Challenges Faced

Abigail was known to be a silent hero and President Harry Truman has also said that she "would have been a better president than her husband. "Although she was known to have strong political beliefs and her husband always asking for advice before, during, and after his presidency, she was limited with what she was able to do due to being in an era where woman had no rights.

When it comes to the Revolutionary War, she had been away from her husband John Adams, while also taking care of their household, their four children, women's rights, and abolition. It had been nearly a decade she had been away from her husband. During the time she was holding down the fort, there was a battle zone right outside her window. Her and her kids would feel the vibrations from the cannons, but this didn't stop her from doing what she could for the soldiers in need of help.

Along with assisting the injured soldiers, she would later find out that the army themselves had been waiting for weapons they needed but never received bullets or gun powder. I can only imagine the reaction Abigail would have once she heard of this, but as the brave women she was, she saw a challenge the army had come across and faced it herself. She immediately went home and with the help of her children, they gathered all the steel and silver in their house, melted it down, and made bullets for the army. This would later inspire the soldiers to go to one of the British bases and steal more gun powder and three large cannons. To think that George Washington once said that women would be disruptive and a distration to the troops. In reality, women like Abigail Adams, would be a huge asset and made heroic contributions when she could.

Along with the Revolutionary War, her family had also been faced with the smallpox epidemic. She did her best to make sure her children were safe from it so she made sure they got the vaccine. Although that sounds like the right steps, this was the time where vaccines were a bit different. It wasn't just getting a shot and being sick for a few days, this was severing a bit of their skin, inserting some of the pus from the smallpox, and then bandaging it. It did do its job for a while, but later on her oldest daughter caught the smallpox disease severely which she would later recover from, but still be left with the scars from the boils. Even though the oldest daughter recovered, the disease would then kill her mother and John's brother.