A Crossroads Resource
Unit IV: What was the American Revolution? 1760-1836
Question/Problem 2: Was the American Revolution a revolution?
American Revolution:
Reading C: Women
Abigail Adams maintained the family farm during the Revolutionary War
while her husband John was busy working with the Continental Congress.
She frequently wrote her husband to share news of the day. The following
passage is excerpted from one of these letters written in 1776. Read the
following and answer the question below.
...I long to hear that you have declared an independence -- and
by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary
for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more
generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such
unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would
be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid
to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold
ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly
established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy
willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and
endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the
vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with
impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us
only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by
providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being
make use of that power only for our happiness.
Diane Ravitch, ed., The American Reader: Words That Moved A Nation (New
York: Harper Collins Publishers. 1990), p. 31.
Question: What changes did Abigail Adams hope to achieve during the
American Revolution?
Back To Question #2