Mike Parker: The quest for liberty for women began early in the US
Although women did not have the guarantee of general voting rights until the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18, 1920, women who owned property in New Jersey were allowed to vote from 1776 through 1807. Beginning in 1869, women in the Western territories won the right to vote.
Since we are focusing on the 250th anniversary of our nation, what better time to explore the observations of one of our Republic’s founding mothers? One of the women who, early in this nation’s history, pressed for true equal rights for women was Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams. John Adams served as the first Vice President and second President of the newly formed United States of America.
Abigail was one of only two women who were both the wife and the mother of two U.S. presidents. The other was Barbara Bush. Abigail was often separated from her husband due to his political work. She oversaw the family’s household and largely raised the four Adams’ children on her own.
She also maintained a lively, lifelong correspondence with her husband, often addressing political issues of the day. She was noted for her early advocacy of several divisive causes, including women’s rights, female education, and the abolition of slavery.
Born in 1744, Abigail Smith grew up in Weymouth, MA, a village 12 miles from Boston. Her father, William Smith, was the minister of the First Congregational Church in Weymouth and made his living as a farmer.
Largely self-educated at home, Abigail read widely from the family library. When she was just 11, she and her sisters began receiving tutoring from Richard Cranch, a transplant from England who later married Abigail’s elder sister, Mary.
A friend of Cranch was a young lawyer, John Adams. Adams met 17-year-old Abigail and fell in love with her. After a long engagement – at the insistence of her parents, John and Abigail married on October 24, 1764, when Abigail was 19, and John was 28.
Just nine months after their marriage, Abigail gave birth to the couple’s first child, Abigail, whom they called Nabby. Abigail had six children, but only four lived to adulthood: Nabby Adams, John Quincy Adams (born 1767), Charles Adams (born 1770), and Thomas Adams (born 1772).
Abigail passionately supported independence and argued that the same freedoms should apply to women as well as men. During the Second Continental Congress, as John Adams and his fellow delegates debated the question of formally declaring independence from Great Britain, Abigail wrote to her husband from their home in Braintree, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1776.
In that letter, Abigail outlined the many offenses the colonists had suffered at the hands of their British overlords. That abuse of power had changed her mind concerning independence. The more abuses she observed, the more committed she became to independence.
Although her husband replied somewhat jokingly to her early appeal for equality for women – expressing fear of the “Despotism of the Petticoat,” Abigail pushed back, making clear that she was serious about the implications that true liberty portended for the status of women in a future independent republic.
In her March 31, 1776, letter, she advocated not only for American independence but also for fairer treatment of women:
“I long to hear that you have declared an independency – and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.
“If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
She vigorously supported education for women, writing to John in 1778 that “you need not be told how much female education is neglected, nor how fashionable it has been to ridicule female learning.”
Abigail Adams continued to advocate for equal rights for women, equal education for women, and the abolition of slavery throughout her life. What better time to reflect on the work of Abigail Adams than during the 250th Celebration of American Independence and during Women’s History Month?
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
