How Did Abigail Adams Contribute To Women's Rights

Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams was a strong independent-minded woman that throughout late 18th century was known for her extensive correspondence with her husband and for introducing the first ideas for women's equal rights in newly formed America. She was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts on November 11, 1774. Formerly Abigail Smith, she was married to John Adams, second President of the United States. She had two daughters and three sons, one of those sons being John Quincy Adams, who was sixth President of the United States. While her husband practiced law at Harvard University, her main occupancy was being a mother to her children. She lived the busy life of taking care of the farm with little help and teaching all four her her children formal

Adams was appointed by the Massachusetts Colony General Court in 1775 to question other women who remained loyal to Britain and were against the independence movement. This was the first instance of any First Lady that held a government position. As the debate about the Declaration of Independence went on during the Continental Congress, she pressed the argument in her famous letters that were written to her husband that the creation of a new government is the perfect opportunity to establish more rights for women. The letters she wrote to her husband were the earliest writings for the desire of women’s rights. Growing up not having a formal education because she was a girl, she was also known for advocating education in schools for girls that was equal to what boys were

Adams was ready to leave politics. Mrs. Adams and her husband retired to Quincy in 1801 and simply enjoyed the next 17 years of their lives with each other. She continued to work on the farm and care for her family members, including their eldest child, Nabby Adams, who died from cancer at their home in 1814. Struggling with her own health for a lot of her life, Mrs. Adams died on October 28, 1818 at her home from a stroke she had in the same year. She was buried next to her husband in United First Parish Church. She never lived to see her son, John Quincy Adams, become president in 1824. In 1848 one of her grandsons, Charles Francis Adams, published 114 of her letters into a book of the wartime correspondence between her and her husband. Abigail Adams left her country as a strong patriot and First Lady, wife of one president and mother of