Main Blog Post #5

Main Blog Post (November 6, 2015)

Abdirahman Abdi

Dr. Lee

11/4/15

ENGL & 244

Blog Assignment: Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 July 1775

Over the course of many years, John Adams and his wife, Abigail, have exchanged many letters. The letters consisted of multiple subjects; mainly their personal lives and politics. The letter I believe to be the most interesting is the “Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 July 1775” because it gives an accurate firsthand account on what was happening in America at the time. The letter also gives readers an insight on John Adam’s personality. In the letters, John writes about Benjamin Franklin and the continental congress, he also talks about how he feels certain people and wrote a bit about himself.

While John and Abigail Adams were exchanging these letters, the colonies were in the middle of the revolutionary war. The war was fought in order for the colonies to gain independence from England. The colonists felt as though they needed more freedom, tensions escalated resulting in a war. John Adams writes a bit about Dr. Benjamin Franklin the concept of independence. He notifies Abigail of Franklin’s constant occurrences in the congressional meetings. It is evident John admires Franklin. John wrote “He is however a great and good Man. I wish his Colleagues from this City were All like him”. John admired Dr. Franklin’s unique way of thinking. He wasn’t like the others and was helpful and cooperative. Independence was a recurring theme in these congressional meetings. John wrote more about Franklin’s ideas and how he felt about independence. Afterwards, John mentions several other men and what he notices. Despite not knowing them, he picks up on a lot of their personality traits meaning John is a very intelligent man and calculates every move and is generally a cautious person. Towards the end of the letter, John told Abigail he loved her and their children. The fact that they exchanged letters over the course of many years and him writing “I’m yours” gives readers a firsthand view of John and Abigail’s life and relationship.

John and Abigail Adams were by no means writers. The letters they exchanged were solely personal and were not meant for everyone to see. That being said, the Author of this text, John Adams, had neither implications nor an audience to write for. He wrote these letters for personal reasons. There were no stylistic choices. For the most part, these letters were very straightforwardly and they were easy to understand. However, it seems as though John kept out sensitive information because the “mailing system” was informal and the letters could end up anywhere. He provided Abigail with facts but didn’t go too much into detail. Although there wasn’t anything artistic, these letters are very important because the readers can learn a lot from the time period it was written and it goes well with the other excerpts from the textbook that have been assigned.

 Adams, John. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 July 1775, "You have more than once..." [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/

Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th Ed., New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.