Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams was born on November 22, 1744. Adams was the wife of one American president and the mother of another American president. She married John Adams, the second president of the United States on October 25, 1764. John and Abigail Adams had six children together. One of their sons, John Quincy Adams, would later become the sixth president of the United States.

Abigail Adams is most remembered for the letters that she wrote back and forth to her husband while he was working with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. John Adams would frequently write to her and ask for her advice on both social and political issues of the time. The letters of Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, are part of Revolutionary War history because they serve as a firsthand eye-witness account of political life during this time.

Abigail Adams is also known as the first “First Lady” to live in the White House, which became the official residence of the presidential family, after the nation's capital was relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1800. The “First Lady” enjoyed life at the newly built White House mansion even though it was still under construction when the “First Family” moved in.

When Thomas Jefferson defeated Adams in the presidential election of 1800, Abigail and her family moved back to Quincy, Massachusetts. After leaving the White House, Abigail Adams continued to write letters to famous Americans of the time like Thomas Jefferson. She also followed John Quincy’s political career with great interest. Abigail Adams died from typhoid fever at the age of 73 on October 28, 1818. Both John and Abigail are buried together in a family crypt in Quincy, Massachusetts.