Caitlin Bennion

10/05/2014
Mark R. Welsh
History 1600
Womens Rights
Abigail Adams was a true advocate for womens rights during the revolutionary war. She
pleaded with her husband, John Adams to change the way women were seen and treated by their
husbands and in the eyes of the law. She communicated with her husband through letter while he
was fighting the war, assuming he would play a large part in rewriting the laws once
independence was declared. John Adams response was not only not only disappointed, but
absolutely dismissive to his wifes plea.
Abigails requests were very simple and to the point. She didnt go into specifics on what
equality defined for women but what she didnt want was women to be owned by their husbands.
She wrote to John Adams and said you are proclaiming peace and good will to men and you
insist on retaining an absolute power over wives. (Dueling Documents) Abigail could see that
when the laws were rewritten after independence was declared, that the laws would be written
for the intention of men and not women.
Upon John Adams response to Abigail it was very condescending. He wrote back to her
in short response as to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot help but laugh. While
Abigail wasnt asking for much, John Adams didnt pay her enough respect to reply in detail but
to merely let her know her request was laughable, followed by nothing more worth mentioning.
John Adams had the opportunity to greatly change the lives of his fellow men, and he
did just that. However, from the letters he sent to his wife, he failed to see the potential women

have. I understand during that time things were very different for women than they are now.
However, the point of the revolutionary war was to fight against injustices; its disappointing he
couldnt see the other forms of injustice that were right in front of him.