Review
All History and every age exhibit Instances of patriotick virtue in the female sex; which considering our situation equals the most Heroick of yours.
-Abigail Adams, in a letter to John, 1782
John Adams considered Abigail his intellectual equal, remarking early in their courtship on his future wife's sharp wit and "saucyness," and jokingly referring to her "Habit of Reading, Writing and Thinking," as being "inexcusable in a Lady." More than just a loving and devoted wife, Abigail Adams enjoyed a marriage of mutual respect and admiration. While she may not have picked up a musket or drafted a declaration, she fully believed that women should be recognized for the part they played in the fight for independence. Biographer Woody Holton brings this remarkable woman to life in a delightful portrait of "the woman behind the...
Beyond the Book
Remember the Ladies
from a letter Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, dated March 31, 1776
"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 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 perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, 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...
