Abigail Adams Abigail Smith Adams, twenty-two, wears feminine pearls and a lace collar along with a facial expression projecting confidence and maturity not often credited to young women of the 1760s. A decade later, she was running the family’s Massachusetts farm while her husband, John, attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Her frequent letters gave him the benefit of her sage advice on politics and the war. © Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, USA/The Bridgeman Art Library.