Inheriting New England's strongest traditions, Abigail Smith was born in 1744 at
Weymouth, Massachusetts. On her mother's side she was descended from the
Quincys, a family of great prestige in the colony; her father and other
forebearers were Congregational ministers, leaders in a society that held its
clergy in high esteem.

Like other women of the time, Abigail lacked formal education; but her
curiosity spurred her keen intelligence, and she read avidly the books at hand.
Reading created a bond between her and young John Adams, Harvard graduate
launched on a career in law, and they were married in 1764. It was a marriage
of the mind and of the heart, enduring for more than half a century, enriched
by time.

The young couple lived on John's small farm at Braintree or in Boston as his
practice expanded. In ten years she bore three sons and two daughters; she
looked after family and home when he went traveling as circuit judge. "Alas!"
she wrote in December 1773, "How many snow banks divide thee and me...."

Long separations kept Abigail from her husband while he served the country they
loved, as delegate to the Continental Congress, envoy abroad, elected officer
under the Constitution. Her letters--pungent, witty, and vivid, spelled just as
she spoke--detail her life in times of revolution. They tell the story of the
woman who stayed at home to struggle with wartime shortages and inflation; to
run the farm with a minimum of help; to teach four children when formal
education was interrupted. Most of all, they tell of her loneliness without her
"dearest Friend." The "one single expression," she said, "dwelt upon my mind and
played about my Heart...."

In 1784, she joined him at his diplomatic post in Paris, and observed with
interest the manners of the French. After 1785, she filled the difficult role
of wife of the first United States Minister to Great Britain, and did so with
dignity and tact. They returned happily in 1788 to Massachusetts and the
handsome house they had just acquired in Braintree, later called Quincy, home
for the rest of their lives.

As wife of the first Vice President, Abigail became a good friend to Mrs.
Washington and a valued help in official entertaining, drawing on her
experience of courts and society abroad. After 1791, however, poor health
forced her to spend as much time as possible in Quincy. Illness or trouble
found her resolute; as she once declared, she would "not forget the blessings
which sweeten life."

When John Adams was elected President, she continued a formal pattern of
entertaining--even in the primitive conditions she found at the new capital in
November 1800. The city was wilderness, the President's House far from
completion. Her private complaints to her family provide blunt accounts of
both, but for her three months in Washington she duly held her dinners and
receptions.

The Adamses retired to Quincy in 1801, and for 17 years enjoyed the
companionship that public life had long denied them. Abigail died in 1818, and
is buried beside her husband in United First Parish Church. She leaves her
country a most remarkable record as patriot and First Lady, wife of one
President and mother of another.