Abigail Adams has been celebrated in popular culture as a strong, brilliant woman who was an indispensable political adviser to her husband, John Adams, and a savvy steward of the family homestead.
But there was another side to Abigail Adams that hasn’t drawn nearly as much attention: She was also an astute, successful businesswoman and investor.
Her skills certainly didn’t go unnoticed in her time. Thomas Jefferson, for one, saw her as exceptional in her grasp of business matters. He described her as one of the “most attentive and honourable economists” in a letter to James Madison, and he praised her financial acumen and her direction of the couple’s financial affairs while John Adams was stationed in Europe on behalf of the fledgling American government.
Building a business
Indeed, Jefferson could have used her help with his own finances. Although he was a member of Virginia’s aristocratic planter class, he notoriously died in significant debt. He overspent on home remodeling and luxuries, including exquisite furnishings, artworks and hundreds of bottles of fine wine he brought back from his stint in Paris as the American minister to France.