Abigail Adams An American Women

Essay by bogoCollege, UndergraduateA, November 2004

download word file, 4 pages 3.0

The All-American Women Abigail Adams an American Woman was written by Charles W. Akers. His biographical book is centered on Abigail Adams the wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. She was the All-American woman, from the time of the colonies to its independence. Abigail Adams was America's first women's rights leader. She was a pioneer in the path to women in education, independence, and women's rights. Adams recognized the limited role women were allowed to play in the world at that time. However, she insisted that a woman's role carried an equal amount of importance and responsibility to a man's. She believed that women deserved the opportunities and rights including education and that that would enable them to live to their fullest capacity. She believed that education was as important for women as for men.

Educational courses were not taught to women, but Abigail persisted in self-education. She received little formal education; just enough to manage her duties as a housewife and mother; but was encouraged to pursue what were considered more feminine pastimes, such as sewing, music, letter writing, and hosting. She always complained of being denied the proper education necessary to bring her spelling, punctuation, and grammar up to literary standards of her day. The lack of knowledge in these areas is apparent in her letters. She even created her own words. She agreed with other women that if mothers were in charge of early education for their children, they must be educated to be able to perform this duty. Her commitment to promoting education for women was so strong that she pressed her husband to incorporate the issue into the body of laws that he and other founding fathers were drafting...