Answer to Question #142592 in History for Bual Thang

Question

To whom does John Adams compare “the ladies” in general and his wife in particular? In context, why is this so shocking?

Answer 1

When American revolution welcomed a reconsideration of all social inequalities, John Adam's wife, Abigail Adams, urged her husband to "remember the ladies" in any constitution he would create. In context, the response she received was shocking as John Adams treated her sentiment as a joke. John Adams demonstrated limits of revolutionary liberty when he replied, "your letter was the first intimation that another tribe, more numerous and powerful than all the rest were grown discontented."