AN UNUSUAL COUPLE (via Glenn Dryfoos):

Pursuit of Happiness: A review of The Letters of John and Abigail Adams by Frank Shuffelton (Gordon S. Wood, New Republic)

In her now famous letter to John written on March 31, 1776, Abigail suggested to her husband, who was busy in Philadelphia thinking about declaring independence and constitution-making, that he

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. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.

This passage was quoted over and over and used as the opening document in a variety of feminist collections in the 1970s and 1980s. "Remember the ladies" became a watchword for many in the feminist movement.

But now things are somewhat different. A generation later, we possess a much more contextualized and historical understanding of Abigail's remarks, and the famous passage has lost some, but not all, of its earlier sting. Even today some tone-deaf historians still strain to read into it more significance than Abigail's relationship with her world will bear. Abigail was not a modern feminist.

She had wit and humor and, proud of her sauciness, loved to tease and to banter with her husband, which is what she was doing in this famous letter. She kidded him about many things, including his being a big-shot delegate at the Continental Congress. At one point she suggested that their Braintree cows, suffering from drought, ought to petition the Congress, setting forth their grievances and their deprivations of ancient privileges that ought to be restored to them. She even joked with him about lawyers. Her "remember the ladies" statement was another example of her teasing. In making it, Abigail was not fundamentally challenging either her domestic situation or the role of women in her society.

Teasing, of course, can often make a serious point, and in her mischievous remarks Abigail was certainly expressing a self-conscious awareness of the legally dependent and inferior position of women -- a provocative awareness that other women would soon develop and expand, but that Abigail herself did not. As Gelles has pointed out in a series of important books and articles, Abigail Adams did not seriously question the place of women in her society. Although she did want women to be as well educated as men (itself a bold proposal), she was fully content with her domestic role as wife and mother. What she most disliked was having to act as head of the household in John's absence. As Gelles observes, "she regarded her role [as head of the household] as unnatural, a patriotic sacrifice." Although Abigail eventually became proud of her success as a manager of the family farm, she wanted nothing more than to have her husband back so she could resume what she thought of as her rightful role as wife and mother. To conceive of Abigail as somehow yearning to be like her husband is not only anachronistic, it is also trivializing and demeaning of her domestic character -- as if the male model of political activity were the only standard of worth.

The Adamses were an unusual couple, and Abigail was certainly the brightest and the most learned of the Founders' wives. But the Adamses were products of their time, not ours, and we do ourselves no favor by ripping them out of the century in which they lived. To recover their time and their place, with all the immediacy and the contingency of events whose future significance the participants could not know, there is no better place to start than with these genuinely extraordinary letters.

The Jefferson-Adams correspondence is must reading.

MORE:
-Correspondence between John and Abigail Adams (Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive)
-LETTER: June 18, 1775 Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams

The Day; perhaps the decisive Day is come on which the fate of America depends. my bursting Heart must find vent at my pen. I have just heard that our dear Friend Dr. Warren is no more but fell gloriously fighting for his Country-saying better to die honourably in the field than ignominiously hang upon the Gallows. great is our Loss. He has distinguished himself in every engagement, by his courage and fortitude, by animating the Soldiers & leading them on by his own example -- a particular account of these dreadful, but I hope Glorious Days will be transmitted you, no doubt in the exactest manner.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong -- but the God of Israel is he that giveth strength & power unto his people. Trust in him at all times ye people pour out your hearts before him. God is a refuge for us. --Charlstown is laid in ashes. The Battle began upon our intrenchments upon Bunkers Hill, a Saturday morning about 3 oclock & has not ceased yet & tis now 3 o'clock Sabbeth afternoon.

Tis expected they will come out over the Neck to night, & a dreadful Battle must ensue Almighty God cover the heads of our Country men, & be a shield to our Dear Friends.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 8, 2004 5:21 PM