Abigail Adams was like a modern woman, even though she lived in colonial times. She strongly supported the American Revolution, women’s rights and education. She worked to get public schooling for girls. She was a smart businessperson during a time when women in the U.S. could not even own property. Abigail Adams and her husband, John Adams, were also strong voices against slavery at a time when owning another person was legal in the U.S. Unlike some of America’s other founders including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson John and Abigail Adams did not own any slaves. Journalist and author Cokie Roberts has written several books about women in the early days of the U.S., including “Ladies of Liberty.” She says Abigail Adams is best known for this phrase: “Remember the ladies.”

“When the men were meeting in Philadelphia to think about creating a new country, breaking away from the British, she wrote to her husband and said, ‘Well I suppose we will have to have to have a new code of laws and when you write those laws, remember the ladies, because all men would be tyrants if they could.’ And those have become some of the most famous words in the English language, or the American English language. ‘Remember the ladies.’” Roberts adds that nobody knows exactly what Abigail was arguing for at the time. She thinks Abigail, who was a strong supporter of women’s rights, was probably arguing in favor of legal rights for women.