Abigail Smith was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, a rural area just outside of Boston. Her upbringing had a significant impact on her later life and her women's rights ideologies. Growing up in the farmlands of Massachusetts gave her a lifelong understanding of the countryside and farming. She explores this within the first chapter as she reminisces about the freedom she felt living within nature. This became significant later in her life as she had to manage the family farm entirely by herself as John Adams went to Europe. It was her ability to be independent as a child that greatly influenced her ability to be an independent woman later on. Furthermore, another influence on her life was her family. Her father was a Clergy-men and her mother was a descendant of a strong line of clergymen. As a result, they were highly educated and were able to provide her ability and access to knowledge wider than the traditional house-educated woman. Education has a significant impact on children and this is evident in Abigail Smith, one of the principle rights that she advocated in her woman's rights campaigns is increasing the education of women and expanding their role within the education domain. Although Abigail was home schooled like most traditional woman of her time, the results of being in a clergymen's household combined with the elements of freedom she was granted and the privilege of being the congregational minister's daughter were significant impacts her on ability to be self-dependent and formulate nontraditional views of feminism.
             Abigail had a significant impact in three ways on both her son and her husband. The first and most obvious was her fiery support of the revolutionary war. When her husband was unsure of whether or not he should delve into politics, while having four children and her to support, she was the one who adamantly stood up for the revolutionary cause and encourage her husband...