Abigail Adams (1744–1818)

Abigail Adams, born November 11, 1744, was the wife of President John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams — and one of the most influential women of the American Revolution.

She was the first woman in American history to be both a president’s wife and a president’s mother, and she earned that distinction the hard way: through decades of sharp counsel, political judgment, and letters that remain among the great treasures of American history. Long before she was a first lady, Abigail Adams was already shaping the new nation — urging its founders, in her famous 1776 letter, to “remember the ladies” when they drafted its laws.

Early life in Weymouth

Abigail Smith was born on November 11, 1744, in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She grew up in a world of ideas: her family valued learning, and though girls of her era received little formal schooling, Abigail read widely and thought deeply. That self-education would become her trademark. She married the young lawyer John Adams in 1764, beginning one of the most remarkable partnerships in American public life.

The marriage was a meeting of minds. John Adams respected his wife’s intellect completely, and as his political career pulled him into the centre of the American Revolution — to Philadelphia, to Congress, to diplomatic posts in Europe — the couple sustained their bond through letters. Thousands of them. Written across years of separation, the Adams correspondence is a window into the founding of the United States, and Abigail’s half of it is brilliant: observant, opinionated, funny, and fiercely principled.

“Remember the ladies”

Abigail Adams’s most famous words came in a letter to her husband in 1776, as the Continental Congress was drafting the new nation’s laws. She urged John Adams to “remember the ladies” — to consider the rights of women in the new legal order, warning that women would not hold themselves bound by laws in which they had no voice. It was an extraordinary intervention: a direct demand, in the middle of a revolution about liberty, that liberty should extend to women too.

She is remembered as an early advocate for women’s rights because of that letter and the conviction behind it. The founders did not take her advice — the new republic left women out — but her words survived as one of the first American statements of the principle that a government claiming to rest on liberty cannot exclude half its people. Generations of advocates for women’s rights would return to that letter as a founding text.

A partner in the Revolution

While John Adams was away at Congress and later on diplomatic missions in Europe, Abigail managed the family farm, raised their children, and kept the household solvent through war and inflation. She was not a bystander to the Revolution but a participant in it: she followed the debates, offered political advice, and reported on the mood of Massachusetts. Her letters advised John on everything from appointments to the tone of his correspondence, and he took her counsel seriously.

She endured the hardships of the revolutionary years — shortages, uncertainty, the danger of British raids, and the long absences of her husband — with a resilience that became legendary. When John was posted to France and later to England, Abigail eventually joined him, spending years in Europe and gaining a cosmopolitan perspective rare among American women of her generation.

First Lady and presidential mother

When John Adams became the 2nd President of the United States, Abigail Adams became the nation’s second First Lady. She brought to the role the same intelligence and directness that had defined her letters, and she was not shy about offering her husband political advice — sometimes to the irritation of his rivals, who dubbed her “Mrs. President.” She wore the label as a badge of honour.

Her distinction as the first woman to be both a president’s wife and a president’s mother came when her son John Quincy Adams became the 6th President of the United States. She had raised him on the same principles she lived by: duty, learning, and moral courage. She did not live to see his presidency — she died in 1818 — but the arc of her life, from a Weymouth farmhouse to the centre of two presidencies, remains unmatched in American history.

Key facts about Abigail Adams

The essential facts are these. Abigail Adams was born on November 11, 1744, in Weymouth, Massachusetts. She was the wife of John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, 6th President — the first woman to be both a president’s wife and a president’s mother. In her famous 1776 letter she urged her husband to “remember the ladies” when drafting new laws, making her an early advocate for women’s rights. She was one of the most influential women of the American Revolution, advising John Adams through decades of letters that remain a treasure of American history.

How to mark her birthday

November 11 is a fine day to meet Abigail Adams through her own words. Read her “remember the ladies” letter and the correspondence she exchanged with John Adams across the revolutionary years — it is some of the most vivid writing the founding era produced. Visit a historic site connected to the Adams family if you can, or simply reflect on her example: the partner whose counsel shaped a president, the mother who raised one, and the writer who insisted, in 1776, that liberty must include women.

Frequently asked questions

When was Abigail Adams born? November 11, 1744, in Weymouth, Massachusetts.

What is she famous for? Being the wife of President John Adams and the mother of President John Quincy Adams — the first woman to be both — and her 1776 “remember the ladies” letter advocating women’s rights.

What did “remember the ladies” mean? In a 1776 letter, she urged her husband to consider women’s rights when drafting the new nation’s laws, warning that women would not accept laws in which they had no voice.

Why do her letters matter? The decades of correspondence between Abigail and John Adams are among the great treasures of American history — a first-hand account of the Revolution and the founding, written with brilliance and candour.

Why she matters

Abigail Adams matters because she refused the role history offered her. She could have been a footnote — the wife of a president, the mother of a president — and instead she became a force: an adviser whose letters shaped decisions, an advocate who spoke for women when almost no one in power would, and a writer whose words still ring. On her birthday, November 11, we remember a woman who understood that revolutions are judged by whom they include — and who said so, plainly, in 1776.

See all of today’s observances and events on our November 11 holidays, observances and history page.