A review by nferre
Abigail Adams by Woody Holton, Cassandra Campbell

4.0

Our first feminist, Abigail Adams was a woman ahead of her time. The wife of our second president and mother of our sixth president, she was feisty, opinionated, confident, caring, loving and smart. An independent woman, she learned the hard way to navigate her world while her husband travelled, to rely on her instincts in child rearing and business dealings – and did so well. At a time of “femme couvert” laws, or couverture, when the law declared that a husband and wife were as one, and that “one” was the husband with all rights over the wife as well as her property, most women did not dabble in finances. Did not own property, much less sell it. Abigail threw convention to the wind and did just that. She challenged not only her husband, but anyone who said women shouldn’t vote, shouldn’t have the same rights as men. She wanted her daughters and all girls to be educated far beyond the simple math required to go to market or make a dress. She definitely was not a saint and still had ideas about class and slavery that would not sit well in today’s world but that does not diminish the positive traits clearly represented in her letters to her husband, daughter and friends.

The social history explained in this book is reason enough to have it on a shelf as a reference for the customs of the times. For ex: The explanation of her daughter’s breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgery is fascinating. The issues with raising boys – not all that different from raising a boy today. The author did thorough research, although the letters speak for themselves. My only complaint is that at almost 20 hours of listening, I think the book could have been shaved by almost half.