The Book of Abigail and John

Unfurling below you are excerpts from the early letters of John and Abigail Adams. Actually, to be accurate – these are excerpts from the early letters of John Adams and Abigail Smith – these are all pre-marriage letters, when Adams was an up-and-coming lawyer, and courting Abigail Smith of Braintree.

This is the beginning story of their love affair. Their letters are passionate, inquiring, very funny … They enjoy teasing one another, being “saucy”, as Abigail puts it.

Because of an outbreak of smallpox in the spring of 1764, the two had to postpone their wedding.

And my pet theory is that the smallbox outbreak, when John went into Boston to be inoculated (a long drawn out process, which caused the two of them to be separated for two months) – was really when their relationship blossomed into maturity. Maybe it was because of the seriousness of inoculation, the risks they faced … but their letters take a different tone during John’s quarantined period. They ache for one another, John begins to ramble on about “monks and hermits”, and they begin to talk about one another’s “faults”. To me, it reads like they are working out those personality kinks beforehand, getting to know “the dark side” BEFORE they get married. Trust growing, honesty growing … during that time of separation.

I love both of them. As will be obvious by the manic amount of typing I have just done. But that’s okay. Spending a morning with John Adams and Abigail Smith ain’t too shabby.

I post these for all of you – but also, specifically, for my parents, who instilled in me at a very young age a fascination with the American Revolution, and also a love of these two revolutionary characters in particular.

Thanks, Mum and Dad.