Getting Ready
No telephones, faxes, or computers existed in Colonial America. People who wanted to send messages to friends or family who were far away often wrote letters. One famous letter was written by Abigail Adams to her husband John Adams at the Continental Congress. Abigail knew that the delegates at the Congress were writing about very important ideals, but that the laws they were making to guarantee those ideals would not be applied to women. She urged her husband to include women. Here's a part of what she wrote on March 31, 1776:
"In the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies.If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation."
John did not agree that women should be guaranteed the same rights as men. In fact he thought that the rights in the Constitution should apply only to men who owned property. He wrote back to his wife, "As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but Laugh." He thought that women, along with slaves, Indians, and men who didn't own property were like children. In his view, just as it was parents' responsibility to set rules for their children, it was the responsibility of men who had money and formal European-style education to govern everyone else.
Most of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and wrote the Constitution agreed with John Adams. But some Americans believed that the rights guaranteed by the new American government should be applied equally to everyone, and they have continued the fight to make sure that happens.
Activity
Write your own letter.
- Pretend you are a colonist. Tell the continental congress what you hope they'll do.
- Write to government officials in your community who are working on a policy or issue you care about. Tell them what you hope they will do.
- Send a letter to someone you care about whom you don't see very often. Tell them what activities you have been doing, what you have been studying, reading, or thinking about, and/or how you feel about them.
Think More About It
Benjamin Franklin was the very first Postmaster General of the United States. Why do you think it was important for the colonists to control their own mail? How much did the first postage stamp cost? What does it cost now to mail a letter?
Words to know: guarantee, rights, Constitution, postal/postage |
