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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that proves there's more than one way to make history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabelusier, and in this episode, we're talking about one

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Speaker 1: woman's quiet campaign to improve women's legal standing during the

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Speaker 1: American Revolution. The day was March thirty first, seventeen seventy six.

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Speaker 1: Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband, John Adams,

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Speaker 1: imploring him and his political colleagues to keep the interests

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Speaker 1: of women in mind. At the time, John Adams was

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Speaker 1: away in Philadelphia attending the Second Continental Congress as a

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Speaker 1: delicate of Massachusetts. Abigail knew that the members of that

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Speaker 1: body were meeting to discuss America's future, including potential new

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Speaker 1: laws and the civil rights of citizens. She also knew

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Speaker 1: that she had the ear of a fairly open minded

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Speaker 1: man with a powerful role in the new government, so

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Speaker 1: she seized the chance to put in a word for

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Speaker 1: the nation's women. Over the years, Abigail Adams shared quite

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Speaker 1: a few words with her husband, expressing her views on

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Speaker 1: everything from the education system to the injustice of slavery.

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Speaker 1: In fact, between the years seventeen sixty two and eighteen

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Speaker 1: o one, John and Abigail Adams exchanged more than eleven

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Speaker 1: hundred letters, the vast majority of which now reside with

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Speaker 1: the Massachusetts Historical Society. But of all the words that

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Speaker 1: the future First Lady penned, none are more famous or

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Speaker 1: more resonant than those of March thirty first, seventeen seventy six.

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Speaker 1: After bringing her husband up to speed on the latest

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Speaker 1: news from Boston, Abigail shifted her focus to the work

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Speaker 1: of the Continental Congress. I long to hear that you

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Speaker 1: have declared an independency, she wrote. And by the way,

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Speaker 1: in the new code of laws, which I suppose it

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Speaker 1: will be necessary for you to make, I desire you

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Speaker 1: would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable

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Speaker 1: to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited

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Speaker 1: power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men

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Speaker 1: would be tyrants if they could, if particular care and

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Speaker 1: attention is not paid to the ladies. We are determined

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Speaker 1: to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound

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Speaker 1: by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.

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Speaker 1: Abigail's language is striking, as it echoed the same charged

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Speaker 1: rhetoric used by John Adams and his fellow revolutionaries. Just

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Speaker 1: as they were staging a rebellion against the tyranny of

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Speaker 1: Great Britain, Abigail warned of a women's uprising against the

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Speaker 1: tyranny of unjust husbands. Although she called for better treatment

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Speaker 1: for women, Abigail Adams likely wasn't what you'd call a feminist.

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Speaker 1: She didn't advocate for women's suffrage or even for an

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Speaker 1: equal standing in society or government. However, she was still

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Speaker 1: an intelligent and empathetic woman who recognized that her sex

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Speaker 1: had long been disrespected, underestimated, and exploited with impunity. She

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Speaker 1: likely saw America's experiment with collective self government as a

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Speaker 1: chance to right those wrongs going forward, and she used

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Speaker 1: the little power she had to try and push her

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Speaker 1: husband and the rest of the Congress in that direction.

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Speaker 1: She had good reason to think her request might be

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Speaker 1: honored too. Unlike many couples, especially in those days, John

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Speaker 1: and Abigail Adams had a relationship based on mutual respect

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Speaker 1: and affection. Rather than viewing his wife as subservient, John

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Speaker 1: treated Abigail like a true partner and confidant. During his

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Speaker 1: long absences, she would even manage the family farm. She

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Speaker 1: hired workers, brokered sales, and even bought new property, though

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Speaker 1: always in John's name, as she couldn't legally own land herself.

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Speaker 1: Once America's independence was secured, Abigail began to act as

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Speaker 1: a political counsel to her husband as well. In fact,

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Speaker 1: her influence became so well known that, after John Adams

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Speaker 1: became the second president in seventeen ninety seven, Abigail's critics

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Speaker 1: began calling her missus President. Today, historians have a much

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Speaker 1: more positive nickname for John and Abigail Adams, America's original

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Speaker 1: power couple. That said, even though their marriage was more

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Speaker 1: even keeled than most, they still didn't see eye to

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Speaker 1: eye on everything. Case in point, John Adams ignored his

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Speaker 1: wife's plea for him to remember the ladies. In his

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Speaker 1: somewhat tongue in cheek response two weeks later, Adam said, quote,

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Speaker 1: as to your extraordinary code of laws, I cannot but laugh.

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Speaker 1: We know better than to repeal our masculine systems, although

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Speaker 1: they are in full force. You know they are little

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Speaker 1: more than theory. We have only the name of masters,

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Speaker 1: and rather than give up this which would completely subject

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Speaker 1: us to the despotism of the Petticoat. I hope General

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Speaker 1: Washington and all our brave heroes would fight. Although written playfully,

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Speaker 1: John's reply reveals some stark truths. It implies that some men,

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Speaker 1: like himself knew in their hearts that women were just

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Speaker 1: as capable as men, but they chose not to level

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Speaker 1: the playing field in order to keep their own advantage.

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Speaker 1: Another part of the same letter reveals just how little

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Speaker 1: thought the founding fathers had previously given to women's rights.

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Speaker 1: The American Revolution had sparked debates on all kinds of

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Speaker 1: related topics, including the practice of slavery and the rights

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Speaker 1: of Native Americans, but no one in the fledgling government

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Speaker 1: had even considered that America's women might also desire independence,

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Speaker 1: That is, at least until Abigail Adams introduced the idea

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Speaker 1: we have been told. John Adams wrote that our struggle

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Speaker 1: has loosened the bands of government everywhere, That children and

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Speaker 1: apprentices were disobedient, that schools and colleges were grown turbulent,

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Speaker 1: that Indians slighted their guardians, and Negroes grew insolent to

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Speaker 1: their masters. But your letter was the first intimation that

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Speaker 1: another tribe more numerous and powerful than all the rest

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Speaker 1: were grown discontented. Despite John Adams's epiphany, the legal rights

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Speaker 1: of women in America when unchanged for a long time

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Speaker 1: to come. In fact, it was nearly a hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty years before the Nineteenth Amendment would finally grant women

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Speaker 1: the right to vote. Looking back now, the power of

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Speaker 1: Abigail Adams's letter isn't so much in what it achieved,

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Speaker 1: but in what it represented, the private first steps of

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Speaker 1: a women's revolution. In time, that fight for equality would

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Speaker 1: outgrow personal correspondence, spilling into the streets and voting booths

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Speaker 1: of the entire country. By that point, remember, the Ladies

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Speaker 1: was no longer a polite request, It was an ultimatum.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can

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Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, you can always send them my

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Speaker 1: way by writing to this day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show, and thank

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again soon

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Speaker 1: for another day in history class,