Abigail Adams Letter To My Mother Essay

Snail mail, as we call it these days, was the most optimal way to contact someone traveling to far off places. In the 1780s, letters contained valuable information, either from a loved one or from a high authority. In Abigail Adams’ letter to her son John Quincy Adams, she advises him about his own power, her encouragement for him, and her hopes she has for him back at home. As a mother, she naturally opens and closes her letter with a caring message, to inform her son that her letter is not one of scolding and anger, but instead one of encourage and empowerment. Power is a strong word for someone to either speak of or become. Before knowing anything about his later presidency, his mother Mrs. Adams, takes it to herself to highlight all of her son’s own powers she notices in him. She identifies to him that “[his] knowledge… must give [him] greater advantage…” She portrays to her son that he is a smart and knowledgeable man; this is what she inspires him to continues to see himself as. This is a great and powerful message itself because it shows she has a great value and aspiration for her son during his travel with his father to the new country. She then tends to her hopes that at this time he will find his calling in life. Adams presents this statement with her sentence, “...whilst ignorant of

For it was his father who had brought him to the new land with only his mother’s urge. She only wishes that he must not forget who he is in the new land and to always remember his mother who had urged him to go with his father. If it weren’t for his father, who had been called to the American colonies, they would never had that opportunity. Adams concludes her letter by saying, “...render your parents supremely happy…” She summarizes that anything he should intend to do should still make his parents