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" With Adam's absences, Abigail not only helped maintain the farm but managed it and handled the finances along with raising their three sons and two daughters -- three of which she would outlive.
After his election, Abigail Adams, despite her "activist" roles, was quite aware of her position as the President's wife and First Lady of the land. She served as hostess to the public. She greeted guest seated formally, a technique she learned at Buckingham Palace. It was not that she considered herself royalty, but Abigail was a short lady at 5'1" and she felt more comfortable seated. Like all first ladies, she influenced fashions of the day, believing that the mode of dress in that day was too revealing (The National First Ladies Library, n.d.).
She was the first Lady to reside in the White House. Of it, she would write to her sister:
"The house is made habitable, but there is not a single apartment finished, and all withinside, except the plastering, has been done since Briesler came.
We have not the least fence-yard, or other convenience, without, and the great unfinished audience room I make a drying-room of, to hang up the clothes in. The principal stairs are not up, and will not be this winter"
(Vinci, 2004, p.1).
Given the impression she made in Washington D.C., her ceremonial role, her published opinions, and her impact on the ladies' dress of the day, it is difficult to comprehend that she lived in the White House for only four months. She so enjoyed the farm in Massachusetts and...
It is said she retained all of her faculties until her dying day.
Abigail Adam's Politics
She was very concerned that, with the Declaration of Independence, too much authority was being placed in the hands of men. Her pleading letters to her husband were a result of that, not just that she was a feminist. "Remember that all men would be tyrants if they could," is a well-known line in one of her letters proclaiming that women would foment a rebellion if ignored. And, of course, eventually they did -- and won.
Little known are her beliefs about slavery. She despised it. John Adams did too. She called it a threat to democracy and wrote, publicly, of her thoughts on the subject saying, in 1776, that men who claimed they desired freedom from tyranny so much, yet kept men in slavery, perhaps were not as passionate about freedom as they said they were.
Bibliography
Adams, J.Q. (n.d.). Abigail Smith Adams. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from John-adams.org: http://www.john-adams.org/abigailadams.net/
The National First Ladies Library. (n.d.). First lady biography: Abigail Adams. Retrieved July 8, 2009, from Firstladies.org: http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=2
Vinci, J. (2004, January 5). Abigail Smith Adams. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from Colonialhall.com: http://colonialhall.com/adamsj/adamsAbigail.php
Bibliography
Adams, J.Q. (n.d.). Abigail Smith Adams. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from John-adams.org: http://www.john-adams.org/abigailadams.net/
The National First Ladies Library. (n.d.). First lady biography: Abigail Adams. Retrieved July 8, 2009, from Firstladies.org: http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=2
Vinci, J. (2004, January 5). Abigail Smith Adams. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from Colonialhall.com: http://colonialhall.com/adamsj/adamsAbigail.php
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