A number of us are offering programs and events, so i would encourage you to check out that website. Our event tonight is absolutely the highlight of our commemorative year. We are really privileged to welcome edith to speak with us. She is a historian, an awardwinning historian, a trailblazer in american womens history. She is a foremost leading expert on Abigail Adams. She has written several i other fees of abigail. Most recently, she edited the library of america volume of abigails letters speed letters. 100 letters were published for the first time. Today she is going to speak to us about the fascinating relationship of another remarkable revolutionary era woman, Mercy Otis Warren, and the relationship she had with Abigail Adams. I know you are going to enjoy this. Please help me welcome edith. [applause] edith i was saying earlier that i saw a couple of years ago a news broadcast with the queen of england and she was behind one of these podiums and all you could see was [laughter] edith i asked for a step. Thank you for that stunning introduction and thank you for being so cordial and accommodating to me. To the whole Abigail Adams birthplace friends, it has been wonderful to me all of you. Thank you all for coming to this splendid site. It is really beautiful. It is a pleasure to talk about my friend and yours, Abigail Adams. Gazing straight at us in their 18thcentury dresses, posed in an 18th century, we are enchanted by the force of character and power of personality that gives the spark of life to Abigail Smith adams and Mercy Otis Warren in two early portraits of our revolutionary foremothers. These portraits invite us to know them and imagine their lives. We are intrigued because they appear feminine and poised and alert. Curiosity makes us wonder about the symbolism in the pictures. The significance of the nasturtiums that mercy reaches for, and the pearls that ornament abigails next. There may be meaning that they are both dressed in blue. We can compare them for the contrasts we see. The obvious disparity in the workmanship of the artists, the differing mediums, the voluptuousness of mercys dress and the whole character as opposed to this bareness of abigails portrait. If we studied them closely, we see age difference, social rank, even attitude. Our imagination could carry us further to wonder about their absent families, their backgrounds and life stories, but we are stopped short. How can we know the particularly of these missing dimensions without more information . Without the written portraits we are destined to invent the rest of their stories. Language too creates portraits. Derived from the material legacy of their letters and the historical narrative that provides context, we may read the life stories, the biographical narratives that also forms a picture, one that moves and changes. Stories that have a beginning, middle and end. Both of these great women left written legacies. Abigails almost entirely in letters, and mercy in letters, poetry, plays, and history. These written legacies describe action and reaction, women in relation to others as well as the events of their era. The written portrait demonstrates motivation and resolution. They suggest ideology and analysis. They are dynamic. Portraits in words also challenge our imagination. Beyond the material basis in literature, our personal insights and scrutiny suggest meaning and dimension to people and events. In the end, its not just our sources and our skills but our inferences and analysis that create portraits in language. These portraits, however, remain blank at their centers, lacking the accuracy of facial features and expression. The dimension and carriage of the body. The emblematic gesture. The color and texture of clothing and background. We long for the real image, the painted portrait, even though it is static in time. It satisfies the imagination. Both the biographical and painted portraits can survive without the other, but in the end, each is poorer without the other. Portraits speak to us of another time, another set of people, another set of cultural conditions, and maybe historic events. Biography speaks to us of people whose behavior we can know and understand through the lens of our own time. Our visual image is enriched by reading the narrative outside the painting. Our portrait in words is grounded by reality of the visual image. The purpose of painted portraiture in colonial america, where few artists and no art museums yet existed, was family members to provide a legacy for descendents rather than as a cultural artifacts, a decoration as paintings became in the 19th century. A painting might be decorative but its intent was to demonstrate lineage for prominent families. To show future generations where they came from, to provide Family History and to some degree, pedigree. Mostly portraiture was for wealthy people, to emulate the tradition of the genteel classes in europe that displayed privately and publicly their ancestral roots. Colonial portraits hung in parlors where they could be viewed and promote layers of social meaning to viewers. Just as portraiture had a special significance in the 18th century, so the portrait painters position in society was particular to that era. He, and to my knowledge there were no female painters, was in fact a craftsman, artisan, just as a silversmith or cabinet maker or a shoemaker was a craftsman. His only market as a painter was portraiture, for the citizens of britains american colonies had not developed a taste for decorative painting. If they did, it was in the form of imported prints or pictures torn from journals. That is how most american painters came to their craft. They first learned by copying imported pictures, and then perhaps each other. The latter accounts for the emergence from an impoverished childhood new england premiere portraitist. John singleton copley was probably born in 1738. His father passed away when he was 10 and he had to withdraw from school to help support his family. Within two years, his mother had remarried to peter pelham, a printmaker. A stroke of luck on several accounts. His new stepfather printed the gifted young boy and in a few years he had gone beyond training for making prints to first using pastels and then oils. Soon he was painting portraits for bostons first family, and by the time he painted mercy in the early 1760s, he had reached his stride as a portrait painter. Copley placed mercy in a pastoral setting. The portrait represents are in the age of 35, well in her middling years by 18thcentury standards, still youthful in appearance. Going against the wisdom that colonial portraits represented transition, this was a matron, a mother of three who would yet give birth to two more sons. Mercy is captured in action, reaching for nasturtiums or turning away from them toward the viewer. Mercy is animated, pleasantly so. Her face is intelligent but unremarkable. Perhaps too plain for the elaborate dress and headdress she wears. But the color in her cheeks and red mouth against her dark eyes and beautifully glowing skin speaks to a young womans health. The delicacy of her figure and hands are feminine while the high forehead and alert expression to note intelligence. Her posture and angle of her head more in keeping with the expensive dress, show pride of place in the world. Mercy was descended from the first families of massachusetts. We can easily imagine her sitting down to tea, and she pours from a silver rather than pewter server. It failed to record her potential, because it was by her pen and ink that this was established. In 1763, mercy had hardly begun to write her surviving poetry and would only seek to publish her work after the next decade. Schooled in the classics alongside her brother, she drew on ancient literary allusions in a way that was rare for women of her generation. Eventually she would write plays set in greece or rome of antiquity. They bore themes of contemporary political importance. She was an American Patriot and agitator, as was her younger brother, who she adored. As a man, however, his forum was the courtroom and newspaper, while she dearly while she hardly dared advertise her work. It was her husband who was her biggest supporter. Both abigail and john arranged for the publication of her work. As mercies allegiance and confidence freezes her as an image as a matron of means, abigail is frozen in motherhood. Little is know about benjamin blythe, who recorded abigail and john in salem. Just as frustrating is the failure of either adams to mention these portraits in voluminous correspondence. In fact, blythes minor reputation probably derived from his having recorded the future president and first lady long before either had achieved fame. Blythe was born in salem, where he passed most of his productive years. He seems to have disappeared, perhaps into virginia, after revolutionary war. He was a selftaught, copying prints as well as american born artists who preceded him, and he works primarily in pastels. His sole videographer has discovered 40 pastels that survive in local public collections or in private hands. The abigail of the blythe portrait is seated at a slight angle from the viewer. Her Left Shoulder receipts into shadow, though her face is highlighted, again by the shading on the right side, giving the impression she was frontly lit, perhaps by a candle. The shading gives dimension and depth to her figure. The face is freshness, it is calm, its intelligence attracts immediate attention. It is the face of youth and highenergy. It is feminine and delicately colored in a way that gives prominence to the eyes. Her thick, dark hair is gathered in a pink bow at the back of her neck, reflecting the pink in her face, the pearls, lace collar, and her exposed bosom. Her dress is modest, echoing the blue turquoise of the background. If the perspective and proportions are wrong, the eye adjusts, distracted by the sterling character that emerges from the somewhat awkward portrait. Abigails strong portrait appears in the vivid frontal stare of her dark eyes as well as the set of her mouth. She might be ready to speak, move, and she is certainly taking in her surroundings. Perhaps she was merely intrigued by observing blythe at work or their conversation. She is an animated abigail. She is also an out of proportion abigail whose body appears large in comparison with of the head. I thought at first she might be pregnant but that did not check out. Instead, i have come to believe the art historian who suggested that enlarging a body was a painterly device for showing power or strength. That would seem to be the case here. This is no wilting flower of a woman, but rather a charming and gracious as well as strong woman. The pearls, i doubt abigail owned pearls at this time in her life. When many years later she was preparing for an audience with the queen and king of england, john purchased or a set of pearls. These pearls, then, mark in the wedding portrait. It was a signifier of matronly status. Blythe painted the traditional status that colonial families acknowledged, family portraits at a significant transitional time in their life to be handed down for purposes of establishing family identity. Both images, copleys mercy and blythes abigail are right for their time and failed to convey the passage of time. Abigail and mercy were introduced by john adams, who had been a companion to both james and mercy warren. He assessed that abigail would benefit from knowing the older warren. Following the first formal visit to the warrens home, abigail did the proper thing and wrote a courteous note to her hostess. The kind reception hello . There it is. The kind reception i met with at your house and the hospitality with which you entertain me demand my grateful acknowledgment, she wrote. By requesting a correspondence, you have kindly given me an opportunity to thank you for the happy hours i enjoyed whilst at your house. Thus emboldened, i will not suffer my pride to debar me the pleasure and improvement i promise myself from this correspondence although i suffer by comparison. After many more paragraphs that listed the several grounds for anticipated improvement, abigail signed off once more, sounding the refrain of deference that established the earliest relationship with Mercy Otis Warren. I must beg your pardon for this detaining you, i have neglected my pen and unconscious i may make a poor figure. To my friendship and candor i commit this. Your obliged friend and humble servant, Abigail Adams. Remarkable for revealing her transparent struggles to set the correct stage, the letter exudes humility. Not just because of Literary Convention but also because of person see her awe for the learning and social position of her new acquaintance. Most unselfconsciously, she ascended to her best style with a felicitous use of a metaphor of a timorous bird. This combination of uncertainty and vivid imagery would mark her early years of correspondence with mercy. It is a pastor frozen in time. Mercys magnanimous response likewise set the tone for their relationship. I shall pass over in silence the complementary introduction to your letter not because these expressions of a steam are frequently words of course without any other design than to convey politeness as a characteristic of the person, but in you i consider anything of the kind as a natural result of a friendly heart disposed to think well of those who have not been guilty of any remarkable instance of depravity to create disgust. [laughter] edith mercys sincerity is equally apparent but her letter carries as well a patronizing affectation of humility in its elaborate and obscure language. With all of her pretensions at language, mercy had not the gift of simple, elegant prose. Her sentences, though typical of learned people of the time, lacked spontaneity and grace. They are wordy, overwrought, and ponderous. Mercy suffered from the 18th century equivalent of 21st century academic jargon. Her posture also frozen in time. These letters set the stage for the early relationship between mercy and abigail, with in balance created by differences in age, social class, personal style, and ambition. These letters further provide a snapshot portrait of two women at a point in history, a starting point for the narrative that will be written by their pr covers for several centuries. Abigail was 29 years old when she initiated the correspondence, mercy was 45. Both women were married to men destined to be political leaders in the revolution that they did not yet know was developing. Both were mothers. Mercy by 1773 had given birth to five sons. Abigail had three Young Children and would give birth to one more surviving son. Mercy had grown up in the prosperous otis home in barnstable, educated by the same tutors that taught her brother. By 1773, she was already writing poetry and beginning to write the political plays that expressed her alliance for the colonial cause. Abigails education had been more rudimentary, in the modest waymouth rectory of her father. Through her discussions with her husband and later as she read in his library during his long years of absence, abigails expressive medium would always be letters. The early friendship of abigail and mercy, based on many factors, was strongly predicated on their marriage to patriots in public service. Both women were undoubtedly attracted to their husbands because of the same qualities that lured these men into politics. What neither women anticipated was that politics would remove her husband from family for long periods of time. Abigail and mercy adjusted easily to what they called widowhood during their husbandss years of service to colonial independence. Their triumphs made more meaningful as they described her circumstances to each other in letters. The letters at first described indignation at the abuses committed by the british government. The tea, that baneful weed, has arrived. I hope opposition has been made to the landing of it. By the style and spirit of yours, of the fifth of december, one would judge he was affected by the shocks of the political as the natural constitution, responded the more restrained and rational mercy. I hope we have less to dread then you apprehend, for its cathartic and sometimes violent exercises recommended by a physician has benefited by the llatter, and the shaking of the arteries may be no less salutary to the former, drawing on a medical metaphor to refer to the indians who staged the recent boston tea party. Time passed. Both women suffered the privations and harshness of war. I make a greater sacrifice to the public, wrote abigail to mercy. This living apart from the best of companions of our lives is exceedingly disagreeable to us both, mercy responded. But you have sisters at hand and many agreeable friends around you, which i have not. Mercy went further by arguing her greater deprivation. Then a different pattern developed. In early 1776, james warren declined a seat on the massachusetts supreme court. Abigail informed her husband. I said everything i could to persuade him, but his lady was against it. John wrote to warren, i am vexed about your refusal of a seat on a certain bench. John adams continued to serve the public in more elevated offices while that was the warren declined years each over the couple became less sympathetic with others position. The correspondence between abigail and mercy a different turn. Why havent you written . Demanded mercy. And later, is misses adams a holy engrossed the ideas of her that she would little of the absent mark why should i interrupt, if this is the case . The audacity. Encircled by her children in full health to look in upon her friend in this hour of solitude. My eldest son absent, ill with the smallpox, my father in pain, edging closer. No friend to shorten the tedious hours. Abigail responded, in kind. You, my friend, then experienced some of what i passed through. Only with this difference that your friend was within a days ride of you, mine hundreds of miles distance. The tone of the letters has changed. The imbalance disappeared, not only because of their greater familiarity with one another, but also because the conditions of the war. Abigail and mercy continued to correspond. There now existed a clear, antagonistic and critical edge to their letters. No part of this posture had to do with the situation of husbands and children. By midsummer, john was eager to take leave of his position at the Continental Congress and he wrote, begging for a replacement. Send lincoln, if you will. Somebody must send. Come yourself, by all means. I should have mentioned you in the first place. He responded, i know not how to fill your place. Is there no other continent to which he might adjourn the summer months . Meanwhile, warren turned down another appointment. All was not well in the warren household during the summer of 1776. James warren junior, their eldest son, a student at harvard suffered a nervous breakdown. Mercy was terrified that his condition would recapitulate that of her brother, whose mental instability had grown quite serious. A sympathetic abigail wrote to john, our friend has some family difficulties. A partner dear to him, beyond description, almost heartbroken by the situation of one dear to her, but did not mention the matter. Tis a wound that cannot be touched. At the end of 1777, john adams was appointed to negotiate a treaty of alliance. Abigail is devastated about him going abroad and she called on her friendship to sympathize with her distress. Mercys response was unwelcome. Great advantages are often attended with great inconveniences, she pontificated. I think i know your fortitude to be such that you will throw no impediment in his way. She also noted that johns genius was needed for the task. She added, you cannot avoid anticipating the advantages that will probably be dammed from this honorable embassy, for yourself, your children and your country. Mercy minimizes abigails distress. The irony of mercys urging abigail to accept the sacrifice, in light of her own reluctance to be separated from her husband, was not lost on abigail. This was not a response that she wished to read, and if she answered mercy, the letter does not survive. After, the correspondence lapsed to a few perfunctory letters about business or the war. Mercy continued to write plays and poetry, but mostly about the war and drawing on classical literary themes. At the end of the revolutionary war, when john adams did not come home because he was waiting to hear from congress about an appointment to the ministry of great britain, abigail decided to travel to europe with her daughter to be with him. The adams were abroad for four years while the new Constitutional Government was enacted and returned home in time for john after another eight years, he served his one term as president. Abigails star had risen. No longer the bright, young provincial in 1776. She had resided in the capital city of france and england, and traveled in court circles. She lived at the vortex of the social life of the new nation and she was, in her time, a celebrity, and she learned how to use power. Mercy experienced a series of catastrophes within her family. In addition to financial setbacks, caused by the war and james several defeats, the sons did not fare well. James junior joined the navy and was severely wounded and suffered the amputation of a leg. Charles contracted tuberculosis and died in route to europe. George failed at several businesses and died of disease in 1800. Winslow, probably mercys favorite, was a rascal. He died in a military expedition to the northwest territory. Only henry, the next youngest, had a successful career, marriage and life. Family difficulties aside, they felt politically betrayed by the revolution. James sympathized with the rebellion, disapproved of the new constitution and feared that the government was leaning towards monarchy. Under the circumstances, mercy attempted to use political patronage for her husband and her several sons. One of the powerful men that she approached was john adams. His response could not have been more offputting. After rehearsing their many differences, he continued, you are pleased to say, madame, that you are sure of our patronage for certain purposes. In the first place, i have no patronage. In the next, neither you, children, nor mine could be sure of it. Johns message could not have gone down well. All the while, despite her grief, disappointment and setbacks, she kept busy. It was her method of survival. Encouraged always in assisting in numerous ways, mercy was at work on her magnum opus, that she would publish in 1805. Her history of the rise, progress and termination of the American Revolution is remarkable work, constructed, masterfully researched and distinctly, the work of a woman. History makes good reading today. One man had cause to complain about it, and complain he did. John adams was outraged at the attention, or rather the lack of attention she gave to his role as a shaper of the revolution. His worst fear had been realized. He had been, if not written out of the revolution, been relegated to a minor role. He could not restrain himself from an acrimonious rebuttal. Rebut he did. History is not a province of the ladies. Mercy responded with reason. He erupted and she terminated the exchange. Abigail, who typically supported johns position stood outside of the dispute. Despite the many conflicts, contests and disagreements that took place over a lifetime, there were more than i have described in this brief outline. Abigail and mercy stayed in touch. What pulled them together, despite their differences, their strongest bond was their shared experiences as women, their roles as wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and nieces. Their brilliance of mind, character and personality. Their shared impulse to write, their fierce loyalty, first to their husbands children and country. They were proud women, proud to be women and straight into areas beyond culturally determined boundaries for women of their time. They both knew the pain of the death of children. They had good marriages and they survived the upheaval of a revolution by holding fast to their values. Two portraits, the one painted and frozen in time, the other, words written over a lifetime. Two portraits and each tells a story. One visual static, the other dynamic but unseen. Together, they provide us with a satisfying narrative about a past that is unable to compete. We would benefit greatly with pictures of abigail and murphy as elder matrons. Only abigail posed for such a portrait with gilbert stewart, a masterpiece that demonstrates what her written words have told us, that she became a woman of great warmth, wisdom and power. Mercy did not sit for another portrait. The record is poorer for this lapse. She was described as a hesitant bird. Mercy, determined to set her younger acolyte at ease and extravagantly learn in rhetoric. Each statement may be read as a dynamic description of the identity and ego of its author. A reading of the correspondence over a near halfcentury of time presents another image, no longer was abigail a differential, no longer is mercy patronizing. Both women have changed. Abigails star had risen and mercys had declined. A weathered hardship during the war that occurred on their doorstep. Both had matured into the fullness of old age and witness of the emerging of a new nation, each in her own character and experience. Their friendship was tried and endured. The war had altered their temperament. Their unique friendship explained as their private odyssey of the result of a long relationship in which age indeed mellowed the differences between them. It is telling about an essential transformation that occurred as part of a political revolution. The claims of social hierarchy, of right independent were challenged. The movement for equality was legitimized. The politics, implicit in the portraits of 18thcentury women resonates with historians that the American Revolution, represented a radical break with the past. It did so by demolishing the structures of deference that had governed the social, political and economic interactions of the earlier period. The theme of equality, resonating and the rhetoric of the American Revolution materialized in real relationships, as highlighted by the subjects of this paper. The remarkable friendship of Abigail Adams we capitulated the changing face of American Culture over the 50 year period from the time their images were captured in portraits to the time they wrote their final letters to each other. In a final tribute to abigail, during her last days in october, 1814, mercy requested of her son, tell my dear mrs. Adams to write to me or to see me very soon, or else we only meet in heaven. We see in this message, after her friends death at the age of 87, abigail wrote, we shall not see her likes again. String after string is severed from the heart. The lamp of life burned bright until the last. Seldom does old age, so pleasing, so instructive an aspect. To me, she was a friend of more than 50 summers ripening. Abigail lived for four more years. [applause] edith i would be happy to answer questions. Yes. Go ahead. Did they ever meet facetoface . Edith yes. They visited. We do not know what transpired during the visits. Not only did they visit, but their children visited. Abigail encouraged her daughter to stay with mercy for months at a time. Abigail did this because she wanted her daughter to benefit from mercy as a model. Yes. They do. They make fascinating reading. Yes. They do. I am not sure if they are in print. I am quite sure that you can find them in print. Which is the final portrait of abigail . Edith it was done between 1800 and 1815 because stuart never finished. John quincy had to encourage them to finish the portrait. It is beautiful. That is in the quincy home. Yes. Michelle. Ok. Gilbert stuart. Actually, above the portraits of abigail, it was very difficult to find out information about them because they did not write about the early portraits. It is not clear where they went, most of the time. They ended up there at the mass historical society. Yes. Did mercy get the chance to travel at all . Edith no. She traveled in the bay area here, but that is it. Did abigail have correspondence with anybody else . Edith did abigail have other regular correspondence . She wrote to her sisters all the time. Her letters to her sisters are wonderful. Very lengthy letters. For a long time, she lived in the same neighborhood with her sister, mary, so she did not write when they were neighbors. When they were apart, she wrote to them. To nieces and nephews. In her older age, she was developing correspondence with people i had never heard of and young people. She would carry on a lengthy correspondence with different people, and then there are sporadic letters. A lot of them are thank you for your invitation, we will be glad to accept or my condolences. They are formal letters. Of course, jefferson. The correspondence is magnificent. Thank you. Were mercys plays ever performed . Edith yes. Theater was not something that happened a lot in the colonies. It took a very long time, but yes. Through all your research, we know that she was a great educator. Was anything learned that was very special . I work with a school program. I am wondering we are working on recognizing. Edith she promoted womens education. She had her daughter tutored in latin, alongside the brothers. Yes. Remember the latin. John adams wrote to her and said it is fine, but do not tell anybody. She always asked, men are educated, shouldnt women be equally educated . She was very big on education. [indiscernible] edith yes. On the corner of main street and middle street. Edith there you go. Yes. Women use their letters. It was a form of education. Edith i think that they learned from each other a great deal. The way that people learned how to write was copying from books. They would copy a lot from books. That was a method of learning penmanship. Yes, mercy recommended it to abigail one correspondence in particular was that she recommended childrearing advice books. There were such things at the time as childrearing books. Yes. You had a question . [indiscernible] edith it makes sense. Yes. What am i working on now . I am working on rehabilitating the reputation of thomas adams. The youngest son, whose reputation is under clouds. I like him. I know him through abigails eyes and through their correspondence. I want the world to know that thomas was a really good guy. [indiscernible] edith this takes us back a year or two. I was coming of age as a scholar at the same time that the Womens Movement started. I was educated in colonial American History. I wanted to work on a woman. I said, this is a good story. If you remember the 1970s, there was very little literature available on women in the 1970s. 1970s. I started looking for a way to do history of the colonial period, and i wanted to write a biography. There was poetry and there was abigail and mercy. I read them both and i thought, which one of these women should i work on the next many years . It was one of the great, good fortunes of my life that i worked on abigail. Good question. [indiscernible] edith when i started reading, i read the original. I read originals on microfilm i read originals on microfilm for a decade. That is one reason that i worked on abigail for as many years. I read microfilm. I could read the worst penmanship of all was her sister. She wrote very long letters, and i would labor over her letters. I can remember spending three weeks on one of her letters, just to get through it. Page after page. I worked on microfilm and copied them on index cards. The consequence of that, i am very pleased to have done it that way. You do not have to take a picture of anything, but it goes from the hand into the brain and the heart. I became quite familiar with it. Thank you for that question. She had a lot of disappointment. [indiscernible] did they correspond about that . Edith no. Abigail said,tis a wound that you cannot touch. Do not talk about it. Yes. Has your opinion or attitude changed . Edith we have gotten to be better friends. What is your opinion of them and has it changed . Edith i know a lot more now. Im very familiar with it because i edited the letters and i read all 2500 of them, time after time, many times. I know the extent of the letters very well. Through the mall many, many times. Lettershe extent of the very well. But my fondness and admiration have only grown over the years. She was always a model. A model for every one of us. Go ahead. [indiscernible] edith yes, we are. Because things are in the background. You start reading and you read for a story. You read a storyline. And then there are other stories you miss when youre in the process of highlighting a story. Yeah. The gentleman in the back . When you read letters, define do you find different interpretations from ones you read years ago that you are reading today . Edith yes. And it has to do with times changing and with me changing, certainly, or me looking for other things. Or we see things differently, like the work that i just finished on abigail and slavery, i did not pay a lot of attention to slavery for most of these years, and i have just started looking at that. Yes . When they visited each other, i assume it was a stagecoach with a dirt road. How long did it take to get from boston to plymouth . Edith certainly. They did not drop in and stay for a few hours, no. It was long. One of the topics that i have not addressed ever, but if i live long enough, is travel. Because she described in detail, she traveled from boston to washington, d. C. By coach. And in the paper i read last night, she went from washington , d. C. Visit Martha Washington and alexandria. Nine miles. It took two days. [laughter] edith because it was winter and the roads were rutted. Travel was not fun. They didnt know differently. Very often those stagecoaches were not sprung either, and they also traveled by water. That was not fun either. [inaudible] it is still very hard to comprehend how that woman managed that property and that entire household, and what kind how theshe had and children participated in it. You know, and how she maintained her health. Edith health is another topic. She had terrible health. Always sick. Really . Edith yes. But about that, how did she manage . We have to erase refrigerators, and air conditioning. They could not have imagined things to be. Would they be surprised if they were here tonight . Microphone . [laughter] edith air conditioning . You know, lights . Yet. You mentioned abigail and slavery. Quicku give us a few thoughts on abigail and slavery . Edith she was opposed to it. Strongly opposed to it, yes. Just her or the family . Edith the family did. John adams never had a slave and would not allow it in his family. She grew up with slaves in the household. Yeah. Do enjoy the context that you do it in . Are you a letter writer . Edith you know, i write very long emails to some people. [laughter] edith i cannot remember writing a letter that was not a formal letter that had a stamp on it for a very long time. Remember stamps . [laughter] edith yeah. Letter writing is not happening. At this moment in time, what three words or characteristics come to your mind when you think of Abigail Adams . [inaudible] wisdom. Ell, wisdom, stamina, persistence, loyalty, affection, warmth. I could go on and on and on. [laughter] and what about mercy . Edith mercy . Probably the same. Mercy lived to 87 years old , of course. Long if people lived through childhood, they could live long. Except women died in childbirth. But there really isnt data on the lives of people before the sus, which was 1790. Thank you all. [applause] American History tv is on social media. Cspanhistory. next on the civil war, Stephen Woodward on u. S. Grant