During the Revolutionary war, this married couple wrote a numerous amount of letters to each other because John was in Philadelphia and Abigail was back in  Braintree Massachusetts. The text from these letters are from the  Adams Family Correspondence (1963). This text was edited by L.H. Butterfield. In June 1774, some radicals saw that John Adams supported the idea of independence and freedom and gave John the opportunity to be a Massachusetts delegate in the Continental Congress, which is located in Philadelphia. While John Adams was busy in Philadelphia dealing with the government, Abigail was at home. She had many jobs to take care of in Braintree. She took care of all four of their kids, managed their family farm, and took care of all the jobs of a single parent in the middle of a war zone. During this time, Abigail missed her husband very much! To keep in contact, they exchanged hundreds and hundreds of letters to each other. Several of these letters were saved, and later in the Nineteenth century, John and Abigail’s grandson published those letters.

In these letters, Abigail would often discuss the kids, their health and how she was doing. She would ask John questions about what was going on with the Revolution and what people were saying in Philadelphia. John would often write a short letters, answering her questions and largely discussing his experience with the government in Philadelphia. They don’t necessarily use any similes or metaphors in their letters, but something I found to be interesting, was the topics they discussed in these letters. They mentioned very few times how much they actually miss and love each other. Instead, they show this love and care for one another by having these playful arguments. They would write letters back and forth exchanging views on several public issues. For example, Abigail brings up this idea of women having more rights. She explains that women should be involved in the decisions of their country as well. John answers back and gives his opinion on the matter. I believe that these arguments and opinions are later published to give an example the main problems with their government and their country at that point of time. They talked about freedom and rights and many other hopes and dreams for their country. These revolutionary ideas help people to better under what this war was all about. With these letters, they helped show this idea of Independence and freedom.

These playful arguments in their letters were their own personal way of showing that they cared for each other. I think that this was a way of dealing with being apart from each other for so long. So many other families during that time were going through the exact same thing. These arguments that they had brought up major ideas that were argued about by almost everybody in that Revolutionary time. These ideas of individual rights, God, independence, local government were the big issues of that time. For example, Crevecoeur did not like these same ideas, and ultimately, did not want a Revolution. But many other colonists did want freedom and a Revolution. These ideas were the reason for the Revolution in the first place!These letters help to show the readers of today what the Revolution was all about.