Abigail & John Adams: Exploring Early U.S. History Through the Life of an American Power Couple | National Humanities Center

Humanities in Class Online Courses

Abigail & John Adams: Exploring Early U.S. History Through the Life of an American Power Couple

American History; Presidents of the United States; American Revolution; Women's History; Women's Rights
Images: (1) Abigail Adams, 1800/1815, painted by Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), National Gallery of Art; (2) Book cover of Abigail & John written by David Bruce Smith, illustrated by Clarice Smith; (3) John Adams, 1800/1815, painted by Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), National Gallery of Art

In 1776, Abigail Adams urged her husband John to “remember the ladies” by offering them legal protection, rather than leaving their fate in the hands of their husbands. This course follows Abigail Adams’s directive by exploring the lives of women and men during the late colonial period in British North America, the American Revolution, the early years of nation formation in the United States, and John Adams’s presidency. Abigail and John’s lived experiences and their involvement in public service provide a lens for examining the social and political changes that gripped the land now known as the United States during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This course builds on the book Abigail & John by David Bruce Smith (with illustrations by Clarice Smith) and is intended for elementary and middle school instructors.

This course has been designed with the generous support of the Grateful American Foundation.

Sample Activities
  • Discuss methods of presenting and translating eighteenth-century primary sources
  • Explore Abigail Adams’s most famous 1776 comment that her husband should “remember the ladies”
  • Address Abigail and John Adams’s views on slavery
Professional Development Hours

Fall/Spring six-week course: 35

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Registration fee: $125

Spring Session 2: March 20–May 5, 2023 | REGISTRATION CLOSED