The Separations of Abigail and John Adams
In the mid-eighteenth century, travel was either by foot, by horse, by horse and vehicle, or by ship. When the Adamses married in 1764, John Adams was a struggling attorney, riding a wide court circuit around Boston, trying to earn a living. He would be gone for days at a time.
When the politics of revolution were filling the air in the 1770s, John Adams became one of its most prominent spokesmen, and as such was named as a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, some five hundred miles away. It would take two weeks just to reach Philadelphia – and he and Abigail would now be separated for months at a time. The letters of John and Abigail Adams flowed.
Mr. Adams Goes to Paris
In 1788, the Continental Congress sent John Adams to Paris to help negotiate loans and trade and general French assistance for the struggling new country. The parting between him and his beloved wife would now last for years. Letters, which had been frequent during the Philadelphia separations, would dribble nearly to a halt across the long Atlantic voyage.
Transatlantic crossings were infrequent. The erstwhile colonies were at war with Great Britain, the world’s superpower. Ships were lost. Ships were also taken as prizes, and mail packets dumped into the sea. Whenever a ship arrived at Boston harbor from Europe, Abigail took the horse and wagon into town and haunted the wharves, seeking out passengers and crew, trying to learn where and how her husband was. Months could pass before Abigail even knew if her husband was still alive.
Abigail Adams Plans a Trip
Finally John Adams sent for his wife. She was forty years old, and her two youngest children were old enough to be left with family. She would go to Paris with her nineteen-year-old daughter Nabby. And, since her husband held an important post in the new country’s government, she hired a married couple as servants, befitting his status.
It would be a daunting challenge. The journey would take anywhere between a month and six weeks, depending on weather conditions. Weeks of planning would be needed. Most ships were cargo vessels. They would provide a means of travel – but little else.
There would be a cook on board, but passengers needed to provide their own food. If milk was wanted, a cow would be brought. Dozens of chickens would be brought for their eggs, and later butchered as they neared the end of the journey. Barrels of beer and ale, fresh water and wine would be brought. Barrels of flour, of corn meal, of salted meats, of preserves, of sugar and lard. Abigail brought gallons of vinegar, and enough soap and candles to last for months. She did not know what to expect, other than the tales people had told about chronic mal de mer, so Mrs. Adams also brought her medicine box of potions and powders to fend off the sea-sickness she justifiably feared.
Passengers were also expected to bring their own entertainment: knitting and sewing supplies, books and cards, chess boards and games. Abigail also brought along French grammar books, and her little party spent hours teaching themselves the language – from books. (She would manage to read French passably, but her conversational skills would be non-existent. No one was available to teach her pronunciation.)
The Adams party also had to bring their own bedding and linens. Abigail, Nabby and their woman servant were assigned to the best accommodations on the old ship – a tiny cabin which they could separate from the rest of the crew by hanging a clothesline and draping a sheet over it for privacy.
Sanitation facilities consisted of a wooden bucket which was carried on deck, tied to a rope and thrown overboard for cleaning. No wonder Mrs. Adams had faced the voyage with dread. She would be just as seasick as she had feared.
Then of course, the ship came nowhere near Abigail Adams’ criteria of cleanliness, thus the gallons of vinegar. Abigail, Nabby and her servants would spend hours cleaning and scouring every inch of the ship, to try to make conditions more acceptable.
Abigail Adams Arrives in France
Five weeks later, Abigail Adams arrived. It would prove to be an awakening like nothing she had ever imagined. She had never been in a real city before, let alone a city of palaces and gardens, of magnificent buildings and avenues. She would see art and theatre, hear opera and concerts. She would meet world renowned people.
She had believed that her two servants would be sufficient for the American diplomatic couple; she was amazed to find herself living in a palace of her own, with more than a dozen servants already in place.
John and Abigail Adams would spend nearly five years abroad, first in France and then in London. Abigail would grow in scope and experience far more than she had ever dreamed. Many of her preconceived notions of propriety and society would change. Her entire outlook would change. And while she would always retain her essential Americanism, she would never be quite the same.
Sources:
- Holton, Woody – Abigail Adams, 2009, Free Press
- Levin, Phyllis Lee – Abigail Adams, 1987, St. Martin’s Press
- Nagel, Paul C. – Descent from Glory, 1983, Oxford University Press
Feather Schwartz Foster - Feather Schwartz Foster, author-historian. Making the First Ladies come to life.
