EH 336 August 30, 2017 Aaron Andrews

John Abigail1735-1826 1744-1818

The Adams Family

BiographyJohn Adams graduated from Harvard college in 1755 and later went on to practice law. During his time as a lawyer, he was identified as a man who would be sympathetic to the cause of independence and was appointed as a Massachusetts delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774. Adams helped push the Congress to vote for independence from Great Britain. With his leadership, independence was passed with no opposing votes on July 2, 1776. Adams would spend the next 24 years in public service. During the Revolutionary War he was a diplomat serving in France and Holland. In 1785 he was appointed minister to the Court of St. James’s in Great Britain. In 1788 he returned to the United States to serve as Vice President. John Adams did not enjoy his new role. He wrote to his wife, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” In 1796 Adams was elected President, however he was defeated in 1

1800 by Thomas Jefferson. Adams retired to his family’s farm and passed away on July 4, 1826.Abigail Adams despite not having any formal schooling of any kind growing up shows herself to be highly intelligent and well versed in literature (philosophy, theology, ancient history, politics and law). After John and Abigail were married she handled their personal affairs, managing the household finances and the running of their farm. She oversaw all aspects from the property to the animals and even the people. Abigail was also the mother of 5 children. Considered to be the most famous married couple during the revolutionary period, John and Abigail Adams (married in 1764) spent fifty-four years as husband and wife. During the many months and years that John was away during their marriage, they corresponded with each other immensely. From 1762-1801 they wrote over 1,100 letters back and forth to each other. The letters reveal that they were deeply in love with each other, their family and this new nation that they had sacrificed much for.

Works by John and Abigail AdamsFamiliar letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams, during the Revolution (1876)The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. (1856)Revolutionary Writings (1763)

Critical BibliographyBarker-Benfield, G.J. “Stillbirth and Sensibility: The case of Abigail and John Adams.” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, 2012 pp. 2-29.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/johnadams1

EH 336 August 30, 2017 Aaron Andrews

Shields, David S, Teute, Fredrika J. “The Court of Abigail Adams” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 35, no. 2, 2015 pp. 227-235.Orihel, Michelle. “'All Those Truly Acquainted with the History of Those Times’: John Adams and the Opposition Politics of Revolutionary England, ca. 1640-41” New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters, vol. 86, no. 3, 2013 pp. 433-466.Cornish, Paul Joseph. “John, Adams, Cicero and the Traditions of Republicanism” Michigan Academician, vol. 41, no. 1, 2012 pp. 22-37.O’Neill, Daniel I. “John Adams versus Mary Wollstonecraft on the French Revolution and Democracy” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 68, no. 3, 2007 pp. 451-76.

A Summary of G.J. Barker-Benfield’s “Stillbirth and Sensibility: The case of Abigail and John Adams.”

(Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, 2012 pp. 2-29)

Barker-Benfield’s essay describes the “gendered language of sensibility” that Abigail and John employed when writing to each other regarding the stillborn death of their third daughter. It appears that they were very careful in the language they used when describing this tragic event in their lives. Abigail’s stillbirth baby occurred in July 1777 while John Adams was away. In fact, John Adams was away for most of the pregnancy as their letters indicate. She was thirty-three years old at the time and it was her last pregnancy. Abigail gave birth to 5 children in their first 8 years of marriage. The last daughter to be born before the stillborn baby was Susanna, however she died only a year old. According to Barker-Benfield, it was quite common during the revolutionary period to have miscarriages, stillbirth and children unable to live pass infancy. Also significant was the fact that there was a high chance for women to die during pregnancy and labor. All of this set the stage for a very trying pregnancy for both Abigail and John. The writer quotes from one of John’s letters to Abigail dated August 1776 recalling a painting he saw by Charles Wilson Peale, “He showed me one moving Picture. His Wife, all bathed in Tears, with a Child about six months old, laid out, upon her lap. This Picture stuck me prodigiously” (8). In February 1777 he writes to Abigail asking for some kind of “Hieroglyphics” so he can know if the pregnancy is going well. However, in the following letter she is unable to communicate in her letter the deep feelings she has for him and the pregnancy but to say, “I have enjoyed as much Health as I ever did in the life situation” (9). During the course of the pregnancy their correspondence was very much like that. They were very careful with their words and they didn’t let their emotions get away with them. Even when a friend of the family died in childbirth. She writes to John about it but in the letter quickly drops the subject of dying by saying, “But I will quit [the] subject least it should excite painfully Sensations in a Heart the I would not willingly wound” (11). Barker-Benfield recalls that Abigail became ill shortly before going into labor to the point that she is unable to write John. John continues to send letters but she was unable to respond. He talks about the baby and the excitement of meeting their new child. On July 11, Abigail’s cousin, John Thaxter writes this to John, “Mrs. Adams was delivered a daughter; (but) it grieves me to add, Sir, that it was still born. It was an exceeding fine looking Child” (19). Unfortunately, John does not get this letter until 12 days later. Quickly he writes to her indicating that he was glad that she was well. Abigail writes back that she too is glad she is well and believes that their daughter’s death will serve a higher good. Even after suffering this great loss, the Adams family continued with their language of sensibility. The author believes much of this is do to their faith and what is expected of them in this day and age. Barker-Benfield in conclusion demonstrates that in Abigail’s writings she doesn’t blame God for their loss, her husband for being away, nor does she place guilt upon herself. Yet, this attitude was not unique with Abigail Adams, “The language of sensibility seemed especially suited to women’s feelings about the loss of children” (25).