Episode 2.7 An International Family

[Transcript]

Hello, and welcome to America’s First Ladies. I’m your host, Risa Weaver-Enion.

Episode 2.7 An International Family

We left off last week in 1781, with John, John Quincy, and Charles living in the Netherlands, and Abigail doing her best to keep the family farm and finances afloat as the war dragged on.

In summer 1781, Congress decided to send Francis Dana to Russia to the court of Empress Catherine the Great. The goal was to get Russia to recognize the United States of America. Despite the fact that he was going to Russia, speaking Russian was not a requirement of the post, but speaking French was, and he only spoke a little French. So he asked John if he could take John Quincy, who was fluent in French, with him as a secretary and translator. It was a fantastic opportunity for John Quincy, so John agreed.

He informed Abigail of this development in a very opaque way, writing to her only that John Quincy was going on a “long journey with Mr. Dana…as an interpreter.” Long journey was putting it mildly. It was more than 1200 miles to St. Petersburg. This letter was written on July 11, John Quincy’s 14th birthday. In it, John also let Abigail know that Charles would be returning home. He didn’t give her the particulars of a date or a ship name, probably in case his letter fell into the wrong hands.

John gave the reasoning for Charles’s return as basically homesickness. “My second son, after the departure of his brother, found himself so much alone, that he grew uneasy, and importuned me so tenderly to let him return to America to his mother, that I consented to that, and thus deprived myself of the greatest pleasure I had in life, the society of my children.”

On August 12, 1781, 11-year-old Charles departed Amsterdam on a ship called South Carolina. He wasn’t entirely alone, despite the fact that his father was not with him. John had entrusted him to a friend named Major William Jackson, and another friend, Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, was on the same voyage and could also help look out for the boy. 

Unfortunately, a storm caused the captain to take them wildly off course, sailing entirely around the British Isles. After three weeks, they were low on supplies, so they had to stop in Spain. Major Jackson was fed up with the ship’s captain, so he and Charles got off the ship in La Coruña. There were no other available vessels on which to book passage, so they sailed to Bilboa, which took another three weeks.

In Bilboa, they had to wait months for another ship. In early December they finally boarded the Cicero, which was heading to Beverly, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. There’s no record of what the Cicero went through on its journey, but it didn’t arrive in Beverly until mid-January 1782, at least six weeks after leaving Bilboa, and a full five months after Charles had left Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, Abigail was sick with worry about her son, not knowing where he was or what was happening to him. At some point she found out that he was aboard the South Carolina, and in mid-November, she learned that the ship had landed in Spain back in September. 

In early January, other ships arriving in America from Bilboa brought her the news that Charles was now onboard Cicero, but she still had no idea when to expect him. Finally, on January 21, an express rider arrived at the house and told Abigail that Cicero and her son had landed in Beverly. At the end of the month, Abigail wrote in a letter that she was celebrating “the safe arrival of my dear Charles, an event which has relieved me from many anxieties and filld my Heart with gratitude to that gracious Being who protected him from the perils of the deep…and has restored him to his Native land.”

While Charles was making his way home, John was still dealing with problems. In August, he received word from Congress that it was revoking his individual commission as peace negotiator and establishing a five-man peace committee. Joining John in the new commission were Benjamin Franklin (who was still minister to France), John Jay (who was still minister to Spain), Henry Laurens (who was still imprisoned in the Tower of London), and Thomas Jefferson (who was still in America).

Shortly after this, John fell extremely ill, probably either with malaria or typhus, based on the symptoms he described. Both diseases were prevalant in the Netherlands. He had a high fever and had lost consciousness for several days. He was only vaguely aware of having been tended to by several doctors. In October 1781 he wrote to Abigail to let her know it was the first time he had been able to write since his sickness. 

He worried that continuing to live in the Dutch climate would be bad for his health, writing, “I shall not be able to re-establish my Health in this Country. [I] cannot expect to fare very well amidst such cold damps and putrid Steams as arise from the immense quantities of dead Water that surround it.”

But he wasn’t ready to come home yet, either. The victory at Yorktown in October 1781 was a turning point in the war, even if the peace treaty would take another two years to negotiate. Word of the victory reached John at the end of November. 

The spring of 1782 brought about a great change in the attitude of the Dutch toward the United States. On February 26, the province of Friesland became the first to formally accept John as minister from the United States. On March 20, the British Prime Minister who had been most responsible for prosecuting the war against the Americans, Lord North, resigned. On March 28, the province of Holland recognized American independence, and on April 23, the French ambassador introduced John to all the other foreign ministers present at The Hague and held an entertainment in honor of the United States.

In May, John hung the American flag outside a house that he had purchased on behalf of the United States, thus establishing the very first American embassy anywhere in the world. It was at The Hague on Fluwelen Burgwal, which means Street of the Velvet Makers, and John called it the United States House.

His mission was finally complete on June 11, 1782, when he negotiated a loan of roughly 5 million guilders (or $2 million at that time) from a syndicate of three Dutch banks. Congress had been hoping for a $10 million loan, but this was a good start.

John wrote to Abigail, “If this had been the only action of my life, it would have been well spent. I have rendered a most important and essential service to my country here, which I verily believe no other man in the world would have done. I don’t mean by this that I have exerted any abilities here, or any action, that are not very common, but I don’t believe that any other man in the world would have had the patience and perseverance to do and to suffer what was absolutely necessary.”

He may well have been right about that, considering that it had taken him two and a half years to pull it off. Around the time that he was finalizing this loan, he also wrote to John Quincy, still in St. Petersburg, to ask him to return to The Hague. He suggested John Quincy travel by boat, but by the time the letter reached John Quincy at the end of summer, it was too late in the year to travel by boat, because winter came early in those parts.

Instead, John Quincy set out over land, departing St. Petersburg in October. He was waylaid in Stockholm for six weeks due to bad weather, then spent another two weeks trapped in a small Swedish village thanks to snow. He traveled through Denmark, several German states, and finally arrived back at The Hague in April 1783.

Meanwhile, Abigail was overjoyed to have her young son back home with her at the beginning of 1782, but she was still missing John. Toward the end of 1781, she wrote “Two years my dearest Friend have passd away since you left your Native land. Will you not return e’er the close of an other year?”

In June 1782, she wrote another one of her famous proto-feminist letters to her husband, this time lamenting the sacrifices women made for their countries without being able to hold any formal roles in government or even to vote.

“Patriotism in the female Sex is the most disinterested of all virtues. Excluded from honours and from offices, we cannot attach ourselves to the State or Government from having held a place of Eminence. Even in the freeest countrys our property is subject to the control and disposal of our partners, to whom the Laws have given a soverign Authority. 

Deprived of a voice in Legislation, obliged to submit to those Laws which are imposed upon us, is it not sufficient to make us indifferent to the publick Welfare? Yet all History and every age exhibit Instances of patriotick virtue in the female Sex; which considering our situation equals the most Heroick of yours. … [I] take praise to myself. I feel that it is my due, for having sacrificed so large a portion of my peace and happiness to promote the welfare of my country.”

Abigail also continued her land acquisitions, but not all of them were amenable to John. She had been toying for some time with the idea of buying land in the Vermont territory that was in dispute between the Vermonters, who claimed it as a separate state, and New Yorkers, who claimed that the area was granted to them by their original colonial charter. 

By summer 1782, Abigail was reassured by a Congressional committee report confirming that Vermont had met the conditions for being recognized as an independent state. She decided to buy five parcels, which totaled 1650 acres. Each parcel cost 11 pounds, but she only had 44 pounds in ready cash, so she gave the syndicate selling the land a promissory note for the remaining 11 pounds. 

Because Abigail was a married woman and could not legally own land, one parcel was purchased in John’s name and the other four were purchased by straw men, who then transferred the deeds to the four Adams children. This way, she evaded the town requirement that no one person could own more than 330 acres.

She informed John of her purchase, which she intended to be a retreat in the woods, where they could retire when their public life was finished. She wrote, “Do you not sometimes sigh for such a seclusion? If you approve of what I have done, and should like to purchase further I shall have more opportunities.”

John did not, in fact, approve, writing in response, “Dont meddle any more with Vermont. God willing I will not go to Vermont. I must be within the scent of the sea.” And so Abigail did not purchase any additional land in Vermont.

By late 1782 it was clear that the war was wrapping up. British troops still held New York and other locations in America, but the new British government had lost interest in prosecuting what was a very expensive war. Abigail began to press John to return home, but he still had work to do in Europe.

On October 8, he signed a treaty of commerce with the Netherlands, and then left The Hague to return to Paris. The British were finally serious about peace and had sent an envoy to meet with the peace commissioners. The first hurdle had been cleared in late September when Britain had finally agreed to negotiate with “the United States of America” instead of with “the American colonies,” a distinction the Americans had insisted on.

John Jay had arrived in Paris in June, and Franklin, of course, had been there for years. Henry Laurens had been released from prison in exchange for General Cornwallis, who had been captured at Yorktown. But Laurens was in frail health and did not join the other commissioners until much later. Thomas Jefferson still hadn’t arrived in Paris, so the peace negotations that began on October 30 were handled by John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin.

The primary points of contention were the boundaries of the United States, the right of navigation on the Mississippi River, debts owed to British merchants by former colonists, what to do about all the American Loyalists, and fishing rights on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland.

The first two points were easily handled. Britain agreed to cede all territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, which doubled the size of America right off the bat. They also agreed to the right of the United States to navigation on the Mississippi.

Franklin and Jay thought that the amount of any debts owed by Americans to British merchants was more than offset by damage to property during the war, but John felt that all debts incurred in good faith should be paid. A clause to that effect was included in the draft peace treaty.

By November 25, they only had two points left to settle: compensation to Loyalists and Grand Banks fishing rights. The Americans were steadfast in refusing to provide any compensation to Loyalists, and in the end, it was left to the individual states to provide compensation, which they never actually would.

As for the fishing rights, after much contentious debate, the treaty read, “It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank.” It’s a little hard to believe that the most difficult issue for them to resolve involved fishing.

Henry Laurens arrived near the end of the negotiations, and his sole contribution was a line preventing the British from “carrying away any Negroes or other property.” In case you forgot that Laurens was from South Carolina.

On November 30, 1782, the preliminary peace treaty was signed, first by the British representatives, and then by the four Americans in alphabetical order, making John Adams first.

While these negotiations were unfolding, Abigail was dealing with a domestic situation, namely, her daughter’s love life. Nabby had turned 17 in July 1782. Around the same time, a young lawyer named Royall Tyler had set up a practice in Braintree and was renting a room from Richard and Mary Cranch, who had moved back to Braintree from Salem at some point during the war.

Tyler had a bit of a reputation. He had inherited 17,000 pounds from his father and had mostly blown it all by the end of the war. And he may or may not have fathered a child with a domestic servant while attending Harvard. But he claimed to be reformed, and Abigail may have seen something of a young John in him, at least the part of him that was working hard to establish a law practice. 

Abigail made John’s library available to Tyler, and he spent many evenings by the fire with Abigail and Nabby over the winter of 1782-83. Soon it was clear that he was interested in Nabby, and Abigail thought that Nabby might like him too, even if she didn’t overtly show it. 

Abigail wrote to John about the situation. “I am not acquainted with any young Gentleman whose attainments in literature are equal to his, who judges with greater accuracy or discovers a more delicate and refined taste.”

Upon being informed of this growing attachment between his only daughter and a young man he had never met, John replied, “I confess I dont like the Subject at all. I had flattered myself with the Hopes of a few Years of the society of this Daughter. [Surely] my Child is too young for such Thoughts. My Child is…not to be the Prize, I hope of any, even reformed Rake.”

The matter was put on hold for the time being. 

In the spring of 1783, Abigail decided to send 13-year-old Charles and 9-year-old Thomas away to boarding school so they could prepare for Harvard. It was all but assumed at that time that any Massachusetts man who wanted to make anything of his life would attend Harvard. There were no schools in the Braintree area with availability, so Abigail decided to send them to board with her sister Betsy (now going by Elizabeth) and her husband John Shaw. 

You may recall that Shaw is the Calvinist minister that Abigail was not a fan of. But she had to admit that he was seeing success with tutoring boys who went on to Harvard. So she sent her boys to Haverhill, which was 55 miles from Braintree, near the border with New Hampshire.

Abigail also wound down her side business reselling goods from Europe. With the war wrapping up, there was less of a market now that above-board commerce between America and Europe could resume.

The final peace treaty was signed on September 3, 1783. Laurens was absent, and Jefferson still wasn’t there, so it was signed by Adams, Franklin, and Jay. The first line read, “His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States…to be free, sovereign and independent states.” And with that, the American Revolution was officially over.

With the peace treaty concluded, John was appointed to a new commission, this time to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain. He would serve with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin once again. It was clear that he wasn’t coming home from Europe anytime soon, and he began to ask Abigail to travel to Europe so they could be reunited. 

With the threat of enemy ships no longer relevant, now it would be reasonably safe for Abigail to cross the ocean. He wrote, “My life is Sweetened with the Hope of embracing you in Europe. Pray embark as soon as prudent.” By November, he was more insistent, writing, “I cannot be happy, nor tolerable without you.”

Abigail would rather have had John come home, but in September, another impediment to her going to Europe was removed when her father died at the age of 77. He had previously told her that he could not consent to her going to Europe while he was alive, as if she were still a child living under his roof. But after his death, Abigail felt freer to join John abroad.

The timing was a problem though. Abigail thought it would take at least a month for her to get all the financial arrangements and the farm squared away, and by then it would be winter and not possible to safely cross the Atlantic. She aimed for spring 1784 as the time of her departure.

Abigail was also worried about her unsuitability to appear in the grand social circles John was now running in. She wrote, “I think if you were abroad in a private Character…I should not hesitate so much at comeing to you But a mere American as I am, unacquainted with the Etiquette of courts, taught to say the thing I mean, and to wear my Heart in my countenance, I am sure I should make an awkward figure. And then it would mortify my pride if I should be thought to disgrace you.”

John and Abigail also agreed that Nabby should accompany her mother to Europe. Nabby had been wanting to travel to Europe to see her father for some time, and now there was the added incentive of getting her away from Royall Tyler. Abigail was worried that Nabby and Royall had entered into a secret engagement and wanted to separate them. 

The house in Braintree was to be left in the care of a woman named Phoebe Abdee. Phoebe had been one of Abigail’s father’s slaves, but she was freed by the terms of his will. Phoebe had recently married a free Black man, William Abdee, and Abigail thought they were the best option to take care of the house. Phoebe had been Abigail’s childhood nurse, Abigail had invited Phoebe and her husband to celebrate their wedding in the house, and Abigail wrote that “I have no doubt of their care and faithfullness, and prefer them to any other family.”

Abigail’s uncle Cotton Tufts would manage the family finances while she was away, and her uncle Isaac Smith took charge of booking passage on a ship. They were booked on a ship called Active, due to leave Boston for London in mid-June.

On June 18, Abigail left Braintree surrounded by neighbors who had come to wish her well on her long journey. She wrote that “the honest yeomanry, their wives and daughters like a funeral procession, all come to wish me well and to pray for a speedy return. Knowing I had to act my little part alone, I had possessed myself with calmness, but this was too much for me.”

When she said goodbye to John’s mother, the older woman was distressed, saying, “O! Why did you not tell me you was going so soon? Final day! I take my last leave; I shall never see you again. Carry my last blessing to my Son.” Spoiler alert: they would, in fact, see each other again.

She stayed two nights in Boston at her Uncle Smith’s home, where she was surprised by a visit from Thomas Jefferson. He had been appointed to replace John Jay on the committee negotiating a treaty of commerce with Britain, and before setting sail for Paris, he had decided to take a quick tour of New England to become acquainted with their commercial interests.

He wanted to introduce himself to the wife of John Adams, and also inquire whether she would like to sail with him. He was scheduled to depart from New York in July with his daughter Martha. She declined, because her plans were set and she didn’t want to wait another month. As it turned out, Jefferson sailed from Boston only a couple of weeks after Abigail. Jefferson and Abigail would become quite good friends during their time in Europe, and they traded many letters over the coming years. But neither one recorded their thoughts about the other upon this first meeting.

On June 20, 1784, Abigail, Nabby, and two servants boarded the Active. And in true Abigail Adams form, she took a cow with them.

They set sail immediately, under clear skies and with a fine wind. But they had barely passed the Boston lighthouse when the sea became rougher, and everyone was seasick for the next 10 days. Abigail kept up a running letter to her sister Mary throughout the voyage, so we have a lot of detail about the journey.

“We crawled upon [the] deck whenever we were able, but it was so cold and damp that we could not remain long. … Of this I am very sure, that no lady would ever wish a second time to try the sea, were the objects of her pursuit within the reach of a land journey.” 

The Active was a merchant ship, and not designed solely to transport passengers. There were only two rooms to serve as private quarters for the four ladies on board. Abigail and her female servant Esther shared one room, while Nabby shared the other room with the fourth female passenger, coincidentally named Mrs. Adams. 

The cabins were small and didn’t have windows, so they had to keep the doors open unless they were actively dressing. The men all slept in the main cabin just outside the doors to the women’s cabins. Abigail wrote, “We can only live with our door shut whilst we dress and undress. Necessity has no law, but what should I have thought on shore to have layed myself down to sleep in common with a half dozen gentlemen. We have curtains, it is true…but we have the satisfaction of falling in with a set of well-behaved, decent gentlemen.”

Abigail even had to rely on one of the ship’s crew, whom she knew from Braintree and was actually Esther’s brother, to help her while she was sick, because Nabby and Esther were both sick too. She went so far as to allow the young man to remove her shoes, writing to Mary, “The decency and decorum of the most delicate female must in some measure yield to the necessities of nature and if you have no female capable of rendering you the least assistance, you will feel grateful to any one who will feel for you, and relieve or compassionate your sufferings. [I cannot] conceive any inducement sufficient to carry a Lady upon the ocean, but that of going to a Good Husband.”

A storm buffeted them off the Grand Banks, and the winds and rolling of the ship were so strong that the women had to be braced into their chairs by the men, who then braced themselves against something that was attached to the ship’s deck. The storm sent dishes and glassware crashing down from their shelves, and Abigail’s poor cow was so badly injured that it had to be killed and thrown overboard. For those keeping track at home, that’s now two cows that have died on Abigail’s watch.

Once everyone recovered from their seasickness, Abigail kind of took over management of the ship when she noticed how dirty everything was. “Very little attention is paid on Board this ship to that first of virtues, Cleanliness. Once I found I might reign mistress on board without any offence, I soon exerted my authority with scrapers, mops, brushes, infusions of vinegar, etc. and in a few hours you would have thought yourself in a different ship.” 

She also took command of the galley, “taught the cook to dress his victuals, and have made several puddings with my own hands.” She also learned the names of all the ship’s masts and sails, and spent a fair bit of time on the deck, watching the ocean. She and Nabby passed the time reading, writing, playing cards, and chatting with the handful of other passengers.

On July 18, land was sighted. Abigail wrote, “You will hardly wonder…at the joy we felt this day in seeing the cliffs of Dover, Dover castle and town.” Their difficulties weren’t quite over though. They were caught in high winds in the English Channel for a couple of days, and then they finally dropped anchor within sight of a small town called Deal.

A pilot boat pulled up alongside the Active, and the passengers were lowered into it, amidst lashing rain. Abigail wrote, “We set off from the vessel now mounting upon the top of a wave as high as a steeple, and then so low that the boat was not to be seen. I could keep myself up no other way than as one of the gentlemen stood braced up against the boat, fast hold of me and I with both arms around him. The other ladies were held in the same manner whilst every wave gave us a broadside.” 

When they finally reached the shore, they were so eager to get out of the little boat that they all tumbled out, “as fast as possible, sinking every step into the land, and looking like a parcel of Naiads, just rising from the sea.” It was July 20, 1784, exactly 30 days since they had departed from Boston.

Abigail Adams, at the age of 39, after never traveling more than 55 miles from her home, not even to Philadelphia when John was serving in Congress, had just crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Next week, Abigail and Nabby will travel to London where they will finally be reunited with John and John Quincy, after an absence of four years and nine months.

Thanks for listening to this episode. As always, it was produced by me, and the music is by Matthew Dull.