First Lady Abigail Adams was more than a wife to one president and mother to another. At a time when society dismissed or even balked at the notion of educating women, her staunch advocacy of women's education remains a great inspiration for staying true to our founding principle of equality.
Adams believed that the success of the republican experiment required as many “learned women” as it did “Heroes, Statesmen, and Philosophers.”
Born Abigail Smith in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1744, like other women of her time, she did not receive a formal education. Instead, she read voraciously from her family’s library, mastering numerous subjects, including literature, philosophy, and history. Her love of learning and insatiable curiosity enabled her to speak knowledgeably on a variety of topics.
