Education

Cover image: Adams, Abigail. Letter to John Adams, June 30, 1778. Adams Family Papers, http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17780630aa&hi=1&query=education&tag=text&archive=all&rec=8&start=0&numRecs=94. Accessed 30 May 2019.

Adam’s believed that women needed proper education to fulfill their domestic duties and as mothers, to prepare their male children for engaged and democratic citizenship. As she noted in a letter to her niece Lucy Cranch, “knowledge would teach our Sex candour, and those who aim at the attainment of it, in order to render themselves more amiable & usefull in the world.”

Adam’s herself was a also voracious learner. Although she grew up without receiving a formal education, she was taught how to read and write from her grandmother and her parent’s abundant library provided many opportunities for a young Abigail, and her sisters, Mary and Elizabeth (or “Betsy”) to read in both English and French. During the years of the Revolution, Abigail was the primary “farmeress” of the Adams’ family farm. Despite inflation, and a time that required “financial wizardry to survive”, Abigail managed to keep the farm afloat, prevent debt and maintain the funds for her children's own education.

Looking Guide: How do you think Abigail’s limited education as a child may have influenced her views on women’s rights? 

Firstly, on a personal level, Europe provided opportunity for a curious Abigail to learn. For example, she subscribed to twelve scientific lectures in 1787 and although illness prevented her from seeing all twelve, she revelled in learning about “an assemblage of Ideas entirely new” on subjects like “experiments in Electricity, Magnetism Hydrostatics optics [and] pemematicks.” Abigail's enjoyment is tangible and viewing the opportunities she had to learn in Europe--an experience American women were barred from--only intensified her belief in a continued female education: “It was like going into a Beautifull Country, which I never saw before, a Country which our American Females are not permitted to visit or inspect” 

In addition to attending lectures, Abigail was able to explore theater and arts. During her time in England, she was afforded the opportunity to see Handel’s Messiah at Westminster Abbey, an experience she described as deeply ethereal: “I should have sometimes fancied myself amongst a higher order of Beings.” 

As Abigail continued her exploration of Europe’s cultural offerings, she shared her newfound learning with her female friends at home, particularly with Mercy Otis Warren, a pro-revolution author, playwright and satirist. Together they discussed the political atmosphere around them, both having first-hand experience communicating with and being around the founding fathers and forerunners of the United States. While in France, Abigail went into minute detail to explain the cultural differences she saw around her to Otis. Their intellectual friendship was a rarity during the time but provides a vital perspective on the state of America and Franco-American relations. Even though Abigail’s trip would end, she and Otis continued to discuss French politics well beyond her diplomatic mission. During the years of the French revolution, Adams provided Otis with books on the foreign state of affairs. As she wrote to Otis on October 5th 1799: “As I have an opportunity by the Lieut Govenour I send you a late publication by the Abbe Barruel...when you have read the Books...you will perceive that he is a Bigoted Catholick, but a man of science, and great industery, the system which he discloses freezes one with horror." Barrel’s text, Memories sur le Jacobinisme, discusses the Jacobin political faction, an extreme and radical group which believed in the violent reign of terror that followed the French Revolution. Adams and Otis’ continual discussion of foreign politics represent a deep interest in the evolving world around them. Abigail's letter was also written during her time as First Lady illustrating that her role as an educated individual was as much a personal one as it was a political one.

Looking Guide: Abigail frequently discussed learning, politics and education with her female friends and family members. How do you think these intellectual relationships may have affected her view on the importance of female education?

Abigail's time in Europe intensified her belief in female education by viewing the opportunities she had to learn the political and personal benefits of them. As she is famously quoted as saying, “if we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers, we should have learned women.”

Looking Guide: Although Abigail was passionate about women’s rights as a whole why might she have had a particular affinity for female education?