if James went to School, it would break up the School for the other Lads refused to go” (Adams 1797). She questioned why that should be the case, when there was no complaint about the behavior other than that “they did not chuse to go to School with a Black Boy” (Adams 1797).

Abigail Smith Adams felt similarly about women. She did not “accept unquestioningly the belief that females were especially susceptible to flattery” and “objected to . . . exclusion from political power” (Norton 1980, 115; Zagarri 1998, 205). In one statement she wrote “‘I will never consent to have our Sex considered in an inferior point of light . . . If man is Lord, woman is Lordess–that is what I contend for, and if a woman does not the Reigns of Government, I see no reason for her not judging how they are conducted” (Garbaye 2014). Adams’ main stress was indeed on the idea of Republican Motherhood, with women expressing their politics domestically, but she still held “the idea that women did not benefit from political self-government” as long as voting was reserved for men (Garbaye 2014). Her primary goal was a “request for legal change to protect women” summarized in her famous “Remember the Ladies” letter written to her husband on the formulation of the new nation’s laws and government:

“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 favourable 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 not voice, or Representation . . . Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness”

Abigail adams (Garbaye 2014)

Abigail Smith Adams would go further than this request of her husband during the formulation of the government, however. She often wrote of “legal, civil, and political elements–married women’s lack of property rights, the necessity to protect women legally against abusive husbands, the lack of women’s political representation, etc.” and hoped to see women better protected and recognized in the new nation (Garbaye 2014). Adams held a fundamental belief “in an equal capacity of intellect between men and women” and “wanted women’s education to be included in the legislation, in order to achieve equality between men and women” (Garbaye 2014). She, like many of her contemporaries, saw education as the path to equality and recognition for women and she pushed for this opportunity among other little victories to achieve those ends.