Abigail Adams

1744:  Abigail Adams was born to parents William Smith and Elizabeth Quincy in Weymouth Massachusetts.  

1762:  John Adams begins his courtship of Abigail Adams.

1764:  John Adams and Abigail Smith get married.  The ceremony is performed by Abigail’s father, William Smith.  After marrying, the newlywed moved to John’s home in Braintree, Massachusetts.

1765:  Abigail Adams gives birth to her first child.  The child is a girl and is named after her mother and nicknamed “Nabby”.

1767:  John Quincy Adams is born.

1768:  The Adams family moves to Boston.

1768:  The Adams have another daughter, Susanna.  She is named after her grandmother.

1770:  Son Charles Adams is born to John and Abigail.

1771:  The Adams family returns to Braintree, Massachusetts.

1772:  Abigail gives birth to another son, Thomas Boylston Adams.

1772:  The Adams family moves back to Boston.

1773:  The Boston Tea Party occurs.  

1775: The American Revolution begins.  John Adams goes off to help the colonists and that leaves Abigail as the head of household in his absence.

1777:  Abigail gives birth to a stillborn child.

1784:  John and Abigail Adams move to France when John is named the U.S. Minister to England.

1788:  John and Abigail move back to Massachusetts.

1788:  John Adams becomes Vice-President and Abigail Adams the first Second Lady.

1797:  John Adams becomes the second President of the United States and Abigail becomes First Lady.

1800:  The Whitehouse is completed and John and Abigail Adams become its first residents.

1800:  Son Charles Adams dies of alcoholism in New York.

1800:  Thomas Jefferson defeats John Adams in election.  John and Abigail retire to Quincy, MA, a town named after Abigail’s mother’s family.

1813:  Daughter Abigail “Nabby” Adams dies in Quincy, MA.  

1818: Abigail Adams dies in Quincy, MA.

        Abigail Adams once famously said, “It is not in the still calm of life that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues.”^[1]  This poignant statement takes on whole new meaning when analyzed in the context of her life; in a sense, it is autobiographical.  Abigail contended with hardships and personal sacrifice throughout her entire life and on a level beyond that which could be fathomed by modern Americans.  At a time in history when childbirth was a life threatening endeavor, Abigail gave birth to six children.  Well before women’s rights movements gained serious consideration, she was the active head of household while her husband was away for many long stretches of time.  She lived in the original thirteen colonies, through the revolutionary war, and into the difficult years at the beginning of the newly formed republic.  Through all of this she was a wife, mother, activist, and what many people believe to be the original feminist in American History.^[2]  Prompted to greatness by the difficulties she endured, Abigail Adams stands today as an American icon with a lasting legacy.  Her life story teaches many lessons about the early history of this country.