Editing Abigail Adams (section)

==Political viewpoints==
[[File:Thomas Jefferson Abigail Adams letter 1817.jpg|thumb|One of the last letters sent by [[Thomas Jefferson]] at [[Monticello]] to Abigail Adams, May 1817]]

Biographer Lynne Withey argues for her conservatism because she: "feared revolution; she valued stability, believed that family and religion were the essential props of social order, and considered inequality a social necessity".<ref>[[#Withey|Withey]], p. x.</ref> Her 18th-century mindset held that "improved legal and social status for women was not inconsistent with their essentially domestic role."<ref>[[#Withey|Withey]], p. 82.</ref>

===Women's rights===
Abigail Adams wrote about the troubles and concerns she had as an 18th-century woman.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gelles |first1=Edith Belle |title=Portia: The World of Abigail Adams |date=1995 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-21023-4 }}{{page needed|date=May 2021}}</ref> She was an advocate of married women's [[Property|property rights]] and more opportunities for women, particularly in the field of education. Women, she believed, should not submit to laws not made in their interest, nor should they be content with the simple role of being companions to their husbands; they should educate themselves and thus be recognized for their intellectual capabilities so they could guide and influence the lives of their children and husbands. She is known for her March 1776 letter to John and the [[Continental Congress]], requesting that they, "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."<ref name="uua"/>

John declined Abigail's "extraordinary code of laws", but acknowledged to Abigail, "We have only the name of masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely subject us to the despotism of the [[petticoat]], I hope [[George Washington|General Washington]] and all our brave heroes would fight."<ref name="JAAA">{{cite web|title=Adams Family Papers |url=https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760414ja&hi=1&query=saucy&tag=text&archive=all&rec=8&start=0&numRecs=15 |work=Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1776 |publisher= Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. |author=Adams, John |author2=Adams, Abigail |date=March–May 1776 }}</ref>

===Slavery and race===
Adams opposed the existence of [[slavery in the United States]] and saw it as a threat to American democracy. In a letter she wrote on March 31, 1776, Adams doubted that the majority of White people in Virginia had such "passion for Liberty" as they claimed they did, since they "deprive[d] their fellow Creatures" of freedom.<ref name="uua"/>

A notable incident regarding Adams's views on race happened in [[Philadelphia]] in 1791, when a [[Free Negro|free black youth]] came to her house asking to be taught how to read and write. Adams subsequently placed the boy in a local evening school, though not without objections from a neighbor. Adams responded that he was "a Freeman as much as any of the young Men and merely because his face is black, is he to be denied instruction? How is he to be qualified to procure a livelihood?&nbsp;... I have not thought it any disgrace to my self to take him into my parlor and teach him both to read and write."<ref name="13Feb97-letters">{{cite web|title=Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 13 February 1797|url=http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/|website=Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive.|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|access-date=July 4, 2016|archive-date=July 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716205713/http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Despite her abolitionist views, Adams still held [[Racism in the United States|racist views]] during her life. After attending a 1785 production of ''[[Othello]]'' in [[London]], Adams wrote in a letter of her "disgust and horror" at seeing the [[Othello (character)|play's titular protagonist]], a Black man, touching the character of [[Desdemona]], a White woman. Historian [[Annette Gordon-Reed]] stated that Adams's views on race were in line with a "typical white person of the 18th century".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Thomas Jefferson: Was the Sage a Hypocrite?|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,994568,00.html|magazine=Time|date=July 5, 2004 |access-date=January 28, 2023 |last1=Gordon-Reed |first1=Annette }}</ref>