Abigail Adams was an influential wife, mother, and woman of the new Republic whose dedication provided a strong advocacy for the education of women to allow them to better fulfill their roles as wives and mothers, and counselors of the Republic's new men, and yet not abandoning their roles in the private sector while influencing the public one.
Born Abigail Smith on November 11 1744, in Weymouth, Massachusetts, she was the second child of one of the families of the major family network in Boston's South Shore. Although her family lived well they had no fortune, thus young Abigail learned from the very beginning how to work the Parsonage farm (her father, William Smith, was the minister of the North Parish Congregational Church of Weymouth). Abigail learned from her mother, Elizabeth Quincy-from one of the Colony's old and prominent families- how to master a public role (as a minister's wife) and the care of the less fortunate.
English: One of the last letters between former Pr...
Abigail Adams by Benjamin Blythe, 1766
English: "Abigail Smith Adams," oil on canvas, by ...It was not until Abigail was a mother herself, that she would understand, to an extent, her mother's over protectiveness of her while growing up, which was mostly influenced by Abigail's poor health. Her poor health contributed to her not being able to attend whatever little schooling for females was permitted at the time, yet to her advantage, she possessed a insatiable thirst for knowledge and was not lacking in teachers in her parents, older sister, close relatives, and later in her eclectic choice of authors, among which were James Thomson, Alexander Pope, Samuel Richardson. But the life long habit of writing letters to numerous people, proved to be her best instructor, and she its most apt pupil.
At age 15 Abigail met the man whose frequent absences, due to his "duty" to the Nation, would oblige her to exclaim she was "bereft...