Abigail Adams on Educating the Citizenry

View this in your browser ([link removed])
Celebrating Women's History
Abigail Adams' Bold Views Set the Stage for Equality in Women's Education
First Lady Abigail Adams is most known as the wife of John Adams and the mother of John Quincy Adams. 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.”
[link removed]

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.

Abigail soon developed a relationship with a young, pugnacious lawyer named John Adams, whom she married in 1764. The pair produced a copious correspondence of more than 1,000 letters over the course of their marriage, giving future Americans unprecedented insights into the intellectual, social, and especially civic life of the young nation.
Unsung Patriots
In March 1776, Abigail wrote perhaps her most famous letter ([link removed]) in which she advised her husband to “remember the ladies” when discussing independence with the Continental Congress. American independence presented men with the rare opportunity to “be more generous and favorable” to fellow and often unsung patriots: their wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters.

To Adams, education was the civic responsibility of both American men and women. Only through education could women play an active role in shaping and strengthening the civic life of the nation.

When her husband complained about the “deficiency of education” amongst his countrymen in a letter ([link removed]) written six months later, she noted that most of their countrywomen lacked any educational opportunities whatsoever. “What shall I say with regard to daughters,” she asked him, “who every day experience the want of [education]?”
She wished that “a more liberal plan might be laid and executed for the Benefit of the rising Generation, and that our new constitution may be distinguished for Learning and Virtue.”

Generations of Women Moving Our Country Forward
From education advocates to abolitionists and suffragettes, American women have nobly contributed to the ongoing progress toward realizing our country's vision, that "all men [and women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Abigail Adams is a role model for Americans today who wish to educate the next generation in an honest and responsible manner. As Americans, we are responsible for how our students are taught our founding principles and history, and it is our civic duty to support teachers and scholars who believe in the potential of Americans to realize the equality Abigail Adams called for in 1776.

You can help us celebrate women like Adams by investing in meaningful civic education grounded in America's history and founding principles.

As Abigail Adams wrote in 1776, “the early Education of youth and the first principals [sic] which are instilled take the deepest root.” The next generation of American sons and daughters are our nation’s roots, and advancing civic education grounded in America's history and founding principles ensures that they grow and thrive as civic-minded learners and citizens.
Elliott Drago ([link removed]) is a United States historian and editorial officer at the Jack Miller Center. He is author of Street Diplomacy ([link removed]) : The Politics of Slavery and Freedom in Philadelphia, 1820-1850 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022).
We Must Educate Our Students in Today's Classrooms
We must work today to protect our freedoms by introducing and strengthening the teaching of our founding principles and history in our schools, all the way from K-12 through college. These principles are what can unite us as a people.

Our young people are failing to know, understand, and at times, even appreciate our nation's founding principles and history. At the Jack Miller Center we believe that "the battle for the soul of our nation will be won or lost in our classrooms."

You can help us win that battle by clicking here. ([link removed])
Do you know others who may be interested? Please forward this email to your friends and contacts or share on your social media.
[link removed] Share ([link removed])
[link removed] https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Fgojmc.org%2Fabigail-adams Tweet ([link removed] https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Fgojmc.org%2Fabigail-adams)
[link removed] Post ([link removed])
About the Jack Miller Center
The Jack Miller Center is a nationwide network of scholars and teachers who are dedicated to advancing the core texts and ideas of the American political tradition.

We have three strategies to pursue this mission:
1. build and sustain a community of scholars in the fields of American political thought and history;
2. restore the teaching of American citizenship in K-12 schools that centers on the country’s history, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and other foundational texts in the American tradition; and
3. partner with organizations and philanthropists to advance civic education that is grounded in America’s founding principles and history.

Learn more at www.jackmillercenter.org ([link removed])

============================================================
Follow us!
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
** YouTube ([link removed])
** YouTube ([link removed])
** Instagram ([link removed])
** Instagram ([link removed])
The Jack Miller Center
[email protected]
484-436-2060

Our mailing address is:
3 Bala Plaza West, Suite 401, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.