Chapter I: Front Matter

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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._

* * * * *

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.

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