For the primary source of a letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, the time frame of
the best letter is in March 1776, a few months before the Second Continental Congress declared
American independence. Abigail wrote the letter to her husband about passion for liberty. In the
letter, she talked about the struggle of American liberty. She believed that a women’s primary
responsibility was her family. She didn’t believe that a men should take absolute control of the
family.
For the primary source of a letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, the author is Abigail
Adam. The audience is John Adams. All wives in the 1770s are involved in the letter. All husbands
in the 1770s are affected by the outcome of the debate. They believe that they have unlimited
power of controlling their families. At that time, wives were not equally treated. Husbands have
complete control of the family.
Abigail, the author, did not believe in female equality in a modern sense. She accepted the
prevailing belief that a woman’s primary responsibility was to her family. But she resented the
“absolute power” husbands exercised over their wives. “Put it out of the power of husbands,” she
wrote, “to use us as they will”—a discreet reference to men’s legal control over the bodies of their
wives, and their right to inflict physical punishment on them. Moreover, Abigail insists that women
should go to school to get educated and choose the marriage under their free will. In the letter from
Abigail Adams to John Adams, she playfully suggested, ‘will not hold ourselves bound by any
laws in which we have no voice or representation’. As her letter illustrates, the struggle for
American liberty emboldened other colonists to demand more liberty for themselves. All
revolutions enlarge the public sphere, inspiring previously marginalized groups to express their
own dreams of freedom. At a time when so many Americans—slaves, indentured servants, women,
Indians, apprentices, propertyless men—were denied full freedom, the struggle against Britain
threw into question many forms of authority and inequality.
In Abilgail Adams’s letter, she strongly shows her passion for liberty. The whole letter is
about the struggle of American liberty. Foner choose to put these documents together because
these two documents have a common theme, which is freedom. Abilgail’s letter is about how wives
in the 1770s were treated unfairly. Abigail doesn’t believe man should take full control of the
family as she said ‘do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands’. Freedom
Petition also demonstrates that slaves are seeking for freedom as they see the struggle for
independence. As both authors wants to abolish the unfair system under the revolution in the
1770s, Foner put them together.
For the letter written by Abigail Adams, ‘freedom’ is used to validate a complaint. This
document has the version of freedom that is the dream of equity. For example, ‘If particular care
and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold
ourselves bound by any such laws in which we have no voice, or representation’. In this example,
it has an angry tone that Abigail seems to be threatening her husband when Abigail used ‘will not
hold’. Abigail insisted that husbands cannot take full control of the family and female’s priority
assignment is her family. This influence of the letter to greater freedom for females has shaken
man’s power.
The issue of freedom and justice plays a key role in the development of American history.
If these issues were not solved, there would be more slaves on the streets. In addition, more females
would suffer from being treated unfairly. It would be more gender discrimination problems. The
issues are related to differences of culture and class between our history and current time.