Adams Family Correspondence

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1.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 1 and 2: December 1761 – March 1778

Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 1 and 2: December 1761 – March 1778

Adams Family
Butterfield, L. H.
Garrett, Wendell D.
Sprague, Marjorie

The Adams Family Correspondence, L. H. Butterfield writes, “is an unbroken record of the changing modes of domestic life, religious views and habits, travel, dress, servants, food, schooling, reading, health and medical care, diversions, and every other conceivable aspect of manners and taste among the members of a substantial New England family.”

3.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 3 and 4: April 1778 – September 1782

Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 3 and 4: April 1778 – September 1782

Adams Family
Butterfield, L. H.
Friedlaender, Marc

The letters in these volumes, written from both sides of the Atlantic, chronicle the nearly five years in which John Adams—in successive missions to Europe, accompanied first by one son, then by two—initiated what would be a continuing role for Adamses in three generations: representing their country and advancing its interests in the capitals of Europe. If the letters of John and Abigail are central, those written by others are hardly less interesting: the concerns of young John Quincy at school in Leiden and his observations of St. Petersburg at age fourteen; the adventure-filled return voyage of Charles, aged eleven, to America; and the interests of the younger Abigail, maturing in Braintree.

5.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 5 and 6: October 1782 – December 1785

Adams Family Correspondence, Volumes 5 and 6: October 1782 – December 1785

Adams Family
Ryerson, Richard Alan
Revelas, Joanna M.
Walker, Celeste
Lint, Gregg L.
Costello, Humphrey

With the summer of 1784, most of the family reunited to spend nearly a year together in Europe. These volumes document John Adams’s diplomatic triumphs, his wife and daughter’s participation in the cosmopolitan scenes of Paris and London, and his son John Quincy’s travels in Europe and America.

7.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 7: January 1786 – February 1787

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 7: January 1786 – February 1787

Adams Family
Hogan, Margaret A.
Taylor, C. James
Walker, Celeste
Cecere, Anne Decker
Lint, Gregg L.
Woodward, Hobson
Claffey, Mary T.

In their myriad letters to one another the Adamses interspersed observations about their own family life—births and deaths, illnesses and marriages, new homes and new jobs, education and finances—with commentary on the most important social and political events of their day, from the scandals in the British royal family to the deteriorating political situation in Massachusetts that eventually culminated in Shays’ Rebellion.

8.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 8: March 1787 – December 1789

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 8: March 1787 – December 1789

Adams Family
Hogan, Margaret A.
Taylor, C. James
Rodrique, Jessie May
Woodward, Hobson
Lint, Gregg L.
Claffey, Mary T.

By early 1787, as this latest volume of the award-winning series Adams Family Correspondence opens, John and Abigail Adams, anticipating a quiet retirement from government in Massachusetts, were quickly pulled back into the public sphere by John’s election as the first vice president under the new Constitution. With their characteristic candor, the Adamses thoughtfully observe the world around them, from the manners of English court life to the politics of the new federal government in New York during this crucial historical period.

9.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 9: January 1790 – December 1793

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 9: January 1790 – December 1793

Adams Family
Hogan, Margaret A.
Taylor, C. James
Barzilay, Karen N.
Woodward, Hobson
Claffey, Mary T.
Karachuk, Robert F.
Sikes, Sara B.
Lint, Gregg L.

1790–1793 marked the beginning of the American republic, a contentious period as the nation struggled to create a functioning government amid bitter factionalism. As usual, the Adams family was in the midst of it all. This volume offers insight into the family and the frank commentary on life that readers have come to expect from the Adamses.

10.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 10: January 1794 – June 1795

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 10: January 1794 – June 1795

Adams Family
Hogan, Margaret A.
Taylor, C. James
Martin, Sara
Woodward, Hobson
Sikes, Sara B.
Lint, Gregg L.
Georgini, Sara

The Adams family comments on national and international events, from America’s growing tensions with Britain and France to virulent domestic political factionalism and the Whiskey Rebellion. The most significant event for the Adamses was John Quincy’s appointment as U.S. minister resident at The Hague, the beginning of a long diplomatic career.

11.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 11: July 1795–February 1797

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 11: July 1795–February 1797

Adams Family
Hogan, Margaret A.
Taylor, C. James
Martin, Sara
Millikan, Neal E.
Woodward, Hobson
Sikes, Sara B.
Lint, Gregg L.

The letters in this volume of Adams Family Correspondence span the period from July 1795 to the eve of John Adams’s inauguration, with the growing partisan divide leading up to the election playing a central role. The fiery debate over funding the Jay Treaty sets the political stage, and the caustic exchanges between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans only grow as rumors surface of George Washington’s impending retirement. John’s equanimity in reporting to Abigail and his children on the speculation about the presidential successor gives way to expectation and surprise at the voracity of electioneering among political allies and opponents alike. Abigail offers keen, even acerbic, commentary on these national events. From Europe, John Quincy and Thomas Boylston shed light on the rise of the French Directory, the shifts in the continental war, and the struggles within the Batavian government, and John Quincy’s engagement to Louisa Catherine Johnson in London opens the next great collection of correspondence documenting the Adams family saga.

12.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 12: March 1797 – April 1798

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 12: March 1797 – April 1798

Adams Family
Martin, Sara
Taylor, C. James
Millikan, Neal E.
Norton, Amanda Mathews
Woodward, Hobson
Sikes, Sara B.
Lint, Gregg L.
Georgini, Sara

Volume 12 opens with John Adams’s inauguration as president and closes just after details of the XYZ affair become public in America. Through private correspondence, and with the candor and perception expected from the Adamses, family members reveal their concerns for the well-being of the nation and the sustaining force of domestic life.

13.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 13: May 1798 – September 1799

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 13: May 1798 – September 1799

Adams Family
Martin, Sara
Woodward, Hobson
Minty, Christopher F.
Norton, Amanda Mathews
Millikan, Neal E.
Ross, Emily
Sikes, Sara B.
Georgini, Sara

The candid letters of John, Abigail, and the Adams children offer a rich perspective on life in America during its infancy. The almost 300 letters in volume 13 of Adams Family Correspondence were written during seventeen tumultuous months of John Adams’s presidency, when he depended on surrogates for much of his family correspondence.

14.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 14: October 1799 – February 1801

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 14: October 1799 – February 1801

Adams Family
Woodward, Hobson
Martin, Sara
Minty, Christopher F.
Norton, Amanda Mathews
Millikan, Neal E.
Fries, Gwen
Georgini, Sara

John and Abigail Adams’s reflections on an emerging nation as they move into the new President’s House in Washington are a highlight of the nearly 280 letters in volume 14. The volume opens with the Adamses’ public and private expressions on the death of George Washington and concludes with John’s defeat in the presidential election of 1800.

15.Cover: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 15: March 1801 – October 1804

Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 15: March 1801 – October 1804

Adams Family
Woodward, Hobson
Martin, Sara
Minty, Christopher F.
Millikan, Neal E.
Fries, Gwen
Norton, Amanda Mathews
Georgini, Sara
Barlow, R. M.

John and Abigail Adams remained engaged in political life after they left Washington for retirement in Quincy, Mass. A highlight of Volume 15 is a series of letters between Abigail and Thomas Jefferson that debated fundamental questions of the nation’s tumultuous early years. Equally compelling family stories emerge in the volume’s 251 letters.

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