by Suzette Baker

Created on: October 06, 2009

Abigail Smith Adams is perhaps best remembered for being the wife of one president and the mother of another. Her husband, John Adams served as the second president and her son, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. She was not only a wife and mother, she was also an advocate for the equal education of women believing that educated mothers raised educated children.

Born November 11, 1744 in Braintree(later Quincy), Massachusetts, Abigail Smith was the daughter of William Smith, a Congregationalist minister and Elizabeth Quincy who descended from a prominent family active in both politics and the clergy. During her early years, Abigail did not receive a formal education as was typical of girls of the times. Instead she was educated at home where she learned domestic skills such as sewing and cooking, along with reading and writing. Her love of reading led her to become an avid reader and one of the best -informed women of her era. She was also an advocate for the education of girls in the public schools.

On October 25, 1764, Abigail married John Adams, a struggling lawyer who was nine years older than her. They were married in the Smith family home by Abigail's father, the Reverend Smith. After the ceremony, the couple made their home in a cottage beside the one where John grew up. Nearly nine months after their marriage, their first child was born. John and Abigail later moved to Boston where they rented several homes before buying a large farm which they called "Peacefield" in 1787.

For the first few years of their marriage, John resided in Boston where he worked to build his career as a lawyer. Abigail remained in Braintree where she took care of the family farm as well as the finances. She was an intelligent and well read woman as well as a lively observer of colonial life. During her husband's absence, she kept up a lively correspondence with him in which she shared her views of society and later news of the American Revolution.

In 1774, John was called to Philadelphia to serve as a delegate in the First Continental Congress. Because he was away from home for so long performing his political duties and building his law practice, he often wrote home several times a day. With the outbreak of the war in 1775, he was called back to the Continental Congress where a government was set up for the colonies. In his absence, Abigail provided lodging and meals for soldiers who stopped at the farm.

It was during the Revolutionary War that John was sent to Europe

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