Lably
Skip to content

Abigail Adams

First Lady of the United States from 1797 to 1801

  • 16 min read
  • 10 chapters

Related on Lably

Through President of the United States, American Revolutionary War and Massachusetts

Lab · Class 9Atoms and MoleculesLab · Class 8–11Force and Laws of MotionLab · Class 8–11Free Fall & Air ResistanceLab · Class 8–11Newton’s Laws of Motion

Abigail Adams's life is one of the most documented of the first ladies. Many of the letters she wrote to John Adams while he was in Philadelphia as a delegate in the Continental Congress, prior to and during the Revolutionary War, document the closeness and versatility of their relationship. John Adams frequently sought the advice of Abigail on many matters, and their letters are filled with intellectual discussions on government and politics. Her letters also serve as eyewitness accounts of the home front of the Revolutionary War.

Surveys of historians conducted periodically by the Siena College Research Institute since 1982 have consistently found Adams to rank as one of the three most highly regarded first ladies by historians.

Early life and family (1744–1759)

Abigail Adams was born on November 22,1744, at the North Parish Congregational Church in Weymouth, Massachusetts, to William Smith and Elizabeth (née Quincy) Smith. On her mother's side, she was descended from the Quincy political family, a well-known political family in the Massachusetts colony. Through her mother she was a cousin of Dorothy Quincy, who was married to John Hancock. Adams was also the great-granddaughter of John Norton, founding pastor of Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts, the only remaining 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in Massachusetts. Smith married Elizabeth Quincy in 1740, and together they had three daughters and a son; Abigail was the second child. As with several of her ancestors, Adams's father was a liberal Congregational minister: a leader in a Yankee society that held its clergy in high esteem. Smith did not focus his preaching on predestination or original sin; instead he emphasized the importance of reason and morality. In October 1775 his wife Elizabeth, with whom he had been married for 35 years, died. In 1784, at age 77, Smith died.

The Smith family were slaveholders and are known to have owned at least four people. A slave named Phoebe took a caretaking role to Abigail and other children; later on she would work as a paid servant for Abigail after she became free. Abigail would come to express anti-slavery beliefs as an adult.

Abigail did not receive formal schooling; she was frequently sick as a child, something which may have been a factor preventing her from receiving an education. Later in life, Adams would also consider that she was deprived an education because females were rarely given such an opportunity. Although she did not receive a formal education, her mother taught her and her sisters to read, write and cipher; her father's, uncle's and grandfather's large libraries enabled the sisters to study English and French literature. Her grandmother, Elizabeth Quincy, also contributed to Adams's education. As she grew up, Adams read with friends in an effort to further her learning. She became regarded as one of the most erudite women ever to serve as first lady.

Sign in to keep reading

9 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Politicians and leaders

Donald TrumpPresident of the United States (2017–2021; since 2025)Barack ObamaPresident of the United States from 2009 to 2017JesuitsMale religious congregation of the Catholic ChurchFranklin D. RooseveltPresident of the United States from 1933 to 1945George W. BushPresident of the United States from 2001 to 2009Winston ChurchillBritish statesman and writer (1874–1965)