Almost everyone has heard of her, many books have been written about her, and many thousands of letters have been written. She was also the wife of the second president and the mother of the sixth American president, who was this woman? Her name was Abigail Adams. Abigail Adams' life did not gain meaning solely from knowing and being around these two great men, but Adams was eminently worth knowing as an individual herself. Throughout the ages, women have always been involved in war, but Abigail Adams brought a new concept to women and war with her involvement in the early colonial years and the American Revolution. Abigail Adams did a lot of things in her lifetime, but the question I'm going to attempt to answer is how exactly did she impact the Revolutionary War and change the social roles of women in a society so dominated by men. The years and foundations of Adam's life are imperative to understanding Abigail Adams and how she became the woman she became. Abigail Adams was born Abigail Smith in a church in Weymouth, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1744. Adams' parents were William Smith, a liberal Congregational minister, and her mother Elizabeth Quincy was from a prominent political family at the time. Abigail was the second born of four siblings, a brother and three sisters, their family faith was Congregationalist. The Adamses were a family active throughout the community and involved in the politics of the day. The majority of Adams' early life consisted of corresponding with family and friends and reading. Her childhood and young adult life did not involve much singing, dancing, or card games, as young women typically participated in...... middle of paper ...... Thoughts on Life and the letters of Abigail AdamsGelles, Edith B. First Thoughts: Life and Letters of Abigail Adams. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers, 1998. Dear Friend: A Life of Abigail AdamsWithey, Lynne. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. New York, New York: Free Press Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1981.Abigail Adams - A LifeHolton, Woody. Abigail Adams - A Life. New York, New York: Free Press A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc., 2009. Patriotism and the Female Sex, Abigail Adams and the American Revolution Skinner Keller, Rosemary. Patriotism and the Feminine Sex: Abigail Adams and the American Revolution. Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing Inc., 1994. Abigail Adams, An American WomanAkers, Charles. Abigail Adams, an American woman. Toronto, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts: Little Brown and Company, 1980.