Abigail Adams »

Abner Linwood "Woody" Holton, III, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Richmond in Virginia and is a member of the Richmond Research Institute. He has published two award-winning books: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2007), a finalist for the National Book Award; and Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (1999). Holton received his B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. in History from Duke, and is currently an associate professor at the University of Richmond. Holton has received numerous awards, including three from the Organization of American Historians (OAH). His first book, Forced Founders (in which he argued that Jefferson, Washington, and other Virginia gentlemen rebelled against Britain partly in order to regain control of Native Americans, slaves, and small farmers), received the OAH’s prestigious Merle Curti award for social history. In 2006, the OAH named Holton one of its Distinguished Lecturers. Holton’s article, “‘Divide et Impera’: The Tenth Federalist in a Wider Sphere,” was selected by a panel of distinguished scholars for publication in the OAH’s Best American History Essays 2006. Holton received a Guggenheim Fellowship for the 2008-09 academic year to write ABIGAIL ADAMS and today lives in Richmond with his wife Gretchen Schoel (the director of an organization combating prejudice against Arabs and Muslims) and their daughter Beverly.

Award-winning historian Woody Holton reveals that the perennially popular "Founding Mother" has been woefully underestimated and that, although staunchly traditional in some areas, she was surprisingly modern, particularly when it came to questions of women's rights.

The Washington Post - Rosemarie Zagarri

…a comprehensive yet highly readable account of Abigail's life…In Holton's hands, Abigail Adams…emerges as a figure who, long before the 20th century, figured out the connection between economic power and legal rights.

1 "A Tender Twig," 1744-1761 1

2 "Miss Adorable," 1761-1764 13

3 "For Saucyness No Mortal Can Match Him," 1764 21

4 "Mrs. Adams," 1764-1770 33

5 "I Should Certainly Have Been a Rover," 1770-1774 45

6 "Mrs. Delegate," 1774 56

7 "Portia," 1774-1775 68

8 "My Pen Is Always Freer Than My Tongue," 1775 78

9 "Remember the Ladies," 1776 96

10 "This Suspence Is Painfull," 1776 108

11 "To Bear What I Cannot Fly From," 1777 121

12 "An Army of Women," 1777-1778 130

13 "I Should Be a Gainer," 1778-1780 144

14 "A Queer Being," 1780-1781 156

15 "Nothing Venture Nothing Have," 1782 171

16 "I Will Run You in Debt," 1783-1784 182

17 "A Lady at Sea," 1784 193

18 "This Money Which I Call Mine," 1784-1785 208

19 "Honour, Honour, Is at Stake," 1785-1786 218

20 "The Grieved Mind Loves the Soother," 1786-1787 230

21 "Wisdom Says Soloman Maketh the Face to Shine," 1787 240

22 "I Design to Be Vastly Prudent," 1787-1789 254

23 "Much More Productive," 1789-1792 266

24 "With All the Ardour of Youth," 1792-1795 284

25 "Presidante," 1796-1797 298

26 "I Did Get an Alteration in It," 1797-1798 309

27 "They Wisht the Old Woman Had Been There," 1798-1800 320

28 "A Day of Darkness," 1800-1804 329

29 "Your Mothers Legacy," 1805-1809 344

30 "Rather Positive," 1810-1811 354

31 "The 'Threefold Silken Cord is Broken,'" 1811-1812 366

32 "God Loves a Cheerfull Christian," 1812-1814 376

33 "I Was Thunder Struck," 1814-1815 391

34 "Dr Tufts Has Always Been My Trustee," 1815-1818 405

Abbreviations Used in Notes 413

Notes 415

Acknowledgments 457

Index 461