Book Review on "Abigail Adams in a Thorough, Well-Researched"

Book Review 6 pages (1846 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Abigail Adams

In a thorough, well-researched and well-documented biography, Charles W. Akers presents a multi-faceted portrait of Abigail Adams. The book is scholarly yet written with the lay audience in mind; the text is presented chronologically and with compelling narrative that exposes Adams' persona and opinions. Attesting to its relevance to academia and historiography, Akers' biography is almost entirely based on primary source material, namely the two thousand letters she had written during the course of her life and on the Adams family manuscripts. As Abigail Adams stated to her husband, "My pen is always freer than my tongue. I have wrote many things to you that I suppose I never could have talk'd," (24). Thankfully, in spite of her lack of formal education, Abigail Adams did love to write, and wrote prolifically. While she did not author any books or publish any articles or works of fiction, Abigail Adams corresponded regularly with friends and relatives since she was a teenager; as an adult she wrote "almost daily," (23). Therefore, biographers and historians like Charles Akers have at their disposal a wealth of primary material from which to draw from and create and accurate portrait of one of America's first and most dynamic first ladies. The strengths of Akers' biography, entitled simply Abigail Adams: An American Woman, rests in the author's ability to at once provide personal and intimate details of her life while at the same time placing her life within a greater historical, social, and political context. Moreover, Akers accomplishes all this without falling pray to viewing Adams solely as a wife and mother. In fact, Abigail Adams is a feminist biography, one that emphatically accentuates the unique perspective of a woman living in revolutionary America, unapologetically accounting for the limitations that society placed on her and she upon herself. Viewing her both in her own right as an individual and as the wife and mother of two presidents of the United States, Akers offers his readers insight into both the personal character and into the historical period during which she lived.

Abigail Adams is therefore an excellent historical reference work that can provide a foundation for studying life in revolutionary America in general. Abigail Adams represents a specific stratum of American life: the upper-class, white, Protestant, New England, and female perspective. In the early chapters of the biography, Akers offers a thorough family background of Abigail so that the reader can place her in context of not only her society and times but also of her unique upbringing. Her father William Smith was a church minister in rural Massachusetts and in spite of his piety refused the evangelical trends sweeping across the colonies known as the Great Awakening. William Smith's moderate views on religion undoubtedly influenced his daughter Abigail, who throughout her life would exhibit moderation in her opinions on most social and political issues. Although she was a staunch revolutionary, highly critical of the old European powers and strongly in favor of American independence, Abigail Adams was no radical. For instance, her brand of feminism included deference to traditional roles of women as wives and mothers. She believed in and campaigned for legal equities for females that would establish women as being theoretically equal to males but viable in totally different social spheres. Adams felt that "the proper sphere for women was marriage and motherhood," and that the "emancipation of American women must take place within the confines of marriage, radical Christianity, and republican institutions," (115). Nevertheless, Akers avers that Abigail Adams can be honored by historians as a seminal feminist, if not because she altered public policy then because she exemplified women's liberation and intellectual independence in her words and deeds. Throughout his biography, Akers continually refers to women's issues and to Abigail Adams' stances in particular. The book is therefore as pertinent to a feminist study of American history as it is to American history in general.

One of the reasons why Abigail Adams makes such a compelling read is because the author painstakingly weaves the personal life of Abigail Adams with the overarching political and social realities of her lifetime. Adams lived through the Revolutionary War and suffered through smallpox vaccinations and other health-related issues peculiar to life in early America. She traveled to the Old Country to be with her husband and thus expanded her vision of the world. Her travels to Europe enabled Adams to place the American Revolution within a broader historical context, something that most men, let alone women, of her time would have been unable to do. Furthermore, Abigail Adams married a man with definite political ambitions and talents. His career would springboard her own innate intellectualism and prompt her to write frequently on her political viewpoints concerning the War of Independence and America's future. Through her husband's career, in which Abigail was intimately involved, she was able to understand the underlying philosophies of the revolution. Akers brings to his readers the unique voice of Abigail Adams. While her voice might not be representative of the entire population of the new union, it nevertheless sheds light on how one woman perceived the changes occurring to her society and to the world at large. Few other women in her day were able to so thoughtfully compile their opinions and impart their insider knowledge of which Abigail Adams was privy.

Through her family and her husband's connections, Adams rubbed elbows with the likes of John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, and John Jay. Historians will therefore be able to use Akers' biography as a source to reference the lives of these men. Abigail Adams held definite and strong opinions and her characterizations of famous American statesmen could prove useful in offering a thorough portrait of these legendary political figures. For example, Abigail Adams had little respect for John Hancock, who also happened to marry into the Quincy family. She believed Hancock to be "vain, at worst morally deficient," noticing that his "showy patriotism sprang from vanity or baser motives," (40). Researchers can also glean from Akers' book a more thorough composite of Abigail Adams' husband John as well as of her son John Quincy. Based on her letters and the family manuscripts, Akers lends insight into these two men as well as Abigail Adams.

However, as the subject of his biography, Abigail takes center stage. Her personal life is discussed in full and in detail, including her sexuality. For example, during their courtship, John Adams described her as being "physically passionate," at a time when "emotions pushed hard against the bounds of prudence," (14). Adams was ten years her senior, but their age difference did not prevent their partnership from being as equitable as possible in those days. John Adams, as seen from Abigail's eyes, proved to be the ideal husband for a woman of her nature. Just as she fully supported her husband in his career and put up with long years of his absence, so too did he respect her intellectual prowess and valued her insights and opinions. Akers suggests that their equitable marriage was also due in part to the social climate in which they thrived: the socially liberal milieu of Massachusetts.

A considerable portion of Akers' book is devoted to her experiences as wife and as mother. Abigail's six pregnancies were difficult, and two of her children perished. In fact, matters of health would plague Adams throughout the course of her life. Akers' willingness to address sensitive issues provides a more thorough and meaningful context to the biography. Because health matters were of daily importance to both men and women of the time, Akers' decision to address Abigail's health issues can also help historians better understand overall social health issues as well as the condition of the medical profession in early America.

Moreover, Akers incorporates another key social issue of the time into the biography: slavery. In addition to promoting equality for women, Abigail Adams acknowledged the need for abolition in the new nation. From her own letter to her husband, Akers offers the following quote: "I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be Eaqually strong in the Breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow Creatures of theirs," (42-43). Therefore, Abigail Adams recognized that slavery was "a contraction to Whig ideology and the Christian religion," (43). With a balanced and objective stance, however, Akers also notes that Abigail was not without her prejudices. Her family owned at least a few black slaves and employed black servants, and during her marriage to John she also employed black servants. When Abigail made her first trip overseas, she reveals her baser opinions of blacks, referring to the "lazy dirty Negro cook" on board (80). Akers' decision to include this crude quote indicates his willingness to paint a thorough portrait of Adams, flaws and all.

Her trip to the Old World marks a major turning point in Abigail Adams' life. Traveling wrested her from routine, thrust her into new and unfamiliar surroundings,… READ MORE

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