Witchcraft

John Proctor is a local farmer who lives just outside of town. He is stern and harsh- tongued and hates hypocrisy. He initially was a sinful man who had an affair with Abigail. He was dishonest to Elizabeth and he had been felt guilty. Elizabeth hadn’t forgiven him easily. He hesitated to expose Abigail as a fraud because he worried that his secret which was to having an affair would be revealed. Because of the affair he admitted he was a witch. He decided against the admission because it would dishonor him and stain not just his public reputation, but also his soul.

In Act1, John Proctor displayed his guilt about having an affair with Abigail Williams, a young girl of seventeen. Proctor convinced himself he was a sinful man that had done wrong and to have respect for himself once again, he must break off the relationship with Abigail.

When Abigail mentioned to Proctor the relationship she and he once had. He said to her, “No, no, Abby. That’s done with,” and, “Abby, you’ll put it out of mind. I’ll not be comin’ for you more. Even when Abigail tried to persuade Proctor to admit his love for her, he still denied it and claimed he had no love for her any longer. She said to him, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I came near! Or did I dream that? ” In all of Abigail’s persuasion to try to get him to admit his love for her, Proctor replied, “Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time; but I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.

Wipe it out of your mind. We never touched, Abby. Proctor said to Abigail that they never touched was his way of trying to get through to her that the relationship between the both of them had to end here. In Proctor’s mind, saying to Abigail that was the end of their affair gave him the closure that he needed to truly forget what he and Abigail had. The affair between Proctor and Abigail also had made his love for Elizabeth grow stronger. The guilt of the affair made him realize how Elizabeth was a good woman and deserved more than a cheating husband and he refused to allow Abigail to speak about her.

In Act2, when Proctor mentioned speaking to Abigail alone, Elizabeth questioned him about it and Proctor excuse for being alone with her. She said, “Do as you wish, then,” He felt hurt by Elizabeth’s suspicion and felt she judged him and that he did not have her forgiveness. He got angry with her and he said, “No more! I should have roared you down when first you told me your suspicion. But I witted, and like a Christian, I confessed. Confessed! Some dream I must have mistaken you for God that day. But you’re not, and let you remember it!

Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me and judge me not! ” that since Proctor felt he chose to confess to her rather than lie and deny her accusations. In Act4, Proctor said “I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth; I am no good man. Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before. ” Proctor felt that it would not be much sin to save his life by confessing a lie. Elizabeth said to Proctor, “Do what you will. But let none be your judge.

There be no higher judge under Heaven that Proctor is! Forgive me, forgive me, John – I never knew such goodness in the world! ” Elizabeth showed that she cared about Proctor but she wanted him to realize that it was his own decision to make whether to stay true to himself or not. She told him that he was the only one who could judge himself and decide whether he could live with himself after this lie. Proctor declared, “I want my life… I will have my life. ” then Proctor admitted to Parris and Danforth that he had seen the Devil and he had bound himself to his service.

He felt empty. Proctor showed that he truly did not believe in signing the confession and the fact that he made him a deceitful person that was not true to oneself. Then he tore up the confession and boldly said, “I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made you magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to wave a banner with, but enough to keep it from such dogs. ” It is shown the Proctor is finally at peace with himself.

The delight in comparing the historical accuracy of Arthur Miller’s play to the real events of the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s comes from both the time at which the play was published and the historical parallels between the two times in American history. Furthermore, the play holds value as an attempt to explain unexplainable behavior and to teach lessons from the history in the hopes that they will not be repeated. It is a sad lament that the lesson remains unlearned and fifty years later we are faced with another American witch trial, this time under the name “War on Terror.”

In short summation, “The Crucible” is a play ostensibly about the Salem Witch trials. In it, a preacher’s daughter falls ill after dancing in the woods with a slave and some of the other village teen agers. Her father calls in assistance from more world church investigators to find the root of the witchcraft that has left his daughter ill. After he threatens to whip the slave to death, she confesses to witchcraft and seeks to take blame away from herself by pointing the finger at other Salem citizens.

Eventually, the finger is pointed at a married woman, Elizabeth Proctor, by her former maid Abigail who had been having an affair with the woman’s husband John. Her accusations are at first doubted because John admits to the affair and shows that Abigail is attempting to tarnish his wife’s reputation or indeed mess up his life, but Elizabeth, thinking she is protecting her husband, refuses to admit to knowing about the affair. She is eventually found guilty of witchcraft and spared the gallows because she is pregnant, but in the same misguided desire to spare herself more torment, accuses under questioning that her husband is also a witch. At the end of the play, John Proctor is being led to the gallows for his crime.

Is any of this real? Yes. Elizabeth Proctor was given a stay of execution because she was pregnant and most of her family was executed during the Salem Witch Trials (Burns, 1). The pastor’s slave, a Caribbean Indian woman named Tituba was among the first accused and pointed the finger at her owner’s daughter and others in the community, but there is no historical evidence that John Proctor had an affair and the real Abigail was an 11 year old girl at the time of the trials (Burns, 1). So why did Arthur Miller chose to make it all up? Possibly to give reason to the unreasonable. Though the witch hunts in Salem lasted a relatively short period of time, they left an indelible mark on American history, a time when man turned against his wife and children and neighbors to avoid being killed.

Miller, a victim of Joseph McCarthy’s “Red Scare’, understood the premise all too well. The origins of the Red scare are much easier to trace than the origin of the Salem Witch Hunts, but Miller clearly could see the parallels between the two. In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in February, 1950, McCarthy made clear where his venom and hatred came from. “Five years after a world war has been won, men’s hearts should anticipate a long peace—and men’s minds should be free from the heavy weight that comes with war. But this is not such a period—for this is not a period of peace. This is a time of “the cold war.” This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps—a time of a great armament race. “(“Enemies from Within”, 1).

There is a term used in sociology to reflect the behavior, called identifying the “other”. The other is a person unlike ourselves who has some characteristic that makes them a threat to society as we know it. In the witch trials, it was witches. During the Red Scare, it was Communists. Today, it is anyone who appears Arabic or studies Islam and can therefore be deemed likely to be a terrorist.  Not having learned the lessons of history or of literature, after September 11, 2001, Americans were terrified and they turned to a new witch hunt, this time with the witches semi-identifiable by race.

Too bad that you can tell an Arab-American who has lived her forever, or an Afghani refugee, or simply a hard-working Middle Easterner who has never considered the way of Al Qaida just by looking at them. Instead, we demonize a race and lock people up in Cuba at Guantanamo Naval Base on the suspicion that they might have knowledge about someone or something that might want to hurt us. The Patriot Act makes it an offense just to know people who might be associated with terrorism and encourages people to rat out their friends, with the same kind of threats that the preacher used on his slave Tituba.

But this is not the first witch hunt since McCarthyism and is probably not the last. In fact, in many ways, Miller may have contributed to one of his own in the writing of “The Crucible”. In 1950s northern America, Communists were the enemy, but in the South, it was the uppity African-American wanting rights that he had been granted but not given after the Civil War. By making Tituba a Negro slave and implying that she practiced some form of voodoo, Miller may have contributed to this anti-African-American attitude (Hansen, 3).  By the 1970s, the witch hunt was against the American military and specifically those who had served in Vietnam, in the 1980s Reagan-era; it was those darned Communists again.

The 1990s brought on a witch hunt in the Catholic Church, where suddenly every priest was assumed to be a pedophile and in 2001, Al Qaida made themselves into the witches of the new millennia.  At Guantanamo Bay, McCarthy’s famous question, “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” (Popkin, 139) has been revised. The quest now is to find the next threat to Americans and the next unidentified witch.

Works Cited

Burns, Margo. “Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Fact & Fiction (Or Picky, Picky, Picky…) October 24, 2003. <http://www.17thc.us/docs/fact-fiction.shtml>, November 17, 2007.

McCarthy, Joseph R. “Enemies from Within”, February 9, 1950. < http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456>, November 17, 2007.

Popkin, Henry. “Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’”.College English > Vol. 26, No. 2 (Nov., 1964), pp. 139-146  Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/373665?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents, November 17, 2007.

The idea of witchcraft has been a controversial topic since the begging of time however, witchcraft became better known in 1692, with the begging of the Salem witch trials. Many stories have been written about the Salem witch trials. Some are found in journals, other stories are exaggerated from those journals. The comparison of historical facts and the play the Crucible are the perfect example of an exaggerated actual event. During the Salem witch trials, Tituba was asked to make a “witchcake” in order to figure was afflicting Betty Parris.

She was later accused of witchcraft by Betty and Abigail Parris. Betty and Abigail Parris were the first to be afflicted. Actual symptoms consisted of violent physical tantrums. Rebecca Nurse was hung on July 19th , John Proctor on August 19th, and Martha Corey on September 22nd. Tituba brought stories of voodoo and other supernatural events from Barbados. This alone compelled the girls to take part in harmless fortune-telling. Mrs. Parris was alive during the incident and died in 1696, four years after the incident. The Parris family consisted of Mr. and Mrs.

Parris, Betty, Thomas, and Susannah, Abigail was only “kinfolk”. After the trials Betty was sent away. Tituba was acutally an Indian woman who had a husband named John and a daughter Violet. She was also tortured for a long time before she confessed. John was actually 60 and a tavern keeper. Elizabeth was is 3rd wife. John had a daughter that was 15, a son that is 17, and another son that is 33 from a previous marriage. Mary Warren was 20. The adultery between Abigail and John is unlikely to occur as they lived far from each other and Abigail never worked for them.

Rebecca Nurse was considered least likely to be a witch- she was seen as saint-like. The Nurses were not extremely respected because they owed money. Martha Corey was accused of witchcraft and didn’t enter a plea. He was pressed with stones in an attempt to force him to plea either was, but he refused. In The Crucible, Tituba was accused of leading 6 girls into the forest to cast spells and charms by a wild dancing ritual. Ruth Putnam was the first girl to be afflicted. The only symptom of bewitchment was not being able to woke from a deep slumber.

John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Martha Corey were all hung on the same day. Mrs. Parris has been dead for years and the family consisted of Betty. Mr. Parris, Abigail, and Tituba. Betty was present for the trials. Tituba was a single and didn’t have a family as a slave. Tituba confessed quickly. John Proctor is young and is a farmer. Elizabeth is his only wife. John Proctor only has 2 young sons. Marry Warren was 17. John and Abigail committed adultery. Abigail worked for the Proctor before Mary. The daughter’s named Ruth Putnam.

Ruth was the only child of 8 the survive. Both of the Nurses were deeply respected and revered. Giles Corey was executed for refusing to reveal the name of a witness. But, none of this really occurred during the Salem Witch Trials. In my opinion, The Crucible reflected a lot of what happened during the Salem witch trials, but I feel like Arthur Miller exaggerated the historical facts. Miller changed the people’s lives. I think he intentionally changed the story like that to make it more interesting, but he changed it just a little to much.

Abigail’s Versus Chillingworth’s Revenge What does revenge mean? The definition is “to exact punishment or expiation for a wrong on behalf of, especially in a resentful or vindictive spirit” (dictionary. com). What does that mean? It means to give punishment to someone who deserves it for some specific reason, especially if the reason was personal or offends to the person giving the revenge. In both The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter there was revenge. However, they both had different types of revenge and how it was used. There was a lot of revenge in The Crucible.

The first person that was using revenge in The Crucible is Thomas Putnam. From the beginning of the play, Thomas Putnam had grudges against Francis Nurse for preventing his brother-in-law from being elected to run for office as minister. “Thomas Putnam’s man for the Salem ministry was Bayley. The Nurse clan had been in the faction that prevented Bayley’s taking office” (Act 1). He also dislikes George Jacobs because they have had land disputes in the past. Thomas Putnam decides to have his daughter Ruth charge witchcraft against the man.

He does this because if George Jacobs is executed, then Thomas Putnam can buy all of George Jacobs’ land. Giles Corey knows this and in the book he says, “If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property – that’s law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land” (Act 3)! Another person that Thomas Putnam wants to have revenge against is the “witch” that the people of Salem have been trying to find since the very beginning. He and his wife are the reason that the whole witchcraft hysteria went out of control.

Thomas Putnam and his wife were very upset about how they lost seven newborns and now their only living child, Ruth, is sick. In the book Mrs. Putnam says: “Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born. And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothin’, but my heart has clamored intimations. And now, this year, my Ruth, my only – I see her turning strange. A secret child she has become this year, and shrivels like a sucking mouth were pullin’ on her life too. ” (Act 1) They are desperate and try to onvince Reverend Parris to tell everyone what he saw with the girls dancing in the woods. One of the girls was naked, Tituba was doing some Barbuda spell, and something with a frog in it was boiling in a pot. The last thing that Thomas Putnam does for revenge is when Giles Corey accuses Thomas Putnam of using the witch trials as a way to get land much cheaper than it is worth by accusing people and having them executed and then buying their land. Giles Corey is pressed to death, for not telling the court who told him this information and Putnam gets his revenge. He refuses to confess because he knows he will lose his land.

He knew if he just dies without being guilty by the court then his sons will get the land but if he confesses he loses the land so he has them put more weight on him and he dies. His last words in the play were “More weight. ” Thomas Putnam’s wife, Mrs. Putnam, has Rebecca Nurse arrested for the supernatural murder of her seven babies because Rebecca was her midwife. Mrs. Putnam is very jealous of the other wives because she had seven stillbirths. The main person that uses revenge in the play is Abigail Williams. She is a cruel, selfish girl that will do anything to get with John Proctor.

So, naturally, she hates his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, more than anything in the world. Here’s a quote from the book showing how Abigail dislikes Elizabeth, “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her” (Act 1). The first reason she hates Elizabeth Proctor is because she fired Abigail from being her servant because Elizabeth found out that her husband, John Proctor, was having an affair with her. John Proctor ends up confessing in court about the affair and he says: “A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now.

I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is . . . She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore’s vengeance. ” (Act 3) She goes to the extent to have Tituba do some Barbuda ritual thing with a chicken and boiling something. She even drinks the blood of the chicken. In the book when accused of drinking blood Abigail betrays Tituba and blames her and says that she made her drink the blood, “She makes me drink blood” (Act 1)!

When Abigail, Tituba, and the girls get caught dancing (and Abigail is also naked) and performing this “witchcraft”, Abigail threatens to murder anyone who says they did anything other than dance. An example of a quote of Abigail only caring about herself not getting in trouble is, “I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil” (Act 1)! During the play, she desperately wants John Proctor.

She begs and begs for John to remember their “connection” and all the things she taught her. In the play Abigail says, “I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet” (Act 1)! The next thing that Abigail does is the doll she gives to Elizabeth. Abigail forces Mary Warren to sew Elizabeth a doll and put a needle in the stomach of it.

Then when Mary gives it to Elizabeth, Abigail shoves a needle in her stomach in the same spot and goes to the authorities and tells them that Elizabeth sent her spirit out to stab her with the needle. In the play Cheever says this about what happened: “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, Sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Lake a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out.

And demandin’ of her how she came to be so stabbed, she (to Proctor now) – testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in! ” (Act 2) Unfortunately for Abigail, her plan of getting rid of Elizabeth and marrying John backfires and John Proctor hangs and Elizabeth lives. John Proctor hangs because of Abigail. When John Proctor has Mary Warren tell the truth to the judges the girls turn on him and Mary. Then Mary gets scared and says John bewitched her into saying all that so she doesn’t get in trouble. John is accused of witchcraft and confesses.

But then the judge has him sign a paper saying he did it and Proctor refuses because he knows it will be hung on the church door and he doesn’t want his name ruined. In the book he says, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Act 4)! After all this happens, Abigail is afraid someone like Hale will start convincing people that she has been lying. Worried about this, Abigail and Mercy steal Parris’ stuff and then run away.

There is also a lot of revenge in The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne seeks revenge in the book. In the book, Hester is alienated from the rest of the town and I’m sure it made it pretty miserable for her. A good quote from the book that shows how she was isolated from the town and the people of the town is this: “Measured by the prisoner’s experience, however, it might reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them to spurn and trample upon. (page 53) In the book, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale and is forced to where the scarlet “A” on her clothing for adultery. This makes her an outcast to the rest of the community. The other people of the town were somewhat cruel. Some examples of them treating them cruelly is when the kids threw mud at her and Pearl until Pearl chased them away. Another example is when Bellingworth and Wilson tease Pearl and call her a demon child and bird. Hester nearly got her revenge by escaping to England with her lover, Dimmesdale, but Dimmesdale dies.

The main person who seeks revenge in The Scarlet Letter is Roger Chillingworth. From the very beginning of the story, Chillingworth is obsessed with trying to find out who his wife, Hester, slept with. He is extremely jealous and angry she did this and his only life goal is to find out who it is. When Dimmesdale gets sick, Chillingworth is already suspicious of this man so he takes up the opportunity to become his “doctor. ” Chillingworth pretends to be nice and friendly to Dimmesdale as Dimmesdale is sick because he is he feels bad for committing adultery and no telling anyone.

The author also hints that Chillingworth is making Dimmesdale sicker instead of helping him get better. In the book, Chillingworth slowly tortures Dimmesdale with his guilt for what he did. Chillingworth did a few things to torture Dimmesdale. His presence was torture because it was a constant reminder of his sin of adultery. In the book Chillingworth mentions that lying is against God a lot to make Dimmesdale feel bad for what he did. On top of all this, Chillingworth was caring for Dimmesdale so he could have been poisoning him.

Dimmesdale cannot handle this torture and extreme guilt he feels and starts harming himself physically. In the book it says, “In Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge” (page 141). He harms himself by whipping himself and among other ways. Finally, Dimmesdale can’t take it anymore and reveals what he did to the town. Chillingworth tries to stop him, because if he says it, then it’s over and Chillingworth can’t torture him anymore. In the book Chillingworth yells to Dimmesdale, “Do not blacken your fame and perish in dishonor.

I can yet save you” (page 235)! After that, Dimmesdale dies because he allows his guilt to just destroy him. When Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth has no point in life anymore so he soon after dies too. After all this Hester goes back to her house in her old life. She is depressed because she was so close to having a great life with Dimmesdale. “But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne here, in New England, than in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence.

She had returned, therefore, and resumed,—of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it,—resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. But . . . the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, and yet with reverence, too. ” (Page 257) In The Crucible, there seems to be revenge mostly just jealousy.

In this play, it’s mostly out of jealousy because Abigail wishes she was John’s husband and is jealous of Elizabeth. She does her revenge by trying to get her convicted of witchcraft which in the end backfires because Elizabeth lives and John dies. In The Scarlet Letter there is mostly revenge because Chillingworth loathes Dimmesdale because he slept with his wife. Chillingworth does his revenge by torturing Dimmesdale with guilt but this also backfires because Dimmesdale gets out of it and Chillingworth dies because he has nothing else to live for. To conclude, The Crucible and The

Haley Young Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams Reading Journal Chapter 1: A Minister’s Daughter * Abigail was born to Reverend William Smith and his wife Elizabeth in Weymouth parsonage in Massachusetts. * She has two sisters, Mary and Betsey. The main point of this chapter was to showcase the religious, family-oriented background that Abigail was raised in. It explains why she is so focused on her family and John later in her life. It also explains her penname “Diana” and her love for literature and being involved in politics, after being taught to read at a young age.

Chapter 2: John * Abigail and John were married on October 25, 1764. The maim point of this chapter is to show the love developing between John and Abigail. The way they were not attracted to each other at first explains why they work together so well. They have different views on things so they balance each other out. Their love for each other also sets up their depression during their separation later in their lives. Chapter 3: Wife and Mother * Abigail and John had six children: Abigail, John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas, and Elizabeth (stillborn).

The main point of this chapter is to show the Adams family growing. Abigail’s deep connection to her kids at such a young age explains her sadness later on in her life when they are no longer with her, especially when her sons begin to leave home with their father to help with his politics and see the world. It also explains her connection to Nabby, since after Susanna and Elizabeth died young; Nabby was the only Adams daughter. Chapter 4: Politics * John elected representative to Massachusetts legislature, then later chosen as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Chapter 5: War Abigail had to raise her kids and deal with the family farm buy herself while John was away in Philadelphia. Chapter 6: Independence * Abigail used her influence over John to fight for women’s’ rights and representation during the drafting of the Constitution. * John was elected commissioner to France. Chapter 7: A Woman’s Sacrifice * While John was away in Europe, Abigail once again had to run her household on her own, which put her into a depression. Chapter 8: The Long Separation * After his commission to France, John was elected minister plenipotentiary which extended his stay in Europe.

Chapter 9: Years of Decision * While John was in Europe, Abigail couldn’t decide whether or not to join him, but when he was commissioned to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, she and Nabby decided to go and join him in Europe. * Nabby fell in love with Royall Tyler so the trip was also to see if their love would last. Chapter 10: Europe * Abigail liked London because of the class but disliked Paris because she thought it was dirty and the people were rude. * The servants did less in Europe, so it was more expensive to run a household ,which frustrated Abigail. John was then appointed minister to London by congress. Chapter 11: “The Ambassadress” * Abigail was overwhelmed by the wealth of the royal court in London. * She and John were not used to the expenses of clothing, servants, and hosting dinners for other dignitaries. This was made even worse by the low salary John was being paid by Congress. Chapter 12: A Homesick American * In London, Abigail continued to miss American and her easy-going life in the countryside because she felt confined in the city in London.

Chapter 13: The Vice President’s Lady * After Europe, Abigail was sure that she wanted her husband to continue his political career. * In March of 1779, John was elected Vice President, so the whole Adams family moved to New York to serve with George and Martha Washington, the new president and first lady. * Once again, like London, Abigail had many social obligations to fulfill as the second lady of the United States. * Congress then moved the capital city to Philadelphia, so once again the Adams family had to move.

Chapter 14: An Interlude at Quincy * For John’s second term as Vice President, Abigail spent most of her time back in Braintree running the farm. * After her health scare while moving to Philadelphia, The Adams family didn’t want to risk her getting even more sick. * In 1796, George Washington announced he would not serve a third term as president, which made people speculate that John would succeed him. John would have to run against Thomas Jefferson in order to do so. Chapter 15: Mrs. President * John’s election made Abigail nervous.

John was not as widely supported as Washington. * Abigail played a huge role in John’s presidency by expressing her opinions in politics, which was uncommon for a woman of the time. * While living in Philadelphia for John’s presidency, Abigail grew to enjoy the city. Chapter 16: “The Federal City”: * When John’s political career ended, Abigail returned to Quincy to a busy home full of her family. * Abigail soon set out for Washington, the new capital city, but when John was not reelected, they both returned.

Chapter 17: The Matriarch of Peacefield * With both John and Abigail back in Quincy, Abigail took right back to being the matriarch of the house and taking care of her numerous grandchildren. * Abigail enjoyed having her husband always with her, and helping to raise her small grandchildren while in retirement. Chapter 18: The Curtain Falls * On October 28, 1817, Abigail died after falling ill with typhoid fever, at age 73. * Abigail was able to die peacefully with most of her family around her.