

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Emmy, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://archive.org/details/americana)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustrations.
      See 41605-h.htm or 41605-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41605/41605-h/41605-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41605/41605-h.zip)


      Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
      http://archive.org/details/abigailadamshert00rich





ABIGAIL ADAMS AND HER TIMES

       *       *       *       *       *

Books By Laura E. Richards

    Abigail Adams and Her Times
    Pippin
    Elizabeth Fry
    Florence Nightingale
    Mrs. Tree
    Mrs. Tree's Will
    Miss Jimmy
    The Wooing of Calvin Parks
    Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe
    Two Noble Lives
    Captain January
    A Happy Little Time
    When I Was Your Age
    Five Minute Stories
    In My Nursery
    The Golden Windows
    The Silver Crown
    The Joyous Story of Toto
    The Life of Julia Ward Howe
    _With Maud Howe Elliott,
    etc., etc._

       *       *       *       *       *


[Illustration: ABIGAIL ADAMS

From an original painting by Gilbert Stuart]


ABIGAIL ADAMS AND HER TIMES

by

LAURA E. RICHARDS

Author of "Elizabeth Fry, the Angel of the Prisons,"
"Florence Nightingale, the Angel of the Crimea," etc.

[Illustration]

Illustrated







D. Appleton and Company
New York     London
1917

Copyright, 1917, by
D. Appleton and Company

Printed in the United States of America




    TO
    THE HONORED MEMORY OF
    FRANKLIN BENJAMIN SANBORN
    THE FRIEND OF MY PARENTS AND OF MY CHILDREN;
    TO THREE GENERATIONS A FAITHFUL,
    AFFECTIONATE, AND BELOVED
    COUNSELLOR.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                  PAGE
     I. BEGINS AT THE BEGINNING                               1
    II. GIRLHOOD AND MARRIAGE                                24
   III. THE BOSTON MASSACRE                                  40
    IV. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY                                 60
     V. AFTER LEXINGTON                                      88
    VI. BOSTON BLOCKADE                                     112
   VII. IN HAPPY BRAINTREE                                  124
  VIII. INDEPENDENCE AT LAST                                142
    IX. MR. ADAMS ABROAD                                    181
     X. THE COURT OF ST. JAMES                              197
    XI. VEXATIOUS HONORS                                    231
   XII. AFTERNOON AND EVENING                               260




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  Abigail Adams                                  _Frontispiece_

                                                         FACING
                                                           PAGE
  Abigail Adams                                              36
  John Adams                                                188
  South Elevation of the President's House                  252




For much of the local and contemporary color in this little book, the
author is indebted to the admirable works of the late Mrs. Alice Morse
Earle.




ABIGAIL ADAMS AND HER TIMES




CHAPTER I

BEGINS AT THE BEGINNING


SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR! George the Second on the throne of
England, "snuffy old drone from the German hive"; Charles Edward Stuart
("bonnie Prince Charlie") making ready for his great _coup_ which, the
next year, was to cast down said George from the throne and set Charles
Edward thereupon as "rightful, lawful prince--for wha'll be king but
Charlie?", and which ended in Culloden and the final downfall and
dispersion of the Scottish Stuarts.

In France, Louis XV., Lord of Misrule, shepherding his people toward the
Abyss with what skill was in him; at war with England, at war with
Hungary; Frederick of Prussia alone standing by him. In Europe,
generally, a seething condition which is not our immediate concern. In
America, seething also: discontent, indignation, rising higher and
higher under British imposition (not British either, being the work of
Britain's German ruler, not of her people!), yet quelled for the moment
by war with France.

I am not writing a history; far from it. I am merely throwing on the
screen, in the fashion of today, a few scenes to make a background for
my little pen