Abigail Adams

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AA holds a secure place in history as a founding mother of the USA: wife of one President, mother of another. As a writer, too, her involvement from the margins in shaping the young republic gives an extra value to her letters—which, like those of many other eighteenth-century women, combine fluent and vivid prose with opinions eminently worth listening to. Her husband's career also made her a travel writer with an unrivalled vantage point for reporting on the cultural practices of France and of England.
Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams: An American Woman. Little, Brown.
1
Black and white photograph of a painting of Abigail Adams by Gilbert Stuart. She is seated in a chair draped in a blanket, with her hands clasped in her lap. She wears a simple dark dress with long sleeves trimmed with white ruffles, and a high light neckline, also ruffled. She has a sheer lace shawl wrapped around her shoulders and on her head a bonnet trimmed with lace and wrapped with ribbon tied in a bow. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Milestones

11 November 1741

Abigail Smith (later AA ) was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
This date was 22 November in the New Style calendar.
Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams: An American Woman. Little, Brown.
3

31 March 1776

In a famous letter to her husband, John Adams , AA wrote: I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and proposed legal reform to better the lot of married women.
Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams: An American Woman. Little, Brown.
43-4

28 October 1818

AA died shortly before her seventy-fourth birthday after contracting typhus fever.
Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams: An American Woman. Little, Brown.
190

Biography

Birth and Background

11 November 1741

Abigail Smith (later AA ) was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
This date was 22 November in the New Style calendar.
Akers, Charles W. Abigail Adams: An American Woman. Little, Brown.
3

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