Editing Abigail Adams (section)

==Early life and family (1744–1759)==
[[File:Abigail Adams birthplace, Weymouth MA.jpg|left|thumb|Abigail Adams's birthplace in [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]]]]
Abigail Adams was born on November 22, 1744, at the North Parish Congregational Church in [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]], to William Smith and Elizabeth (née Quincy) Smith.<ref name="Cullen-DuPont2000">{{cite book|author=Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn |title=Encyclopedia of women's history in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oIro7MtiFuYC&pg=PA374|date= 2000|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-4100-8|pages=3–4}}</ref> On her mother's side, she was descended from the [[Quincy political family|Quincy family]], a well-known political family in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony|Massachusetts colony]]. Through her mother she was a cousin of [[Dorothy Quincy]], who was married to [[John Hancock]]. Adams was also the great-granddaughter of John Norton, founding pastor of [[Old Ship Church]] in [[Hingham, Massachusetts]], the only remaining 17th-century Puritan [[meetinghouse]] in [[Massachusetts]]. Smith married Elizabeth Quincy in 1740, and together they had three daughters and a son; Abigail was the second child.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/adams-lifespan/|title=American Experience &#124; The Adams Family: A Timeline|publisher=PBS|access-date=May 14, 2024}}</ref> As with several of her ancestors, Adams's father was a liberal [[Congregationalism in the United States|Congregational]] minister: a leader in a [[New England|Yankee]] society that held its clergy in high esteem. Smith did not focus his preaching on [[predestination]] or [[original sin]]; instead he emphasized the importance of reason and morality.<ref name="uua">{{cite web|url=http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/abigailadams.html|title=Abigail Adams|date=April 21, 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010421162535/http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/abigailadams.html|archive-date=April 21, 2001}}</ref> In July 1775 his wife Elizabeth, with whom he had been married for 35 years, died of smallpox. In 1784, at age 77, Smith died.

The Smith family were slaveholders and are known to have owned at least four people. A slave named Phoebe took a caretaking role to Abigail and other children; later on she would work as a paid servant for Abigail after she became free. Abigail would come to express anti-slavery beliefs as an adult.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Annika |last=Hom |date=February 6, 2019 |title=The untold stories of slaves who lived in Abigail Adams's birthplace |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/globelocal/2019/02/06/the-untold-stories-slaves-who-lived-abigail-adams-birthplace/HKhfj6jdy7r161zjJPaYII/story.html |access-date=October 1, 2022 |website=The Boston Globe |language=en-US}}</ref>

Abigail did not receive formal schooling; she was frequently sick as a child, something which may have been a factor preventing her from receiving an education.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|7}} Later in life, Adams would also consider that she was deprived an education because females were rarely given such an opportunity.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-4fk5FIvGKoC&q=abigail%20adams%20mother&pg=PA7|title=Abigail Adams|last=Holton|first=Woody|date=2010|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781451607369}}</ref>{{Rp|7}} Although she did not receive a formal education, her mother taught her and her sisters to read, write and cipher; her father's, uncle's and grandfather's large libraries enabled the sisters to study English and French literature.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="uua"/> Her grandmother, Elizabeth Quincy, also contributed to Adams's education.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|8}} As she grew up, Adams read with friends in an effort to further her learning.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|8}} She became one of the most erudite women ever to serve as first lady.<ref>[[#Withey|Withey]], ch. 1</ref>