On October 25th, 1775, Abigail Adams sat down to write a letter to her beloved husband,

John Adams, who was often Pennsylvania serving in the second continental congress.

During their courtship and marriage, Abigail and John would write over 1100 letters to

each other on a range of topics, and their wit and banter, love and devotion, and intelligence

and insight in these letters is infectious.

In this particular letter, Abigail wrote about her mother's recent passing, an upcoming

dinner invitation she had received from Dr. Benjamin Franklin.

And then she referenced the devastation that recently happened of Fowlmouth when it

was attacked by a fleet of British Royal Navy vessels.

Why were these evils plaguing America, she seems to wonder?

And then Abigail offers an interpretation, writing this, quote,

Poor Fowlmouth has shared the fate of Charlestown.

Are we become a Sodom?

I would feign hope we are not.

Unsearchable are the ways of heaven, who permiteth evil to befall a city and a people,

by those very hands who were by them constituted the guardians and protectors of them.

We have done evil, or our enemies would be at peace with us, the sin of slavery, as well

as many others is not washed away, end of quote.

Abigail's mix in this paragraph of politics, slavery, and sin is a potent example of how

early founding Americans interpreted the practice of slavery through both a religious and

a political lens, particularly through interpretations of the Bible and the eventual founding

documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

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