Abigail Adams

 "I desire that you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors." 

WHO SHE WAS: Abigail Adams was the intelligent and well-spoken wife of John Adams. She was born to a wealthy couple in 1744 in Massachusetts. Her father was a minister with a large collection of books which he encouraged his children to read.

She taught herself many subjects by reading from her father's collection. She married John Adams in 1764. He was a lawyer and a judge who believed that the colonies were being unfairly treated. Unlike many men of this period of time, John Adams valued his wife's opinions." John and Abigail Adams moved their family to Boston and were friends with many other people who thought that British taxation was unfair.

When John was elected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress and had to travel to Philadelphia to meet with the other representatives, Abigail wrote him letters that were filled with her ideas on how the colonies should separate themselves from British rule. She also expressed her hope that women would be considered equal to men in the new nation and be given the same rights and freedoms as men.

Unfortunately, women were not given these rights when the laws of the United States were created.

WHAT SHE SAID: "In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire that you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable 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."

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