4 A New Country Is Born

Chapter 4 A New Country Is Born In January 1776, Abigail again was kept awake all night by the rumble of cannons. The windows rattled all day. The fighting went on for weeks. General George Washington was trying to drive the British out of Boston. Abigail feared the city would be burned down. In March, from the hill behind her house, she saw a huge fleet of British ships. It was an amazing sight. There were so many ships, Abigail wrote, "They look like a Forrest." One hundred seventy ships had their sails raised. They were leaving the harbor! George Washington had driven out the British! Boston was spared, but the war went on elsewhere.

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At that time, John was at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He was working with men from each of the thirteen colonies on a declaration of independence. It would be a statement that explained why the colonies were breaking away from England. Abigail wrote to her husband about her beliefs and what she hoped to see in a new American

government. Even though her own father still had slaves, Abigail thought there should be no slavery in a free country. She also strongly believed that women should have the same rights as men. In the late 1700s, husbands had total control over their wives. Wives could be treated almost like slaves. Abigail's own drunken brother mistreated his wife, and no one could do anything about it. Abigail wanted laws to protect wives. Women couldn't buy property. They couldn't get the same education as men. In one of her most famous letters to John, Abigail wrote, "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors." She even half-jokingly hinted that women could revolt if they weren't treated more fairly! John answered, "I cannot but laugh."

Abigail was in Boston in July 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was read to cheering crowds. Church bells rang, guns were fired in the air, and people yelled, "God Save our American States!" Abigail listened to the reading, but heard nothing about slaves or women. That

must have disappointed her greatly. It took until 1865 for slavery to be ended everywhere in the United States. And only in 1920 did women finally get the right to vote.