Abigail Adams, born in 1744 in Massachusetts, utilized her self-education from her father’s library to become a significant thinker and writer during the revolutionary era. Marrying John Adams in 1764, she managed their farm and raised their children while he was away, maintaining a robust correspondence that offers insights into the period.

In her famous 1776 letter, she challenged the hypocrisy of the colonists’ claims of “liberty” and advocated for women’s rights. The authors seek to show how female agency shaped politics, highlighting The Significance of Diverse Groups in America. The authors portray John Adams’s response to her advocacy as reflecting broader social disruptions and the resistance to changing established power structures.

Democratizing Freedom

The authors present the American Revolution as a multifaceted struggle for national independence, part of broader European and Indigenous conflicts, and a debate over America’s future identity. The revolution, they argue, sparked a transformation where liberty intertwined with equality, challenging old aristocracies and social hierarchies. Although the Revolution began with elite leadership, the authors seek to show that it broadened democratic ideals and the evolving concept of freedom, allowing marginalized groups to challenge longstanding inequalities.

However, the authors clearly note that these changes did not completely overturn existing power dynamics like enslavement and patriarchy, advancing their underlying argument that these power dynamics continue to ripple throughout history and should be foregrounded in historical analysis.