Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams (1744-1818), wife of John Adams, second president of the United States, and mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. She was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the daughter of the Reverend William Smith, minister of the Congregational church there. Through her mother, Elizabeth Quincy (1721-75), she was descended from the 17th-century Puritan preacher Thomas Shepard (1605-49) of Cambridge. Although she had little formal education, she was among the most influential women of her day, especially as a fashion leader and social arbiter. During and after the American Revolution she was separated for long periods of time from her husband, who was first a delegate to Congress and later a diplomat in Europe. Her letters to him present a vivid picture of the time. After 1800 she lived in Washington, D.C., and thereafter in Braintree, Massachusetts. The Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife, Abigail (2 volumes, 1876), published with a memoir by their grandson, Charles Francis Adams, and later collections of her letters show that she was perceptive, sagacious, warmhearted, and generous.