Abigail Adams and How She Shaped the Role of Women in American History

Almost everyone’s heard of her, there have been numerous books written about her, several thousand letters accounted for that she wrote. She was also the wife of the second president and the mother to the sixth American president, who was this woman? She was Abigail Adams. Abigail Adams life didn’t acquire meaning solely from knowing and being around these two great men however, Adams was eminently worth knowing as an individual herself. Throughout the ages, women have always been involved in war but Abigail Adams brought a new concept to women and war with her involvement in the early colonial years and the American Revolution. Abigail Adams did many things in her lifetime but the questions I will be attempting to answer is how exactly did she impact the Revolutionary War and change the social roles of women in such a male dominated society. First and foremost, some basic knowledge on the early years and the foundation of Adam’s life are imperative to the understanding of Abigail Adams and how she grew into becoming the women she did. Abigail Adams was born Abigail Smith in a church in Weymouth, Massachusetts on November 11, 1744. Adams’s parents were William Smith, a liberal Congregational minister and her mother Elizabeth Quincy was of a prominent political family at the time. Abigail was the second born of four siblings, one brother and three sisters, their family faith was Congregational. The Adams’s were an active family in throughout the community and involved in the politics of the time. A majority of Adams’s younger days consisted of corresponding with family and friends and reading. Her childhood and young adult life didn’t involve much singing, dancing or card playing as young women typically participated in... ... Thoughts Life and Letters of Abigail Adams Gelles, Edith B. First Thoughts: Life and Letters of Abigail Adams . New York, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998. Dearest Friend: A life of Abigail Adams Withey, Lynne. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. New York, New York: Free Press Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1981. Abigail Adams - A Life Holton, Woody. Abigail Adams - A Life. New York, New York: Free Press A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc., 2009. Patriotism and the Female Sex, Abigail Adams and the American Revolution Skinner Keller, Rosemary. Patriotism and the Female Sex: Abigail Adams and the American Revolution. Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing Inc., 1994. Abigail Adams, An American Women Akers, Charles. Abigail Adams, An American Women. Toronto, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts: Little Brown and Company, 1980.