Existing comment:
Am I Not A Citizen?
In an often-quoted letter to her husband, Abigail Adams reminded John Adams to "Remember the ladies... Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands."
When Adams wrote that letter in 1776, married women were the legal property of their husbands. Women did not own their bodies, their wages, or -- in the event of a divorce -- even their children. The documents displayed here show some of the ways that the citizenship of women was defined differently than that of men. |