ABSTRACT
John Adams was in love. To be sure, he had been in love before, recording in his diary impressions of the girls, including references to one girl he almost married. Meanwhile, John felt attracted to Abigail, or "Nabby," for whom he was developing an affection that in depth and maturity had little in common with his previous infatuations. Abigail was young, only seventeen, nine years younger than John, but she was an unusual girl for any era, particularly for her own time and place in the eighteenth century. John married Abigail on October 25, 1764, avowing that she who had "always softened and warmed" his heart would "polish and refine" his "sentiments of life and manners," and "banish all the unsocial and ill-natured particles" of his being. Abigail was in her sixth pregnancy. It appeared to John that the time was far off when he would be able to return to his family.
