Don't recall the 1776 quote, but Abigail made considerable money by reselling the pins that John managed to send her. She was quite an entrepreneuse for a while there and resold stuff he sent her from his trip to Europe on American diplomatic business too. She'd tell him what to send and manage the whole business.
When she thought she was dying, two years before she did, she did something radical: she made a will. According to the law of the time, a married woman owned nothing and had nothing to leave to anybody. Her husband would have been within his rights to throw it in the fire and do whatever he wanted with "her" stuff, but John was a reasonably good guy. Didn't matter in the end because he outlived her.
Abigail Adams was also radical in keeping some of her money-- again, not legally hers-- secret from John and making better investments with it than he did.
Sorry to rattle on, but I recently read a good bio called Abigail Adams by Woody Holton.
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When she thought she was dying, two years before she did, she did something radical: she made a will. According to the law of the time, a married woman owned nothing and had nothing to leave to anybody. Her husband would have been within his rights to throw it in the fire and do whatever he wanted with "her" stuff, but John was a reasonably good guy. Didn't matter in the end because he outlived her.
Abigail Adams was also radical in keeping some of her money-- again, not legally hers-- secret from John and making better investments with it than he did.
Sorry to rattle on, but I recently read a good bio called Abigail Adams by Woody Holton.