View source for Abigail Adams

{{short description|First Lady of the United States from 1797 to 1801}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Abigail Adams
| image               = Abigail Adams by Gilbert Stuart.jpg
| caption             = Portrait by [[Gilbert Stuart]], {{circa|1800{{endash}}1815}}
| office              = [[First Lady of the United States]]
| president           = [[John Adams]]
| term_start          = March 4, 1797
| term_end            = March 4, 1801
| predecessor         = [[Martha Washington]]
| successor           = [[Martha Jefferson Randolph]] (acting)
| term_label          = In role
| office1             = 1st [[Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States|Second Lady of the United States]]
| vicepresident1      = John Adams
| term_start1         = April 21, 1789
| term_end1           = March 4, 1797
| predecessor1        = Position established
| successor1          = [[Ann Gerry]]
| term_label1         = In role
| birth_name          = Abigail Smith
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1744|11|22}}
| birth_place         = [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]], British America
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1818|10|28|1744|11|22}}
| death_place         = [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| restingplace        = [[United First Parish Church]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[John Adams]]|October 25, 1764}}
| children            = 6, including [[Abigail Adams Smith|Abigail]], [[John Quincy Adams|John Quincy]], [[Charles Adams (1770–1800)|Charles]], and [[Thomas Boylston Adams (judge)|Thomas]]
| relatives           = [[Adams political family]]<br />[[Quincy political family]]
| signature           = Abigail Adams Signature.svg
}}
'''Abigail Adams''' ([[Maiden and married names|née]] '''Smith'''; {{OldStyleDate|November 22,|1744|November 11}} – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of [[John Adams]], the second [[president of the United States]], and the mother of [[John Quincy Adams]], the sixth president of the United States. She was a [[Founding Fathers of the United States|founder of the United States]], and was both the first [[second lady of the United States|second lady]] and second [[first lady of the United States]], although such titles were not used at the time. She and [[Barbara Bush]] are the only two women in American history who were both married to a U.S. president and the mother of a U.S. president.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/17/barbara-bush-george-obituary-first-lady-221779 | title=Barbara Bush, matriarch of Bush dynasty, dies at 92 | publisher=[[Politico]] | work=David Cohen | date=April 17, 2018 | access-date=November 27, 2019}}</ref>

Adams's life is one of the most documented of the first ladies. Many of the letters she wrote to John Adams while he was in [[Philadelphia]] as a delegate in the [[Continental Congress]], prior to and during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], document the closeness and versatility of their relationship. John Adams frequently sought the advice of Abigail on many matters, and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics. Her letters also serve as eyewitness accounts of the home front of the Revolutionary War.

Surveys of historians conducted periodically by the [[Siena College Research Institute]] since 1982 have consistently found Adams to rank as one of the three most highly regarded first ladies by historians.

==Early life and family (1744–1759)==
[[File:Abigail Adams birthplace, Weymouth MA.jpg|left|thumb|Abigail Adams's birthplace in [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]]]]
Abigail Adams was born on November 22, 1744, at the North Parish Congregational Church in [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]], to William Smith and Elizabeth (née Quincy) Smith.<ref name="Cullen-DuPont2000">{{cite book|author=Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn |title=Encyclopedia of women's history in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oIro7MtiFuYC&pg=PA374|date= 2000|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-4100-8|pages=3–4}}</ref> On her mother's side, she was descended from the [[Quincy political family]], a well-known political family in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony|Massachusetts colony]]. Through her mother she was a cousin of [[Dorothy Quincy]], who was married to [[John Hancock]]. Adams was also the great-granddaughter of John Norton, founding pastor of [[Old Ship Church]] in [[Hingham, Massachusetts]], the only remaining 17th-century Puritan [[meetinghouse]] in [[Massachusetts]]. Smith married Elizabeth Quincy in 1740, and together they had three daughters and a son; Abigail was the second child.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/adams-lifespan/|title=American Experience &#124; The Adams Family: A Timeline|publisher=PBS|access-date=May 14, 2024}}</ref> As with several of her ancestors, Adams's father was a liberal [[Congregationalism in the United States|Congregational]] minister: a leader in a [[New England|Yankee]] society that held its clergy in high esteem. Smith did not focus his preaching on [[predestination]] or [[original sin]]; instead he emphasized the importance of reason and morality.<ref name="uua">{{cite web|url=http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/abigailadams.html|title=Abigail Adams|date=April 21, 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010421162535/http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/abigailadams.html|archive-date=April 21, 2001}}</ref> In July 1775 his wife Elizabeth, with whom he had been married for 35 years, died of smallpox. In 1784, at age 77, Smith died.

The Smith family were slaveholders and are known to have owned at least four people. A slave named Phoebe took a caretaking role to Abigail and other children; later on she would work as a paid servant for Abigail after she became free. Abigail would come to express anti-slavery beliefs as an adult.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Annika |last=Hom |date=February 6, 2019 |title=The untold stories of slaves who lived in Abigail Adams's birthplace |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/globelocal/2019/02/06/the-untold-stories-slaves-who-lived-abigail-adams-birthplace/HKhfj6jdy7r161zjJPaYII/story.html |access-date=October 1, 2022 |website=The Boston Globe |language=en-US}}</ref>

Abigail did not receive formal schooling; she was frequently sick as a child, something which may have been a factor preventing her from receiving an education.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|7}} Later in life, Adams would also consider that she was deprived an education because females were rarely given such an opportunity.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-4fk5FIvGKoC&q=abigail%20adams%20mother&pg=PA7|title=Abigail Adams|last=Holton|first=Woody|date=2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781451607369}}</ref>{{Rp|7}} Although she did not receive a formal education, her mother taught her and her sisters to read, write and [[wikt:cipher#Verb|cipher]]; her father's, uncle's and grandfather's large libraries enabled the sisters to study English and French literature.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="uua"/> Her grandmother, Elizabeth Quincy, also contributed to Adams's education.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|8}} As she grew up, Adams read with friends in an effort to further her learning.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|8}} She became one of the most erudite women ever to serve as first lady.<ref>[[#Withey|Withey]], ch. 1</ref>

==Marriage and children (1759–1783)==
{{multiple image
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| width1 = 169
| image1 = Abigail Adams.jpg
| caption1 = Abigail Smith Adams – 1766 portrait by Benjamin Blyth
| alt1 = Woman with deep black hair and dark eyes wearing a blue and pink dress
| width2 = 169
| image2 = John Adams (1766).jpg
| caption2 = John Adams – 1766 portrait also by Blyth
| alt2 = Man in dark gray clothing with dark hair
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Abigail Smith first met John Adams when she was 15 years old in 1759. John accompanied his friend Richard Cranch to the Smith household. Cranch was engaged to Abigail's older sister, Mary Smith, and they would be the parents of federal judge [[William Cranch]]. Adams reported finding the Smith sisters neither "fond, nor frank, nor candid."{{sfn|McCullough|2001|pp=51–52}}

Although Abigail's father approved of the match, her mother was appalled that her daughter would marry a [[country lawyer]] whose manner still reeked of the farm. Eventually, she gave in, and the couple married on October 25, 1764, in the Smiths' home in Weymouth. William Smith, Abigail's father, presided over the marriage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/adam/abigailbio.htm|title=Abigail Adams Biography – Adams National Historical Park|website=www.nps.gov|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|access-date=November 16, 2016}}</ref> After the reception, the couple mounted a single horse and rode off to their new home, the [[saltbox house]] and farm John had inherited from his father in [[Braintree, Massachusetts]]<ref name=":0" /> (a location that is now part of [[Quincy, Massachusetts|Quincy]]). The couple welcomed their first child nine months into their marriage.<ref name=":0" />

In 12 years, Abigail Adams gave birth to six children:
* [[Abigail Adams Smith|Abigail]] ("Nabby"; 1765–1813)
* [[John Quincy Adams|John Quincy]] (1767–1848)
* Susanna (nicknamed "Suky")<ref>{{cite book|last=Gilles|first=Edith Belle|author-link=Edith B. Gelles|title=Abigail Adams: A Writing in Life|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-415-93945-4| page=[https://archive.org/details/abigailadams00edit/page/ xv]|url=https://archive.org/details/abigailadams00edit/page/}}</ref> (1768–1770)
* [[Charles Adams (1770–1800)|Charles]] (1770–1800)
* [[Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832)|Thomas]] (1772–1832)
* Elizabeth (stillborn in 1777)<ref>{{cite journal|author=G. J. Barker-Benfield|title=Stillbirth and Sensibility The Case of Abigail and John Adams|journal=Early American Studies|year=2012|volume=10 |issue =1|pages= 2–29|doi=10.1353/eam.2012.0003|jstor=23546680|s2cid=145021243}}</ref>

Her childrearing style included relentless and continual reminders of what the children owed to virtue and the Adams tradition.<ref name="America p. 24">[[Garry Wills]], ''Henry Adams and the Making of America'', 2005; p. 24; Wills cites the criticisms of Paul Nagel "and others"</ref> Adams was responsible for family and farm when her husband was on his long trips. "Alas!", she wrote in December 1773, "How many snow banks divide thee and me." Abigail and John's marriage is well documented through their correspondence and other writings.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=John |last2=Adams |first2=Abigail |title=Adams Family Papers |url=https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/letter/ |website=Massachusetts Historical Society |access-date=14 September 2023}}</ref> Letters exchanged throughout John's political obligations indicate his trust in Abigail's knowledge was sincere. Like her husband, Abigail often quoted literature in her letters. Historian [[David McCullough]] claims that she did so "more readily" than her husband. Their correspondence illuminated their mutual emotional and intellectual respect. John often excused himself to Abigail for his "vanity",{{sfn|McCullough|2001|p=272}} exposing his need for her approval.

John Adams moved the family to Boston in April 1768, renting a clapboard house on Brattle Street that was known locally as the "White House". He and Abigail and the children lived there for a year, then moved to Cold Lane; still later, they moved again to a larger house in Brattle Square in the center of the city.<ref>Ferling, John (1992). John Adams: A Life. University of Tennessee Press. {{ISBN|0-87049-730-8}}. [ebook] ch. 3</ref>

John's growing law practice required changes for the family. In 1771, he moved Abigail and the children back to Braintree, but he kept his office in [[Boston]], hoping the time away from his family would allow him to focus on his work. Nevertheless, after some time in the capital, he became disenchanted with the rural and "vulgar" Braintree as a home for his family, and thus, in August 1772, Adams moved his family back to Boston. He purchased a large brick house on Queen Street, not far from his office.<ref>Ferling, John (1992). John Adams: A Life. University of Tennessee Press. {{ISBN|0-87049-730-8}}. [ebook] ch. 4</ref> In 1774, Abigail and John returned the family to the farm due to the increasingly unstable situation in Boston, and Braintree remained their permanent Massachusetts home.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/peopleevents/p_callender.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909175153/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/peopleevents/p_callender.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 9, 2012|title=American Experience – John & Abigail Adams – Timeline – PBS|work=pbs.org|access-date=September 7, 2015}}</ref>

Abigail also took responsibility for the family's financial matters, including investments. Her investments made through her uncle [[Cotton Tufts]] in debt instruments issued to finance the Revolutionary War were rewarded after [[Alexander Hamilton]]'s [[First Report on the Public Credit]] endorsed full federal payment at face value to holders of government securities.<ref name="Saxton">{{cite journal|last1=Saxton|first1=Martha|title=Abigail Adams, Capitalist|journal=Women's Review of Books|date=November 1, 2010|url=https://www.wcwonline.org/WRB-Issues/abigail-adams-capitalist|access-date=October 27, 2017|archive-date=July 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701170228/https://www.wcwonline.org/WRB-Issues/abigail-adams-capitalist|url-status=dead}}</ref> One recent researcher even credits Abigail's financial acumen with providing for the Adams family's wealth through the end of John's lifetime.<ref name="Saxton"/>

==Europe (1784–1788)==
In 1784, Abigail and her daughter Nabby joined her husband and her eldest son, John Quincy, at her husband's diplomatic post in [[Paris]]. Abigail had dreaded the thought of the long sea voyage, but in fact found the journey interesting. At first, she found life in Paris difficult and was rather overwhelmed by the novel experience of running a large house with a retinue of servants. However, as the months passed, she began to enjoy herself: she made numerous friends, discovered a fondness for the theatre and opera, and was fascinated by Parisian women's fashions, although she ruefully admitted that she "would never be in the mode."

After 1785, she filled the role of wife of the first U.S. [[Minister (diplomacy)|minister]] to the [[Court of St James's]] (Britain). In contrast to Paris, Abigail disliked [[London]], where she had few friends and was, in general, cold-shouldered by polite society. One pleasant experience was her temporary guardianship of [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s young daughter Mary (Polly), for whom Abigail came to feel a deep and lifelong love.

She and John returned in 1788 to their home in Quincy, [[Peacefield]] (also known as the "[[Old House (Quincy, Massachusetts)|Old House]]"), which she set about vigorously enlarging and remodeling. It still stands and is open to the public as part of [[Adams National Historical Park]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/adam/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm|title=Basic Information – Adams National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov|access-date=November 16, 2016}}</ref>

==First Lady (1797–1801)==
John Adams was inaugurated as the second [[president of the United States]] on March 4, 1797, in [[Philadelphia]] at the age of 61.<ref name=":0" /> Abigail was not present at her husband's inauguration as she was tending to his dying 89-year-old [[Susanna Boylston|mother]].<ref name=":0" /> When John was elected President of the United States, Abigail continued a formal pattern of entertaining.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/about-the-white-house/first-families/abigail-smith-adams/|title=Abigail Smith Adams|date=2014|newspaper=[[White House]]|access-date=November 17, 2016}}</ref> She held a large dinner each week, made frequent public appearances, and provided for entertainment for the city of Philadelphia each [[Independence Day (United States)|Fourth of July]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yqK2iJaPYKkC&pg=PA17|title=The White House: Actors and Observers|editor-last=Seale|editor-first=William|others=White House Historical Association|date=2002|publisher=Northeastern University Press|isbn=9781555535476}}</ref>{{Rp|12}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=Founding Fathers: The Essential Guide to the Men Who Made America|last=Encyclopædia Britannica|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|year=2007|isbn=978-0470117927|location=Hoboken}}</ref>

She took an active role in politics and policy, unlike the quiet presence of [[Martha Washington]]. Abigail was so politically active, her political opponents came to refer to her as "Mrs. President".<ref name=":0" /> As John's confidant, Abigail was often well informed on issues facing her husband's administration, at times including details of current events not yet known to the public in letters to her sister Mary and her son John Quincy.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|11}} Some people used Abigail to contact the president.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|12}} At times Abigail planted favorable stories about her husband in the press.<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|12}} Abigail remained a staunch supporter of her husband's political career, supporting his policies, such as passing the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]].<ref name=":1"/>{{Rp|12}}

Adams brought the children of her brother [[William Smith (patriot)|William Smith]], her brother-in-law John Shaw, and her son Charles to live in the President's House during her husband's presidency because the children's fathers all struggled with alcoholism. Charles's daughter, Susanna, was just 3 years old in 1800 when Adams brought her to live in the President's House in Philadelphia days before Charles's death.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44elUBU7FZkC&pg=PA24|title=America's First Families: An Inside View of 200 Years of Private Life in the White House|last=Anthony|first=Carl Sferrazza|date=2000|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9780684864426}}</ref>

With the relocation of the capital to [[Washington, D.C.]] in 1800, she became the first First Lady to reside at the [[White House]], or President's House as it was then known.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-adams-moves-into-white-house|title=John Adams moves into White House - Nov 01, 1800 |newspaper=history.com|access-date=November 17, 2016}}</ref> Adams moved into the White House in November 1800, living there for only the last four months of her husband's term.<ref name=":0" /> At this time, the city of Washington D.C. was wilderness, with the President's House far from completion. She found the unfinished mansion in Washington "habitable" and the location "beautiful"; but she complained that, despite the thick woods nearby, she could find no one willing to chop and haul firewood for the First Family. Abigail used the [[East Room]] of the [[White House]] to hang up the laundry.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/abigail-adams-used-the-east-room-to-dry-the-laundry |title=Abigail Adams used the East Room to dry the laundry|publisher=White House Historical Association |website=Whitehousehistory.org |access-date=September 7, 2016}}</ref> Adams's health, never robust, suffered in Washington.

== Later life (1801–1818) ==
[[File:Old House, Quincy, Massachusetts.JPG|thumb|right|Abigail and John Adams moved back to [[Peacefield]] after John's presidency]]
After John's defeat in his presidential re-election campaign, the family retired to [[Peacefield]] in Quincy in 1800. Abigail followed her son's political career earnestly, as her letters to her contemporaries show. In later years, she renewed correspondence with [[Thomas Jefferson]], having reached out to him upon the death of his daughter [[Maria Jefferson Eppes]] (Polly), whom Abigail had cared for and come to love when Polly was a small child in London, even though Jefferson's political opposition to her husband had hurt her deeply.<ref name=":0" /> She continued to raise her granddaughter Susanna.<ref name=":0" /> She also raised her elder grandchildren, including [[George Washington Adams]] and a younger John Adams, while their father John Quincy Adams was minister to Russia. Adams's 48-year-old daughter, Nabby, died of breast cancer in 1813,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/peopleevents/p_adamskids.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051218162451/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/peopleevents/p_adamskids.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 18, 2005|title=American Experience {{!}} John & Abigail Adams {{!}} People & Events|website=www.pbs.org|access-date=November 17, 2016}}</ref> after having endured three years of severe pain.

==Death==
[[File:Abigail Adams Resting Place.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The tomb of Abigail Adams at [[United First Parish Church]].]]
Abigail Adams became ill during her final years. She died in her home on October 28, 1818,<ref name="Cullen-DuPont2000"/> of typhoid fever. She was buried in what was to become the family crypt, which now also holds her husband John, their son John Quincy, and John Quincy's wife [[Louisa Adams|Louisa]], located in the [[United First Parish Church, Quincy, Massachusetts|United First Parish Church]] (also known as the "Church of the Presidents") in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was 73 years old, exactly two weeks shy of her 74th birthday. Her last words were, "Do not grieve, my friend, my dearest friend. I am ready to go. And John, it will not be long." Less than eight years later, on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], her husband died of heart failure at the age of 90. He was buried next to her in the family crypt in the United First Parish Church.

==Political viewpoints==
[[File:Thomas Jefferson Abigail Adams letter 1817.jpg|thumb|One of the last letters sent by [[Thomas Jefferson]] at [[Monticello]] to Abigail Adams, May 1817]]

Biographer Lynne Withey argues for her conservatism because she: "feared revolution; she valued stability, believed that family and religion were the essential props of social order, and considered inequality a social necessity".<ref>[[#Withey|Withey]], p. x.</ref> Her 18th-century mindset held that "improved legal and social status for women was not inconsistent with their essentially domestic role."<ref>[[#Withey|Withey]], p. 82.</ref>

===Women's rights===
Abigail Adams wrote about the troubles and concerns she had as an 18th-century woman.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gelles |first1=Edith Belle |title=Portia: The World of Abigail Adams |date=1995 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-21023-4 }}{{page needed|date=May 2021}}</ref> She was an advocate of married women's [[Property|property rights]] and more opportunities for women, particularly in the field of education. Women, she believed, should not submit to laws not made in their interest, nor should they be content with the simple role of being companions to their husbands; they should educate themselves and thus be recognized for their intellectual capabilities so they could guide and influence the lives of their children and husbands.<ref>{{Citation |last=Crane |first=Elaine Forman |title=Abigail Adams and Feminism |date=2013 |work=A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams |pages=199–217 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118524381.ch10 |access-date=2025-11-06 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118524381.ch10 |isbn=978-1-118-52438-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref> She is known for her March 1776 letter to John and the [[Continental Congress]], requesting that they, "remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable 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 no voice, or Representation."<ref name="uua"/> Abigail’s famous remarks about remembering the ladies were not simply casual observations but also a part of a pattern in her correspondence that revealed her belief in women’s intelligence and their value in society.<ref>{{Citation |last=Crane |first=Elaine Forman |title=Abigail Adams and Feminism |date=2013 |work=A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams |pages=199–217 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118524381.ch10 |access-date=2025-10-23 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118524381.ch10 |isbn=978-1-118-52438-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

John declined Abigail's "extraordinary code of laws", but acknowledged to Abigail, "We have only the name of masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely subject us to the despotism of the [[petticoat]], I hope [[George Washington|General Washington]] and all our brave heroes would fight."<ref name="JAAA">{{cite web|title=Adams Family Papers |url=https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760414ja&hi=1&query=saucy&tag=text&archive=all&rec=8&start=0&numRecs=15 |work=Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1776 |publisher= Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. |author=Adams, John |author2=Adams, Abigail |date=March–May 1776 }}</ref>

===Slavery and race===
Adams opposed the existence of [[slavery in the United States]] and saw it as a threat to American democracy. In a letter she wrote on March 31, 1776, Adams doubted that the majority of White people in Virginia had such "passion for Liberty" as they claimed they did, since they "deprive[d] their fellow Creatures" of freedom.<ref name="uua"/>

A notable incident regarding Adams's views on race happened in [[Philadelphia]] in 1791, when a [[Free Negro|free black youth]] came to her house asking to be taught how to read and write. Adams subsequently placed the boy in a local evening school, though not without objections from a neighbor. Adams responded that he was "a Freeman as much as any of the young Men and merely because his face is black, is he to be denied instruction? How is he to be qualified to procure a livelihood?&nbsp;... I have not thought it any disgrace to my self to take him into my parlor and teach him both to read and write."<ref name="13Feb97-letters">{{cite web|title=Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 13 February 1797|url=http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/|website=Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive.|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|access-date=July 4, 2016|archive-date=July 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716205713/http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Despite her abolitionist views, Adams still held [[Racism in the United States|racist views]] during her life. After attending a 1785 production of ''[[Othello]]'' in [[London]], Adams wrote in a letter of her "disgust and horror" at seeing the [[Othello (character)|play's titular protagonist]], a Black man, touching the character of [[Desdemona]], a White woman. Historian [[Annette Gordon-Reed]] stated that Adams's views on race were in line with a "typical white person of the 18th century".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Thomas Jefferson: Was the Sage a Hypocrite?|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,994568,00.html|magazine=Time|date=July 5, 2004 |access-date=January 28, 2023 |last1=Gordon-Reed |first1=Annette }}</ref>

==Religious beliefs==
Adams was an active member of [[United First Parish Church, Quincy, Massachusetts|First Parish Church]] in Quincy, which became [[Christian Unitarianism|Unitarian]] in doctrine by 1753.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=2 |title=Abigail Adams Biography |publisher=National First Ladies' Library |website=Firstladies.org |access-date=September 7, 2016 |archive-date=May 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190531071833/http://firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Her theological views evolved over the course of her life. In a letter to her son near the end of her life, dated May 5, 1816, she wrote of her religious beliefs:

{{blockquote|text=I acknowledge myself a unitarian – Believing that the Father alone, is the supreme God, and that Jesus Christ derived his Being, and all his powers and honors from the Father&nbsp;... There is not any reasoning which can convince me, contrary to my senses, that three is one, and one three.<ref name="uua" />}}

She also asked [[Louisa Adams]] in a letter dated January 3, 1818, "When will Mankind be convinced that true Religion is from the Heart, between Man and his creator, and not the imposition of Man or creeds and tests?"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-3430 |title=From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 3 … |publisher=Founders.archives.gov |date=July 12, 2016 |access-date=September 7, 2016}}</ref>

==Legacy==
Historian [[Joseph Ellis]] has found that the 1,200 letters between John and Abigail "constituted a treasure trove of unexpected intimacy and candor, more revealing than any other correspondence between a prominent American husband and wife in American history."<ref name="Cited in Wood 2011">Cited in Wood (2011)</ref> Ellis concluded that Abigail, although self-educated, was a better and more colorful letter-writer than John, even though John was one of the best letter-writers of the age. Ellis argues that Abigail was the more resilient and more emotionally balanced of the two, and calls her one of the most extraordinary women in American history.<ref name="Cited in Wood 2011"/>

===Memorials===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right
 | video1 = [http://www.c-span.org/video/?310725-1/first-lady-abigail-adams "First Lady Abigail Adams"], ''[[First Ladies: Influence & Image]]'', [[C-SPAN]]<ref name="cspan a">{{cite web | title =First Lady Abigail Adams | publisher =[[C-SPAN|C‑SPAN]] | date =March 4, 2013 | url =http://www.c-span.org/video/?310725-1/first-lady-abigail-adams | access-date =November 2, 2014 }}</ref> }}
The [[Abigail Adams Cairn]] – a mound of rough stones – crowns the nearby Penn Hill from which she and her son, John Quincy Adams, watched the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] and the burning of Charlestown. At that time she was minding the children of [[Joseph Warren|Dr. Joseph Warren]], president of the [[Massachusetts Provincial Congress]], who was killed in the battle.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Holton|first1=Woody|title=Abigail Adams|date=2009|publisher=Free Press Division of Simon & Schuster|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-1-4165-4680-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/abigailadams00holt/page/79 79]|url=https://archive.org/details/abigailadams00holt/page/79}}</ref>

One of the subpeaks of [[New Hampshire]]'s [[Mount Adams (New Hampshire)|Mount Adams]] (whose main peak is named for her husband) is named in her honor.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Bethany|title=Abigail Adams Joins the Presidential Range|journal=Appalachia|volume =62|issue= 2|date=2011|publisher=Appalachian Mountain Club|page= 132}}</ref>

In 2003, Adams was one of three women honored in a bronze sculpture as part of the Boston's Women Memorial on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/04/arts/concert-celebrate-three-women-boston-womens-memorial/#:~:text=The%20final%20concert%20of%20Clausura%27s,history%20of%20Boston%2C%20she%20said|title=Concert to celebrate 'Three Women' of the Boston Women's Memorial|website=Boston Globe}}</ref>

In 2022, a seven-foot tall bronze statue of Adams was unveiled in [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], on the Hancock Adams Common.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/content/-quincy-mayor-unveils-statue-of-americas-second-first-lady-abigail-adams/|title=Quincy Mayor Unveils Statue Of America's Second First Lady Abigail Adams|website=WBZ NewsRadio 1030}}</ref>

An [[Adams Memorial]] has been proposed in Washington, D.C., honoring Adams, her husband, her son, and other members of their family.

===Popular culture===
Passages from Adams's letters to her husband figured prominently in songs from the Broadway musical ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]''.<ref name="uua"/> [[Virginia Vestoff]] played Adams in the original 1969 Broadway production of ''1776'' and recreated the role for the [[1776 (film)|film version]] in 1972. On television, [[Kathryn Walker]] and [[Leora Dana]] portrayed Adams in the 1976 [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] mini-series ''[[The Adams Chronicles]]''. In the mini-series ''[[John Adams (TV miniseries)|John Adams]]'', which premiered in March 2008 on [[HBO]], she was played by [[Laura Linney]]. Linney enjoyed portraying Adams, saying that "she is a woman of both passion and principle."<ref name="America p. 24"/> A revolution-era Abigail, circa 1781, is portrayed by [[Michelle Trachtenberg]], on the television series, ''[[Sleepy Hollow (TV series)|Sleepy Hollow]]'', in the season 2 episode, "Pittura Infamante" (January 19, 2015), her assistance being crucial in ending a series of unexplained murders from the period. Adams is a featured figure on [[Judy Chicago]]'s installation piece ''[[The Dinner Party]]'', being represented as one of the 999 names on the ''[[List of women in the Heritage Floor|Heritage Floor]]''.<ref name="C169">Chicago, Judy (2007). ''The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation''. London: Merrell. p. 169. {{ISBN|1-85894-370-1}}</ref> Novelist [[Barbara Hambly]], writing as Barbara Hamilton, wrote three historical mysteries set in the early 1770s told from Abigail Adams's perspective (and featuring Abigail as the detective): ''The Ninth Daughter'' (2009), ''A Marked Man'' (2010), and ''Sup with the Devil'' (2011).

===Portrait on currency===
The [[Presidential $1 Coin Program#First Spouse Program|First Spouse Program]] under the [[Presidential $1 Coin Program]] authorizes the [[United States Mint]] to issue half-[[Troy ounce|ounce]] $10 [[Presidential $1 Coin Program#First Spouse Program|gold coins]] and bronze medal duplicates<ref>U.S. Mint: [http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/firstSpouse/ First Spouse Program] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107215648/http://www.usmint.gov/mint%255Fprograms/firstSpouse/ |date=January 7, 2007 }}. Accessed June 27, 2008. "The United States Mint also produces and make available to the public bronze medal duplicates of the First Spouse Gold Coins".</ref> to honor the first spouses of the United States. The Abigail Adams coin was released on June 19, 2007, and sold out in just hours. She is pictured on the back of the coin writing her most famous letter to John Adams. In February 2009 ''[[Coin World]]'' reported that some 2007 Abigail Adams medals were struck using the reverse from the 2008 [[Louisa Adams]] medal, apparently by mistake.<ref name=mule>{{cite journal |last= Gilkes |first= Paul |date= February 16, 2009 |title=First Spouse medals set holds Adams mule |journal=Coin World |volume= 50 |issue= 2549 |page= 1 |quote= Some collectors have begun receiving a First Spouse medal mule – a piece bearing the obverse for Abigail Adams and a reverse intended for the Louisa Adams medal. The mules surfaced in some of the 2007 First Spouse sets}}</ref> These pieces, called [[mule (coin)|mules]], were contained within the 2007 First Spouse medal set.<ref name="mule"/> The U.S. Mint has not released an estimate of how many mules were made.

<gallery>
File:Abigail Adams First Spouse Coin obverse.jpg|Obverse
File:Adams a-o.jpg|Obverse (bronze medal)
</gallery>

===Regard by historians===
Since 1982, [[Siena College Research Institute]] has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. Consistently, Adams has ranked among the three-most highly regarded first ladies in these surveys.<ref name="Siena2014">{{cite web |title=Eleanor Roosevelt Retains Top Spot as America's Best First Lady Michelle Obama Enters Study as 5th, Hillary Clinton Drops to 6th Clinton Seen First Lady Most as Presidential Material; Laura Bush, Pat Nixon, Mamie Eisenhower, Bess Truman Could Have Done More in Office Eleanor & FDR Top Power Couple; Mary Drags Lincolns Down in the Ratings |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FirstLadies2014Release_Final.pdf |website=scri.siena.edu |publisher=Siena Research Institute |access-date=May 16, 2022 |date=February 15, 2014}}</ref> In terms of cumulative assessment, Adams has been ranked:
*2nd-best of 42 in 1982<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*3rd-best of 37 in 1993<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 38 in 2003<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 38 in 2008<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 39 in 2014<ref name="Siena2014"/>
*2nd-best of 40 in 2020<ref name="Siena2020results">{{cite web |title=Copy of FirstLadies_Full Rankings_working_dl_2.xls |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/First-Ladies-Full-Rankings-2020.pdf |website=scri.siena.edu |publisher=Siena Research Institute |access-date=March 11, 2025 |date=2020}}</ref>

In the 2008 Siena Research Institute survey, Adams was ranked in the top-four of all criteria, ranking the third-highest in of background, second-highest in intelligence, 3rd-highest in value to the country, third-highest in being her "own woman", second-highest in integrity, 3rd-highest in her accomplishments, 3rd-highest in [[courage]], second-highest in leadership, fourth-highest in public image, and second-highest in her value to the president.<ref name="2008Siena">{{cite web |title=Ranking America's First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt Still #1 Abigail Adams Regains 2nd Place Hillary moves from 5 th to 4 th; Jackie Kennedy from 4th to 3rd Mary Todd Lincoln Remains in 36th |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FL_2008Release.pdf |publisher=Siena Research Institute |access-date=May 16, 2022 |date=December 18, 2008}}</ref> In the 2014 survey, Adams and her husband were ranked the 5th-highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple".<ref>{{cite web |title=2014 Power Couple Score |url=https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Appendix_C_Power_Couples.pdf |website=scri.siena.edu/ |publisher=Siena Research Institute/C-SPAN Study of the First Ladies the United States |access-date=October 9, 2022}}</ref>

==Family tree==
{{Adams family tree}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{See also|Bibliography of United States presidential spouses and first ladies}}

===Secondary sources===
* Abrams, Jeanne E. ''First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role'' (NYU Press, 2018).
* Barker-Benfield, G.J. ''Abigail and John Adams: The Americanization of Sensibility'' (University of Chicago Press; 2010).
* Bober, Natalie S. 1995. ''Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution'' New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division.
* [[Joseph J. Ellis|Ellis, Joseph J.]] [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780307389992 ''First Family: Abigail and John Adams''] (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010).
* [[Edith B. Gelles|Gelles, Edith B.]] ''Portia: The World of Abigail Adams'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991).
* ——. ''First Thoughts: Life and Letters of Abigail Adams'' (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998), reissued as ''Abigail Adams: A Writing Life'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).
* ——. "The Adamses Retire". ''Early American Studies'' 4.1 (2006): 1–15.
* ——. ''Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage'' (New York: William Morrow, 2009) – finalist for the 2010 [[George Washington Book Prize]].
* ——. "Bonds of Friendship: The Correspondence of Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren". ''Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society'' (1996), Vol. 108, p35-71. 
* [[Woody Holton|Holton, Woody]]. ''Abigail Adams: A Life'' (New York: Free Press, 2009) – winner of the 2010 [[Bancroft Prize]].
* Jacobs, Diane. [https://archive.org/details/dearabigailintim0000jaco ''Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters'']. (2014)
* Kaminski, John P., editor ''The Quotable Abigail Adams'' (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009).
* Levin, Phyllis Lee. ''Abigail Adams: A Biography'' (St. Martin's Press. 1987). 575pp
* {{cite book |last=McCullough |first= David |date=2001 |title=John Adams |url=https://archive.org/details/johnadams00mccu |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/johnadams00mccu/page/144 144] |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-7588-7 |author-link=David McCullough }}
* [[Nagel, Paul C.]] 1987. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674004108 ''The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters'']. New York: {Oxford University Press}. {{ISBN|0-19-503874-6}}
* Orihel, Michelle. "Remember The Ladies: Teaching the Correspondence of John and Abigail Adams in the Age of Social Media". ''Common-Place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life'' (2018) 18#1 p 3+
* Sawyer, Kem Knapp.  [https://archive.org/details/abigailadams0000sawy ''Abigail Adams''] (2009) for secondary schools.
* Shields, David S., and Fredrika J. Teute. "The Court of Abigail Adams". ''Journal of the Early Republic'' 35.2 (2015): 227–235.
* ''[https://archive.org/details/abigailadamseyew0000unse/page/n1/mode/2up Abigail Adams: Eyewitness to America's Birth]'' (2009), for middle schools. [[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine.
* Waldstreicher, David, ed. ''A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams'' (2013).
* Winner, Viola Hopkins. "Abigail Adams and 'The Rage of Fashion{{'"}}. ''Dress'' (Costume Society of America). 2001, Vol. 28, pp. 64-76. 
* {{cite book|ref=Withey|author=Withey, Lynne|title=Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams|year=1981}}
* {{cite Q|Q115290958|editor1=Henry Gardiner Adams}}<!-- [[s:A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Adams, Abigail]] -->

===Historiography===
* Crane, Elaine Forman. "Abigail Adams and Feminism". in David Waldstreicher, ed. ''A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams'' (2013) pp 199-
* Hogan, Margaret A. "Abigail Adams: The Life and the biographers". in David Waldstreicher, ed. ''A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams'' (2013) pp 218–38.
* [[Gordon S. Wood|Wood, Gordon S.]] (May 12, 2011). [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/may/12/those-sentimental-americans/  "Those Sentimental Americans"]. ''New York Review of Books''.

===Primary sources===
* Adams, Abigail. [https://www.amazon.com/Abigail-Adams-Letters-Library-Collection/dp/1598534653/ ''Abigail Adams: Letters''] (Library of America, 2016).
* Adams, Johns, and Abigail Adams. [https://archive.org/details/mydearestfriendl0000adam_o7m4 ''My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams''] (2007); 556 pp
* Belton, Blair, ed. [https://archive.org/details/abigailadamsinhe0000belt ''Abigail Adams in Her Own Words''] (2014)
* ''The Letters of John and Abigail Adams'' ed by Frank Shuffelton (2003).

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{commons category}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://founders.archives.gov/about Founders Online, searchable edition]
* [[Adams Papers Editorial Project]]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=36792| name=Abigail Adams}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Abigail Adams |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1105}}
* [http://www.masshist.org/adams/biographical.cfm#second Adams family biographies – Massachusetts Historical Society]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120811000815/http://www.familytales.org/results.php?tla=aba Collection of Abigail Adams Letters]
* [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674004108 ''The Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters'', Harvard University Press]
* [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674198296 ''Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family'', Harvard University Press]
* [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674004009 ''Adams Family Correspondence''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press]
* [http://abigailadamsbirthplace.org/ Abigail Adams Birthplace – Museum in Weymouth, Massachusetts]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120313214720/http://www.whosyomama.com/gabroaddrick3/4/26100.htm Ancestors of Abigail Smith]
* [http://firstladies.c-span.org/FirstLady/3/Abigail-Adams.aspx Abigail Adams] at [[C-SPAN]]'s ''[[First Ladies: Influence & Image]]''
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Adams, Abigail |volume=1 |page=34 |short=1}}
* Michals, Debra. [https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/abigail-adams "Abigail Adams"]. National Women's History Museum. 2015.

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{{US First Ladies}}
{{US Second Ladies}}
{{Women in the American Revolution}}
{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{John Adams}}
{{John Quincy Adams}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Abigail}}
[[Category:1744 births]]
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[[Category:18th-century feminists]]
[[Category:19th-century Unitarians]]
[[Category:Adams family|Abigail]]
[[Category:American Congregationalists]]
[[Category:American Unitarians]]
[[Category:American feminists]]
[[Category:Deaths from typhoid fever in the United States]]
[[Category:First ladies of the United States]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Mothers of presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:People from Braintree, Massachusetts]]
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[[Category:Second ladies and gentlemen of the United States]]
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