This lesson features two interactive exercises: the first is designed to build vocabulary; the second reviews the main points Adams makes in her letters. Please note to your students that the letters retain their original spelling. Adams wrote from Braintree, Massachusetts, where she was raising her four young children and managing the family farm. Although her days were busy with the duties of a single parent living both in a war zone — the British Army was only about twelve miles away in Boston — and in an area ravaged by a smallpox epidemic, she still contemplated the political changes taking place, and those changes are reflected in her appeal to her husband.
Today that appeal may seem little more than a bit of advice — sassy, flirtatious, but ultimately trivial — offered by a spirited wife to her powerful husband.
Indeed, John Adams — , who became the second president of the United States — , dismissed it with patronizing humor. Yet as the letters offered in this lesson show, Abigail was quite serious when she made her request and for good reason.
In the s the lives of colonial married women were governed by the legal doctrine of femme covert or coverture. Under this doctrine a husband and wife were considered one person, and that person was the husband. Since only property owners could vote, coverture effectively denied women that right. Moreover, dependent persons were considered undesirable as voters because they would be under the influence of the person on whom they depended: it would be equal to giving that person two votes.
It is not surprising, therefore, that in the letters excerpted here Abigail Adams focuses on the character of men and on the need for laws to protect women.
As we see, she is not at all sure that men are sufficiently virtuous to wield the power they possess; put another way, she is certain that some men are not. In the s those terms did not mean what they mean today. At that time this ability to feel for another person was considered a source of virtue. Something stronger is going to be needed. In the paragraph prior to this one Abigail Adams describes a dinner with Benjamin Franklin, a man she highly respects.
Summarize the relationship that Abigail believes exists. Abigail believes that someone who is not guided by the moral precepts of religion will not honestly fulfill his duty to the public. Even if his pubic life appears honorable, his private immorality will show through and corrupt public morality.
It suggests that she sees such power as threatening and irrational, like that of an animal, and ultimately uncontrollable. With what does Adams contrast the weak restraint of a cobweb? She acknowledges that those particular moral restraints would be ineffective when a less-than-virtuous person encounters temptation.
In this excerpt, Abigail looks at the relationship between private morals and public duty as well as the possible effects of unrestrained power.
Even suppose Him to possess a large share of what is called honour and publick Spirit yet do not these Men by their bad Example, by a loose immoral conduct corrupt the Minds of youth, and vitiate the Morrals of the age, and thus injure the publick more than they can compensate by intrepidity , Generosity and Honour?
Let revenge or ambition, pride, lust or profit tempt these Men to a base and vile action, you may as well hope to bind up a hungry tiger with a cobweb as to hold such debauched patriots in the visionary chains of Decency or to charm them with the intellectual Beauty of Truth and reason…. Abigail Adams begins this excerpt with a series of rhetorical questions. What is her main concern in the first paragraph?
She is questioning her husband as to what new form of government will be established. She is curious as to the nature of this new government, and she is concerned that the delegates might not be able to come to consensus as to the form of the government.
In paragraph 2, how does Abigail characterize power? How does the fish imagery illuminate her view of power? She hadn't sought this work, but had it thrust upon her. As historian Edith Gelles writes: "[S]he believed her performance was extraordinary, aberrant, expedient, and unnatural. She continually referred to her new situation as a patriotic sacrifice for her country. Equality in Education Abigail, however, strongly believed that girls should receive the same education as boys.
Always regretful at her lack of formal schooling, and that she had not learned Latin, Abigail made sure that her daughter Nabby studied the language. Equality in education would "enhance [women's] works as wives and mothers," according to biographer Lynne Withey. After all, those entrusted with molding future generations must be molded well themselves.
Feminism from Afar While Abigail did not seek a public forum to express her views, she admired women who did. Principles of Law and Polity, Applied to the Gover Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress. Petition from Regulators of North Carolina.
Administration of Justice Act. Massachusetts Government Act. Quartering Act. Quebec Act. Sermon 1. Sermon 2. The Farmer Refuted Give me liberty or give me death! Correspondence between John Adams, Abigail Adams a Thoughts on Government. Resolves and Recommendations of Congress. Virginia Declaration of Rights and Constitution.
Virginia Declaration of Rights. Constitution of Virginia. Virginia Constitution. Draft of The Declaration of Independence. To Lord Howe. Speech in Congress on Confederation.
Constitution of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Declaration of Rights and Constitutio Pennsylvania Constitution. Foundation of Government Letter [excerpt]. Excerpts from Founding Documents. Massachusetts Antislavery Petition. Articles of Confederation. Letter to John Jay. A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom. Notes on the State of Virginia: Religion. Notes on Debates in Congress. Letter To Alexander Hamilton.
Circular Letter to the States. Circular to the States. Petition of the Philadelphia Synagogue to Council Letter to Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. Letter to Benjamin Harrison. Letter to James McHenry. Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Letter to Henry Lee. Rufus King to Elbridge Gerry. Letter to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Letter to Thomas Jefferson. Letter to Bushrod Washington. The Two Authorizations of the Constitutional Conve Northwest Ordinance. Letter to James Madison about Improving the Consti Letter to Thomas Jefferson about the Bill of Right Report of the House Select Committee.
James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance. Chapter 3: Labor, Servitude and Slavery. Resolution Regarding Quaker Pacifists. Lancaster County Committee of Correspondence and Observation. Letter to Reverend William Gordon. Petition of the Philadelphia Synagogue to the Coun George Washington to George Mason, October 3, Political Economy.
The Spirit of Laws. Second Discourse. Essays Moral, Political, Literary. Continental Association Articles of Association. Edenton Ladies' Agreement. Of The Division of Labor. How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the I Education of Workers. Letter to the Merchants of Philadelphia. Letter to William Grayson. Letter to Edmund Randolph. Query XIX. Then, amidst family updates, and talk of war damages, smallpox and mumps in the three-page letter, comes its most famous passage.
Oh, that we could have those conversations! Edgar B. His work can be heard regularly on
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