Essay #1

Unremarkable Beginnings with Concealed Secrets

In the eighteenth century, women were makers of the home, and they were not usually educated. And if they were educated, it was more of a rarity. Even though Abigail Adams never received any formal education, she was free to use her father’s library (Baym and Levine 625). She was also a very bright and honest woman, as well as an amazing leader. Abigail Adams was left at home to care for the family and farm while her husband went off to be in the Continental Congress. She was a good listener and was well versed in the way politics worked. Abigail Adams used her use of the English language and place as a woman in her letters to help her husband John Adams, during his time in the Continental Congress by deceiving any unwanted readers, helping each other to stay close as a couple, and concealing topics that needed to be kept secret.

To keep others from discovering the true intention of some letters, Abigail Adams uses her incorrect spelling and misuse of the English language to deceive any unwanted readers. In her letters to her husband, she frequently misspells words and uses somewhat awkward sentence structures in the beginnings and the ends of her letters. However, the middles of the letters were usually very structurally sound with fewer spelling errors along with important political information. For example, at the beginning of a letter to John Adams, dated November 27, 1775, she writes, “I yesterday took a puke which has releived me, and I feel much better to day.” As one can see, “relieved” and “today” are spelled incorrectly, and there should be a comma before the “which” in the sentence instead of after it. However, near the middle of this same letter, Abigail Adams writes “The Building up a Great Empire, which was only hinted at by my correspondent may now I suppose be realized even more by unbelievers” (Abigail Adams 631). This sentence is grammatically sound in all aspects; she even has a comma before the “which,” and “unbelievers” is spelled with the “i” before the “e,” where her previous use of a similar word was incorrect. In the first part of the letter, she stated her current predicament, and then went on to talk about how the weather ruined the crop of apples (631). These are ordinary topics. After this she continued to explain and discuss her fears and questions on how the independent American government should be and shows what she wanted from the new government when she wrote, “whatever occurs, may justice and righteousness be the Stability of our times, and order arise out of confusion” (632). This was the true intention of the letter, and it was hidden behind every day, mundane, issues. Though Abigail Adams never received any formal education, she had access to her father’s library, and read great authors’ works. When a person reads a lot, it can greatly improve his or her vocabulary and grammatical abilities. From the sentence structure in the middle parts of many of her letters, she illustrates an excellent understanding of the English language. This would explain the wonderful flow and eloquence that she produces in the middle parts of her writings while the beginnings were often so awkward and words were misspelled.

Even though Abigail Adams used information from the private sphere to decoy any unwanted readers, she also wrote about what was happening at home so that they could stay close to each other as a couple and a family. One example is when Abigail Adams writes, “Master John is very anxious to write, but has been confined for several days with a severe cold which has given him soar Eyes” (Abigail Adams 5 November 1775). This points out that Abigail Adams was keeping her husband informed about their son and his illness. It also shows that their son wanted to stay in contact with his father, even though he was not physically able to. Their marriage was kept strong through these letters too. An example of this is when John Adams writes to Abigail, “My Best Friend…Yours of Novr. is before me. I wish I could write you every day, more than once, for although I have a Number of Friends, and many Relations who are very dear to me, yet all the Friendship I have for others is far unequal to that which warms my Heart for you” (John Adams 3 December 1775). This endearing start to his letter told her that he loved her, which was very important because she was managing their home and family alone and was very lonely for him. But reading these lovely sentiments from her husband kept her close to him. She also returned these feelings to him; “I want to hear from you every day, and I always feel sorrow when I come to the close of a Letter. Your Time must be greatly engrosed, but little of it to spaire to the calls of Friendship, and I have reason to think I have the largest share of it” (Abigail Adams 12 November 1775). By exchanging these sentiments, it shows that Abigail and John Adams remained close even though they were miles apart and kept each other up-to-date with family matters.

Some people may argue that Abigail Adams’s writing was not sophisticated because of her spelling and grammatical errors and the fact that she was not formally educated. However, this did not affect her writing, for she was a very eloquent and illustrative writer. For example, she wrote in one letter, “Let revenge or ambition, pride, lust or profit tempt these Men to a base and vile action, you may as well hope to bind up a hungry tiger with a cobweb as to hold such debauched patriots in the visionary chains of Decency or to charm them with the intellectual Beauty of Truth and reason” (5 November 1775). Not only was she eloquent, it she was almost poetic. Another argument might be that she was not politically helpful to her husband. However, there were many instances when she aided him in those matters. For example, when describing a potential patriot, John Adams replied to her, “I have no Confidence in any Man who is not exact in his Morals. And you know that I look upon Religion as the most perfect System, and the most awfull Sanction of Morality. Your Goodness of Heart, as well as your sound judgment will applaud me for using the utmost Caution” (John Adams 18 November 1775). He respected her judgements on others and looked to her for advice on such people.

John and Abigail Adams frequently wrote to each other about sensitive subjects that could have been very dangerous for them because it was treasonous to be involved meetings like the Continental Congress. Abigail Adams was keeping her husband up-to-date of what was happening politically in the public sphere in Braintree so that he and the Congress could make more informed decisions. Both Abigail and John Adams often led into their sensitive communications by starting with mundane news, or lack thereof, or something in the private sphere to possibly cover up what was written next. If an unwanted reader was merely skimming the letters and only reading the first and last of paragraphs, they likely dismissed the middle as unimportant. For example, Abigail starts one of the letters by writing, “My conscience accuses me, but I have waited in hopes of having something worth saying to you, some event worth relating; but it has been a dead calm of dull repose. No event of any importance upon either side excepting the burning of some houses by the Enemy upon Dorchester Neck has taken place since you left us” (Abigail Adams 21 February 1775). She started with a very mundane topic of the woes of a lonely wife, yet she ends the paragraph with a piece of information about houses being burned by the British. One dangerous piece of correspondence between Abigail and John Adams was when Abigail states, “Nothing new has transpired since I wrote you last. I have not heard of one persons escaping out of Town, nor of any Manuover of any kind” (Abigail Adams 5 November 1775). In this passage, she is saying that nothing new has happened, yet it also says that she is watching for any people escaping or military maneuvers that would be advantageous for the Continental Congress to know about. If anyone knew Abigail Adams was sending this kind of sensitive information to her husband, she could have been in danger of being accused of treason, or being watched much more closely by the British.

Abigail Adams was a very clever and eloquent woman, who helped her husband through her letters and advice by making it look like she was just another uneducated woman of the time. She used the English language and place as a woman in the eighteenth century to aid her husband by misleading any unwanted readers, staying connected with her husband, and camouflaging secret information passed between them.

Works Cited

Adams, Abigail. “John and Abigail Adams Letters.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. A. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. pp 626-639.

---. “5 November 1775.” Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed 18 February 2017

---. “12 November 1775.” Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed 18 February 2017

---. “27 November 1775.” Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed 18 February 2017

---. “21 February 1775.” Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed 18 February 2017

Adams, John. “18 February 1776.” Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed 18 February 2017

Baym, Nina and Robert Levine. “John and Abigail Adams Letters.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. A. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. pp 625-626.