The Significance of Abigail Adams' Figure in Battle for Equality

“Remember the ladies” is a historical text. Regarding its nature it can be classified as a literary document, since we are analysing a personal letter, which was not composed to be published but rather to stay private. “Remember the ladies” was written by Abigail Adams in Braintree (Massachusetts) on March 31, 1776; it is nearly 150 years before the House of Representatives voted to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.

The document we are analysing compiles two texts: the main one, Abigail’s letter to his husband John Adams, who was soon to be appointed a member of the committee drafting the Declaration of Independence, and John Adam’s response to her plea as well. As long as she was alive, Abigail refused to allow her correspondence to be published, including the letters addressed to her husband, defending women’s letters to be a private matter. But the fact is that in 1848, one of her grandsons arranged the publication of a first volume of letters, which ended up offering a unique perspective about her experience and thoughts on American life and democracy; both historical matters in which she herself and her family were deeply involved.

To really understand Abigail Adams’ significance, we have to place her on the right historical context, and remember that she was the wife of the Second President of US and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States (a group of philosophers, politicians and writers, most descendants of colonists and profoundly tied to the patriot cause). John Adams was notoriously involved in some events of remarkable interest, like the consequences and the aftermath of the Boston Massacre in 1770. Precisely and regarding the Massacre, Adams showed his value as a lawyer (prior to the revolution) devoting himself to the right to counsel and the presumption of innocence; henceforth, he defied anti-British sentiments and successfully defended British soldiers against the murder charges they were accused of. John Adams was indeed a patriot, but still a fair just man, and defended the “enemy” against the colonist desires. Strongly supported by Abigail, John was Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress and soon became a principal leader of the Revolution, assisting in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and being the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which influence is unquestionably tangible in the United States' own Constitution.

Henceforth, we are examining a document written by a woman raising her voice within the beginning of American democracy, in a period of time when women have not a real legal status. Due to all these circumstances, Abigail Adams played quite a significant role during the Revolutionary War and the Constitutional debate as well. She has been referred as a brilliant, independent and strong woman, bond to a high amount of responsibilities: from taking care of the domestic duties and issues – she bore 6 children – to becoming the political adviser to his husband. Abigail Adams was the 2nd First Lady in the US history; but according to the facts, we can state her as the first one to really embody the role and live in the White House, to the point of being nicknamed “Mrs President”.

Regarding the content of the letter, the main purpose is clear in Abigail’s own words: “I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors”. By quoting this single phrase, we already might have a sharp knowledge of the cause, motivation and purpose of the whole letter. Abigail is urging his husband to remember the ladies in a time were ladies were considered as children – or even colonists themselves, without any kind of legal or political rights, and in any sense equal to men.

The meaning of the letter is also well-defined: it strongly reflects her own thinking as the American Revolution started and progressed, and her committed advocacy for women's rights. Still, we must interpret her words in the context of 1776, and not in the context of modern feminism. Abigail strongly believed that females should be allowed to receive the same education than males; and it was not only a matter of rhetoric or refined eloquence regarding her writings. Yet she lacked formal schooling, or maybe precisely because of this, she was a well-learned and plainly erudite woman breaking the common standard of the historical time she was born and raised. Her thoughts and actions were absolutely consistent, and she requested what she was honestly believing in: equality, liberty, and the fight for freedom. The consequences of Abigail asserting her desire for women’s rights at the birth of American democracy would indeed reverberate through American history as a resonating call for future activists, women who believed in freedom and the equality of human beings in spite of their sex.

Although the power and significance of Abigail’s words, it is fair to remark that she was an upper-class white woman and, yet it is known that she disagreed with slavery, the American Revolution did not free slave women, and neither war did not guarantee white women equality with their male counterparts. Her words, as we can easily infer from John Adam’s mocking response to her plea, did not change his views about the place of women in society. To quote himself, his thoughts regarding Abigail’s petition can be summarize in a just a few words: “you are so saucy… and in Practice you know We are the subjects. We have only the Name of Masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely subject Us to the Despotism of the Petticoat”.

In my opinion, Abigail’s letter is a brilliant, plain and brave technique to challenge the society she was living through, yet she refuses to make it in a public, eccentric or over-dramatic way. She actually shows a natural and quite elegant eloquence when addressing “Remember the ladies” to his husband, and I do not think this fine style makes her words or plea less sharp or piercing. She could have just helped to ignite a riot to ensure her words would be heard, and publicly manifest her thoughts like many future militant suffragettes would do; perhaps starting a hunger strike, like Emmeline Pankhurst and so many other feminists would do within the next centuries, and holding a big banner across the streets with “Taxation without representation also apply to women” written on it… But instead of that, Abigail chose a more sublime and delicate method to approach the real problem: dozens, hundreds of letters, that even meant to be kept private, would eventually echo and pierce American history as a knife: “… remember the ladies…”.

Personally, I do not think of Abigail Adams in the terms of a revolutionary lady, a radical crusader essentially calling for suffrage, yet she acknowledges the inequalities in society. This is, I believe, one of the most remarkable features in her letter. Abigail is a strong woman and she definitely holds strong beliefs; an outspoken, intelligent lady concerned with the state of her country and its citizens, especially women’s right (or better to say the lack of them). She is certainly aware of the way society works around her, and certainly dislikes a few things about it as well. Obviously, she is opinionated and hypocrisy is not one of her features; still, Abigail is educated enough of what she writes about, and her voice is definitely strong by showing and defending her own urges instead of rising it to be loud and noisy. I firmly believe Abigail is a practical example incarnating the famous quote by Reverend Desmond Tutu: 'Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument. Good sense does not always lie with the loudest shouters, nor can we say that a large, unruly crowd is always the best arbiter of what is right”.