In May 1776, the American Congress bid each colony to form new governments, since British rule had basically collapsed. Sitting in Philadelphia with the American Congress, John Adams received the letter written the previous month from his wife, Abigail, which would go on to be often-quoted over the years:

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency, and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.” She cautioned him not to “put such unlimited power into the hands of Husbands…Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.”

Less well known is what she added later: “If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebelilon, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

If only we could have been there when she received John’s answer:
“As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh,” he wrote, adding that he blamed the British for inflaming everyone from Tories to Bigots, Canadians to Indians and Russians and “Roman Catholicks.” As well as women, he implied.