Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

So welcome to the minicast. We've decided to talk about some things regarding Abigail Adams and feminism.

Yes. She's widely regarded by some as the mother of modern feminism and we're not really here to tell you one way or the other.

So we're here to present some information and perhaps some links and you can decide for yourself. I think a lot of what you're going to decide depends on your point of view.

And what your definition of a feminist is?

Now the thing is, it was very common. You either submitted to your parents will or you submitted to your husband's will. That's just the way it was.

And so within that framework, I do believe Abigail Adams was, let's call her maybe a proto-feminist.

She, her whole life advocated for the education of girls not just to become wives and mothers but to make them more valuable partners to their husbands and more valuable members of society.

She did not advocate taking the place of men anywhere, you know, in Congress or anything.

She often complained though that courage is lottable in men but not in women. So she was always questioning, why is it that you get commendation for bravery and for forthrightness and I'm condemned for the same behavior?

So she always questioned that. John Adams, I hate to say he was tolerant but really I guess if you were another man looking at him, he was tolerant.

Oh, and that's what attracted her in the first place is that she had these thoughts and she could express herself and she had an intellect.

And he would tease her but I'm not sure she took it as teasing but he would write, you have a habit of reading and thinking and writing that's inexcusable in a lady.

And let's hope based on the previous correspondence that that was joking.

But if you just cut out that sentence from all his letters, he doesn't come off very supportive, does he?

No, he doesn't.

She actually saw her own marriage as liberating.

I think she was conscious of the way that John Adams mirrored her father's behavior in his tolerance of her intellectual pursuits maybe and her mother's intolerance.

So she actually left behind someone that didn't support her to join up with one that did.

I think that she saw in her life that equality and supporting each other to a greater good within her family.

I mean, she did all that work but she wanted her husband back, she wanted her partner, she wanted her and John to work together.

A lot of times you think a feminist is, you know, I can do it all myself.

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