Abigail Adams urges her husband to “remember the ladies” - March 31st, 1776

On this day in 1776, Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband, John Adams, imploring him and his political colleagues to keep the interests of women in mind.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that proves there's more than one way to make history.
I'm Gabelusier, and in this episode, we're talking about one

(00:23):
woman's quiet campaign to improve women's legal standing during the
American Revolution. The day was March thirty first, seventeen seventy six.
Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband, John Adams,

(00:47):
imploring him and his political colleagues to keep the interests
of women in mind. At the time, John Adams was
away in Philadelphia attending the Second Continental Congress as a
delicate of Massachusetts. Abigail knew that the members of that
body were meeting to discuss America's future, including potential new

(01:08):
laws and the civil rights of citizens. She also knew
that she had the ear of a fairly open minded
man with a powerful role in the new government, so
she seized the chance to put in a word for
the nation's women. Over the years, Abigail Adams shared quite
a few words with her husband, expressing her views on

(01:29):
everything from the education system to the injustice of slavery.
In fact, between the years seventeen sixty two and eighteen
o one, John and Abigail Adams exchanged more than eleven
hundred letters, the vast majority of which now reside with
the Massachusetts Historical Society. But of all the words that

(01:49):
the future First Lady penned, none are more famous or
more resonant than those of March thirty first, seventeen seventy six.
After bringing her husband up to speed on the latest
news from Boston, Abigail shifted her focus to the work
of the Continental Congress. I long to hear that you
have declared an independency, she wrote. And by the way,

(02:13):
in the new code of laws, which I suppose it
will be necessary for you to make, I desire you
would 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

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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.
Abigail's language is striking, as it echoed the same charged
rhetoric used by John Adams and his fellow revolutionaries. Just

(02:55):
as they were staging a rebellion against the tyranny of
Great Britain, Abigail warned of a women's uprising against the
tyranny of unjust husbands. Although she called for better treatment
for women, Abigail Adams likely wasn't what you'd call a feminist.
She didn't advocate for women's suffrage or even for an
equal standing in society or government. However, she was still

(03:19):
an intelligent and empathetic woman who recognized that her sex
had long been disrespected, underestimated, and exploited with impunity. She
likely saw America's experiment with collective self government as a
chance to right those wrongs going forward, and she used
the little power she had to try and push her

(03:39):
husband and the rest of the Congress in that direction.
She had good reason to think her request might be
honored too. Unlike many couples, especially in those days, John
and Abigail Adams had a relationship based on mutual respect
and affection. Rather than viewing his wife as subservient, John
treated Abigail like a true partner and confidant. During his

(04:03):
long absences, she would even manage the family farm. She
hired workers, brokered sales, and even bought new property, though
always in John's name, as she couldn't legally own land herself.
Once America's independence was secured, Abigail began to act as
a political counsel to her husband as well. In fact,

(04:23):
her influence became so well known that, after John Adams
became the second president in seventeen ninety seven, Abigail's critics
began calling her missus President. Today, historians have a much
more positive nickname for John and Abigail Adams, America's original
power couple. That said, even though their marriage was more

(04:46):
even keeled than most, they still didn't see eye to
eye on everything. Case in point, John Adams ignored his
wife's plea for him to remember the ladies. In his
somewhat tongue in cheek response two weeks later, Adam said, quote,
as to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh.

(05:06):
We know better than to repeal our masculine systems, although
they are in full force. You know they are little
more than theory. We have only the name of masters,
and rather than give up this which would completely subject
us to the despotism of the Petticoat. I hope General
Washington and all our brave heroes would fight. Although written playfully,

(05:29):
John's reply reveals some stark truths. It implies that some men,
like himself knew in their hearts that women were just
as capable as men, but they chose not to level
the playing field in order to keep their own advantage.
Another part of the same letter reveals just how little
thought the founding fathers had previously given to women's rights.

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The American Revolution had sparked debates on all kinds of
related topics, including the practice of slavery and the rights
of Native Americans, but no one in the fledgling government
had even considered that America's women might also desire independence,
That is, at least until Abigail Adams introduced the idea

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we have been told. John Adams wrote that our struggle
has loosened the bands of government everywhere, That children and
apprentices were disobedient, that schools and colleges were grown turbulent,
that Indians slighted their guardians, and Negroes grew insolent to
their masters. But your letter was the first intimation that

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another tribe more numerous and powerful than all the rest
were grown discontented. Despite John Adams's epiphany, the legal rights
of women in America when unchanged for a long time
to come. In fact, it was nearly a hundred and
fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment would finally grant women

(06:54):
the right to vote. Looking back now, the power of
Abigail Adams's letter isn't so much in what it achieved,
but in what it represented, the private first steps of
a women's revolution. In time, that fight for equality would
outgrow personal correspondence, spilling into the streets and voting booths

(07:15):
of the entire country. By that point, remember, the Ladies
was no longer a polite request, It was an ultimatum.
I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. You can
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(07:36):
and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have
any comments or suggestions, you can always send them my
way by writing to this day at iHeartMedia dot com.
Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show, and thank
you for listening. I'll see you back here again soon
for another day in history class,