Meeting Notes: January 21, 2026

The January 21, 2026, meeting was a Zoom meeting. Members of the University of Richmond’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute also participated. Over 150 participants logged in for Woody’s talk.

The evening’s presentation was made by Woody Holton, Ph.D. who is the McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and author of Abigail Adams [New York: Free Press, 2009], a biography of the wife of John Adams. John was a key figure in the formation of the United States and second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. The book was awarded the Bancroft Prize which is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of American history writing.

Abigail and John's marriage is well documented through their correspondence and Abigail’s letters to others. Woody’s presentation centered on Abigail’s life as a strong-willed person responsible for family and farm. John’s legal career was on hold while he attended to the interests of independence which required him to be absent from his home for long periods and at great distances.

Abigail helped financially support her family in the context of the times:

--By necessity Abigail became the family’s financial manager.

--By will she became the closest political advisor to John. She took an active role in politics and policy. Some referred to her as "Mrs. President". At times Abigail planted favorable stories about her husband in the press.

·    --Abigail was a risk taker. John was not.

·    --Abigail became creative in her money management. At the time of her passing, she had become involved in profitable investments which she managed while at home and while traveling with John to France and England.

·    --Abigail was a supporter of the revolution by financially enabling John’s political travels.

·    --Abilgail was a smuggler. When Abigail learned of friends in Europe who were returning to America, she would ask them to purchase goods, pack them as their own goods, and pay them for their troubles, extracting a few of the items for her family’s needs.

·     --She became a merchant buying household necessities and luxury items from British manufacturers, using bills of exchange, and selling the goods to local shopkeepers eliminating British middlemen. While the importation was illegal, she learned if one shipment in three escaped seizure the venture was profitable.

·    --Abigail was creative. John advised Abigail to invest in farmland. However, Abigail decided to ignore her husband's advice and instead invested in U.S. government bonds, which brought her far greater returns. Her investments in severely depreciated debt instruments issued to finance the Revolutionary War were well redeemed after Alexander Hamilton's First Report on the Public Credit [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Report_on_the_Public_Credit] endorsed full federal payment at face value to holders of both Continental and state government securities. Was this an example of insider trading considering John’s role in the ultimate repayment arrangement? Estimates say Abigail was able to realize rates of return of over 20%.

·    --Abigail was a land speculator. Because coverture laws [https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Coverture] prohibited married women from owning or managing property, she had a trusted friend make land purchases in John’s name and using four straw men to secure parcels for each of her four children. She recognized that land at a greater distance from their Massachusetts home presented a better investment opportunity than ones close by which John preferred to buy. She purchased five 330-acre parcels in Vermont going against John’s instructions. When John learned of her purchase he objected but did not stop it.

·    --Abigail was a progressive person. Abigail owned no property so her will was not a legal document, but she wrote one anyway and John respected it and followed her wishes. His compliance with the provisions of his wife’s will transformed it into a legally valid document. In recognizing that current laws were not favorable towards females, she bequeathed the bulk of her estate to her granddaughters, nieces, daughters-in-law and female servants, in order to enable them to make the same claim on property.

·    --Abigail persistently advocated for gender equality.

Abigail died in 1818, predeceasing John by eight years. Abigail's financial acumen provided for the Adams family's wealth through the end of John's life, and he died debt free due to the will of his wife Abigail.

Fred Sorrell

Secretary