ABSTRACT
Abigail Adams's few paragraphs of complaint to her husband summarized the subordinate social status of women in Revolutionary America and petitioned for consideration, recognition, and leniency from the men who were designing the future of the nation. She reminded them that they should specifically recognize the defenselessness of women before the law and restrict the power that men had to control women. She argued that they should break with the past and observed that such a break would require laws to protect women, since men would continue to oppress women in the absence of legal restrictions upon their unlimited power. She urged men to give up the tide of "master"- invoking the imagery of slavery to which she had earlier alluded in the same letter-for that of "friend." She and John referenced each other as "dearest friend," and she drew on the symbolism that she knew he would comprehend as benevolent and caring. Finally, positioning her claim as a joke, or a tease, she threatened a women's rebellion, because even she understood only too well how outrageously radical her argument for women's civil rights would appear to the men of the Congress who had the power to change things. 7
Abigail's statement was strategically bold. She was venturing to use her influence as wife of an important politician to impact policy. It was a long reach, but John was actually in a position to introduce her ideas into the public debate in the same way that he could have raised the issue of slavery that she earlier suggested. He was unlikely to introduce either issue, as John's driving mission was to create unity among the diverse and quarrelsome colonies, and for him to support the dissolution
of slavery or the civil rights of women would have the opposite effectit would insure disunity. Consequently both Abigail and John joked about her advocacy of women's rights. Both of them understood the futility of raising an issue that violated the historical and ethical embeddedness of women's subordination in the culture of their time.
