I thoroughly enjoyed reading the letters between John and Abigail Adams. The letters present a marriage that seems very strong, especially in the face of a lot of distance and time apart. John speaks to Abigail as a friend, confidant, and, as far as I can tell, an equal. She seems to be a brilliant and strong woman as she supports John and makes sacrifices for the country by taking care of all matters at home alone. I enjoyed the other glimpses into their family such as Abigail referring to herself as John's Portia and to John as her "dearest Friend" and both of them calling their children their "little flock" and "the little folks". It was interesting to see such a personal side to someone I only think of in terms of the history of the American Revolution.
The letters also worked as sort of a time-machine (or time-traveling car, if you will) and allowed me to glimpse life in the time period surrounding the American Revolution. Abigail and John's writing present the hopes and fears of the people of a baby country, struggling to make their next move. Life in the political realm was consumed with a failed attempt to take Canada and getting the major figures of the country on board with independence. Private life was equally concerned with this and fighting disease that apparently was running rampant through the colonies. There are hints of Enlightenment ideals and of prejudice in favor of New England and pure English blood. I think it's easy to turn historical figures into vocab words out of a text book when, really, they were thinking, feeling, and flawed human beings.
Random final thought: John's statements about the Declaration of Independence on page 305 amused me. He laid out a good ol' American 4th of July pretty accurately.
This was one of my favorite readings so far. I love seeing the personal side to these historical figures who, like you have pointed out, have become "vocab words" as a result of our countless history courses. The letters definitely display a devoted, loving relationship between Abigail and John, despite the distance that separated them for so long. I also love the fact that letters were the primary means of communication. In 100 years from now, our children's children will be browsing their iPads for historical tweets and facebook pages and God forbid text messages (I could be wrong...but this seems to be the direction of our technology boom).
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your last comment :) I had to smile at his accurate prediction of the 4th.
I appreciate your making note of how John related to Abigail, that aspect of their letters was very intriguing to me. Just the fact that he shared such confidant information with her shows their relationship was very strong and that he at least viewed Abigail as politically minded and it was something he approved of. I also loved it how not only did John write to Abigail about the political situation but she would instigate the conversation. It is not surprising to me that Abigail would would be minded to such things but it dose intrigue me that John would share "his" world with her.
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