U.S. Presidents’ Wives in shaping America’s Value and Equality
There is no doubt that women play an influential role in the U.S. political climate today, and female citizens have the freedom to partake in congress while having equal opportunity to win a seat in the senate. However, history has proven that things were not always as equal to what is perceived today. Before the 1760s, American women were seen as having no legitimate public role, and husbands have total control over their wives’ property and whatever the wives produced or earned. While the standard narratives of U.S. history were largely based on colonialism and its factual achievements in its institution, language, and culture, few historical voices focused on the rights of women in shaping America’s political climate today. This paper aims to provide an alternative view of the U.S. history by drawing the focus on two women, Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison, and their contribution in shaping the modern-day equality as U.S. presidents’ wives.
The contribution of Abigail Adams was significant due to the unique political and social settings during her time. After independence, America carried on the traditional English marriage law, in which women had no property rights or political voice. Such conditions surged the demand for a revolution. As the wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States, Abigail was well aware of the fact that men and women had equal intellects but unequal educational and political opportunities. In the prevention of a revolution led by women, she wrote to her husband in 1776 addressing various concerns in shaping the country’s future. She states in the letter that the congress should “not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands,” who traditionally held “near-absolute authority over their wives’ property and persons.” This serves as a critical statement in acknowledging women’s rights and the notions of liberty while concluding her views on building a new nation. This also shows that she was practically vocal in expressing her views despite the unsupportive political climate she was in. In the same letter, she also warned her husband about the revolutionary incentives of women by saying: “If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.” This evidence shows her understanding of the fact that oppression will eventually lead to revolution, and such oppression was seen in slavery which eventually led to the American Civil War. Her letter to the president serves as a milestone in foreseeing the age of revolution while predicting the uprising among women, and such prediction was answered by Women's Suffrage beginning in the late 19th century and Women’s Rights Movement during the 1960s.
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While providing guidelines to the president in establishing the nation’s future, Abigail Adams sets a positive example of American motherhood by valuing education and individuality. Although education was almost exclusively available to men during her time, she managed to remain educated and raise five virtuous children. She made sure all of her children were raised to be independent thinkers, and one of them, John Quincy Adams, even became the sixth president of the United States. Her take on the value of equality and education heavily influenced her child as the future president, which further enhanced the foundation of a newly established America.
As the guidance of the president, Abigail Adams represented the early revolutionary stage of women’s rights and education. Dolley Madison (wife of James Madison), on the other hand, symbolized courage and strength in American women. This courage and strength can be found when the British initiated a land invasion against the United States in 1814 due to Napoleon’s defeat, which resulted in the occupation of British troops in Washington, D.C. By august of the same year, Washington was set on fire due to the invasion, and the White House did not escape the burning fate. During this critical moment, Madison stayed in Washington to ensure the safety of presidential documents and a portrait of George Washington. Despite the danger of being burned or killed, Madison refused to leave unless she was able to take the documents and the portrait with her. Her actions show that she understood the White House spirit, as the official documents resembled the existence of the United States and the portrait symbolized the independence of the nation. The things she placed before her own life represents the idea that although the White House is burned to ashes, the American spirit remains, and as long as the American spirit remains, everything that was destroyed will be rebuild. Her choice of action during a moment of crisis became a monumental example of America’s First Lady, as she solidified the values of the nation by putting her own life at risk.
The significance of Madison’s action during the British invasion proved that the role of the First Lady can help bring the nation together during challenging times, and she helped to identify the modern role of the First Lady which was to maintain pride and nationalism regardless of the difficulties the nation may face. Although her actions were unrelated to Women’s Suffrage, she simultaneously solidified women’s position politically by being a strong political figure. The aftershock of her actions led to Women’s Suffrage during the early 19th century, when women demanded more political freedom by gaining the right to vote.
Euro-American voices routinely dominate in most U.S. history textbooks by highlighting European colonization and its achievements in social and political aspects. Part of the reason for this phenomenon is the fact that the native American people had no written language to record the pre-history before European colonization, which led to a large blank page in most of the U.S. history books. Slaves also had no voice in shaping history books due to the lack of education and basic human rights. Much similar to slaves, women were also seen as properties in a newly found America in which they had no rights to education and no voice in the political arena. This means that most history books were written from a Euro-American perspective since only Euro-American males had the right to education during the early stage of American history. However, as this paper demonstrates, women play a critical role in shaping equality as well as establishing the modern societal values of America. Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison both serve as prime examples of women who constructed modern American standards and values, and they are decisive figures in shaping the political and social aspects of the U.S. today.
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