Abigail Adams Rhetorical Analysis

Abigail Adams was and still is a hero and idle for many women in the United States. As the wife of John Adams, Abigail used her position to bring forth her own strong federalist and strong feminist views. Mrs. Adams was one of the earliest feminists and will always influence today's women.

During the late 1700’s, the colonies in America were upset and resentful of the British tyranny. In order to make the separation between the two groups official, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Two hundred years later, women were facing the same injustice, only it was from men; and to protest against the unfair treatment, Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. Both parties of oppression fought against the same outcome, unjust treatment, yet, each fought against different causes and in different ways.

Abigail Adams was a woman of high character and a loving soul. She was selfless in her thinking and remarkable in the way she handled people. Her management skills were above average for the normal female in the 1700s. She held many worldly interests that tied her to the political fashion of society. She was well cultured and was able to apply this to her role of a politician’s wife with great attributes towards society. She became the “buffer” with regard to her husband's temper and lack of diplomacy. She participated in many political activities. Her independent thinking, character, faithfulness, and hard work gave her the ability to succeed in society in the 17th century. Even though Abigail Adams was not formerly

Abigail Adams in the letter she wrote to her son, John Quincy Adams, explains to him that he has much potential and many advantages. As a son of a soon to be president packed full of knowledge and education, she knows he will have a big role in politics and leadership as he gets older and takes after his father. She uses pathos to encourage her son as she implies, “...that you have a parent who has taken so large and active a share in this contest...” She appeals to his emotions by using a supportive but concerned tone to persuade him to go on the overseas journey to France with his father, John Adams, and his brother. She believes it will have a positive impact on his future.

Being a mother is not an easy, stress less, and quick endeavor--- motherhood is a never-ending struggle to instill life lessons, knowledge, and leadership into their child’s minds. A mother always wants what is best for their child, and Abigail Adams is no different from these mothers. She sees how brilliant John Quincy Adams is, how many “advantages” he has, and how with him nothing is needed of him, “but attention, diligence, and steady application.” Abigail Adams advises J.Q. Adams through the rhetorical devices of, pathos, logos, and allusions that he must work hard to become a great man.

Of all the issues that were in the middle of reformation mid 1800’s, antislavery, education, intemperance, prison reform, and world peace, women’s rights was the most radical idea proposed. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was a rally held by Elizabeth Cady Stanton with the common goal to eventually achieve equal rights among all citizens. Frederick Douglass, who became an acclaimed activist in the African American Equal Rights movement, accompanied the movement. Moreover, The Declaration of Sentiments was a document that reflected the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, reiterating the sentiment from the Bible that “all men [and women] are created equal.” Concurrent to the publication of this document, for the first time, women insisted that they were men’s equals in every way. The Declaration of Sentiments was pivotal in Women’s history, although it was not given credit until the late 20th century. However, immediately after the Declaration of Sentiments was published, women and activist groups were inspired to take action towards rights for all underprivileged American citizens. The convention took place in a small town in upstate New York, which was home to four of the five people who organized the gathering. (DuBois, 1999, p. 45) This was the first time female equality was discussed in a public place. The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 was one of the most important events in women’s rights history.

In 1848 a group of women met at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York and began to formulate a demand for the enfranchisement of American women (Women’s Suffrage, 2011). Elizabeth Cady Stanton composed the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, stating that “a man should not withhold a woman's rights, take her property or refuse to allow her to vote” (Kelly, 2011, para.3 ). The convention participants spent two days arguing and refining the content of the Declaration of Sentiments, then voted on its contents; the document received support from about one third of the delegates in attendance. The Seneca Falls Convention was not a resounding success, but it “represented an important first step in the evolving campaign for women’s rights” (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p.374, para.1).

In the year 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton conveyed to the audience of the Seneca Falls Convention the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions . The Declaration of Sentiments was written with the purpose of demanding civil freedom for women and of righting the wrongs of society. The Declaration included events where women’s rights were being oppressed and violated and where laws were giving special treatment to men. It also included the resolutions they demanded on these particular cases.

In the novel, Abigail Adams: A Revolutionary American Woman, Charles Akers portrays the life of a strong, revolutionary woman named Abigail Adams. She was known as the first lady of the United States under John Adams and she played an indirect role in influencing the American Revolution. She is called one of the founders of the country for her revolutionary thinking and her being a rights activist.

Abigail Adams, “Remember the Ladies” was one of the first letters that acknowledged her desire for women’s rights and equality during the time women were trying to find their place in society. She requested that John Adams include women in the Declaration of Independence because she believed they should have the same equal rights as men and, not be excluded. For example, Abigail said, “...That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.” Abigail is suggesting that men put their egos aside and change the way women are viewed and the male domination in their society. She expressed that smart men knew women were humans just like men and, more valuable than society’s standards. And, should be treated fairly, like spouses than slaves. She believed men should allow women to contribute to conversations about the future of their

Furthermore, the author also states, “Whatsoever it is morally right for a man do to, it is morally right for a woman to do.” Here can still see the struggle women had to endure and then led to the conclusion to the conclusion that without such requisites women could not possibly reach the American Dream. Although it can be argued that both authors tackled the same subject, Stanton focused more her attention on women suffrage and lack of equality. Throughout “Declaration of Sentiments”, the author portrays the idea that men and women had the right to equality and freedom. She also argues that women are not present in the government, women were not allowed to buy property while married and privation of education. Moreover, the author instills the idea that women should be granted the same rights granted to

Before, advocates for women’s rights were private and subdued, like Abigail Adams and her exchange of letters with her husband John Adams in 1776. She subtly requests her husband to “remember the ladies”, pushing for moderate expansion of rights and the bettered treatment for women, in which her husband replied with gentle disparagement. Although Adams’ pursuit was commendable, equality for women was incomplete, as after the Revolution, its government did little to change the legal customs that restricted women’s independence. In the 18th century, ideas like “Republican motherhood” which asserted women to only educate and guide their children, and “cult of domesticity” which stressed that women’s place was in the home, placed women in a distinct, separate sphere as homemakers, moral compasses, and overall, slaves to the patriarchy. There were more beliefs of reaffirming man’s dominance over woman and people compliant to these ideas, then there were critics of inequality. The Declaration of Sentiments was the opposite of such notions. Publicizing the outcry for women’s rights was the beginning of the women's suffrage movement in the 19th

After the first shots of the Revolutionary war; revolutionaries adopt the Declaration of independence of 1776 that declared “All men are created equal”, but it did not include women. After the revolutionary war not change the old ideas and the married women status where they continue be a “coverture, it means a married women had no legal or economic status independent of her husband” (pp.187). Some women see how in the new republican failed to women’s rights, these women were Abigail Adams, Judith Sargent Murray, and Mercy Otis Warren. Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband, John Adam, she wrote “remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power in the husbands”; she wants that women will be independence and had rights and not only depend of a man. Judith Sargent Murray was another woman who argued that women’s minds were as good as any man’s and that girls should receive the same education as boys; she believed in the same educational opportunities because at the time, girls received little or no education.

Women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Grimke Sisters, are only three of the many powerful women that led the way for equality in our history. Prominent 19th century suffragist and civil rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton became involved in the abolitionist movement after a progressive upbringing. She helped organize the world’s first women’s rights convention in 1848, and formed the National Women’s Loyal League with Susan B. Anthony in 1863. Seven years later, they established the National Woman Suffrage Association. Stanton’s advocacy for liberal divorce laws and reproductive self-determination, her efforts helped bring about the eventual passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave all citizens the right to vote. The eventual passage of the amendment was with the help of the Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration of Sentiments was a document, outlining the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens. This emerged from the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in July 1848. The Declaration of Sentiments, written primarily by Stanton, was based on the Declaration of Independence which is evident throughout the document as seen in this

The main organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who is deemed as one of the most important people that made an important change in women’s rights. Stanton drafted the “Declaration of Sentiments, Grievances, and Resolutions,” that related to the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. Among the 13 resolutions set forth in Stanton’s “Declaration” was the goal of achieving the “sacred right of franchise”” (History, Art and Archives). They stated the injustices and discrimination that women had to face with, they wanted the United States to adopt laws that protected “the rights of married women, granting them the right to own property in their own name, keep their own earnings and retain guardianship of their children in case of divorce” (Deborah Brown).