Abigail Adams
eBook - ePub

Abigail Adams

  1. 512 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Abigail Adams

About this book

Winner of the Bancroft Prize
The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice
American Heritage, Best of 2009

In this vivid new biography of Abigail Adams, the most illustrious woman of the founding era, Bancroft Award–winning historian Woody Holton offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Adams’s life story and of women’s roles in the creation of the republic.

Using previously overlooked documents from numerous archives, Abigail Adams shows that the wife of the second president of the United States was far more charismatic and influential than historians have realized. One of the finest writers of her age, Adams passionately campaigned for women’s education, denounced sex discrimination, and matched wits not only with her brilliant husband, John, but with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. When male Patriots ignored her famous appeal to "Remember the Ladies," she accomplished her own personal declaration of independence: Defying centuries of legislation that assigned married women’s property to their husbands, she amassed a fortune in her own name.

Adams’s life story encapsulates the history of the founding era, for she defined herself in relation to the people she loved or hated (she was never neutral), a cast of characters that included her mother and sisters; Benjamin Franklin and James Lovell, her husband’s bawdy congressional colleagues; Phoebe Abdee, her father’s former slave; her financially naïve husband; and her son John Quincy.

At once epic and intimate, Abigail Adams, sheds light on a complicated, fascinating woman, one of the most beloved figures of American history.

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Yes, you can access Abigail Adams by Woody Holton in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Smith Family
  4. Adams Family
  5. Introduction
  6. A Note on Names
  7. Chapter 1. “A Tender Twig,” 1744–1761
  8. Chapter 2. “Miss Adorable,” 1761–1764
  9. Chapter 3. “For Saucyness No Mortal Can Match Him,” 1764
  10. Chapter 4. “Mrs. Adams,” 1764–1770
  11. Chapter 5. “I Should Certainly Have Been a Rover,” 1770–1774
  12. Chapter 6. “Mrs. Delegate,” 1774
  13. Chapter 7. “Portia,” 1774–1775
  14. Chapter 8. “My Pen Is Always Freer Than My Tongue,” 1775
  15. Chapter 9. “Remember the Ladies,” 1776
  16. Chapter 10. “This Suspence Is Painfull,” 1776
  17. Chapter 11. “To Bear What I Cannot Fly From,” 1777
  18. Chapter 12. “An Army of Women,” 1777–1778
  19. Chapter 13. “I Should Be a Gainer,” 1778–1780
  20. Chapter 14. “A Queer Being,” 1780–1781
  21. Chapter 15. “Nothing Venture Nothing Have,” 1782
  22. Chapter 16. “I Will Run You in Debt,” 1783–1784
  23. Chapter 17. “A Lady at Sea,” 1784
  24. Chapter 18. “This Money Which I Call Mine,” 1784–1785
  25. Chapter 19. “Honour, Honour, Is at Stake,” 1785–1786
  26. Chapter 20. “The Grieved Mind Loves the Soother,” 1786–1787
  27. Chapter 21. “Wisdom Says Soloman Maketh the Face to Shine,” 1787
  28. Chapter 22. “I Design to Be Vastly Prudent,” 1787–1789
  29. Chapter 23. “Much More Productive,” 1789–1792
  30. Chapter 24. “With All the Ardour of Youth,” 1792–1795
  31. Chapter 25. “Presidante,” 1796–1797
  32. Chapter 26. “I Did Get an Alteration in It,” 1797–1798
  33. Chapter 27. “They Wisht the Old Woman Had Been There,” 1798–1800
  34. Chapter 28. “A Day of Darkness,” 1800–1804
  35. Chapter 29. “Your Mothers Legacy,” 1805–1809
  36. Chapter 30. “Rather Positive,” 1810–1811
  37. Chapter 31. “The ‘Threefold Silken Cord is Broken,’” 1811–1812
  38. Chapter 32. “God Loves a Cheerfull Christian,” 1812–1814
  39. Chapter 33. “I Was Thunder Struck,” 1814–1815
  40. Chapter 34. “Dr Tufts Has Always Been My Trustee,” 1815–1818
  41. Acknowledgments
  42. About the Author
  43. Abbreviations Used in Notes
  44. Notes
  45. Index
  46. Copyright