“She was in a war zone. As militia streamed into the area in the wake of the battles of Lexington and Concord, Abigail had collected the family’s pewter dishes and melted them down in a large kettle held over the kitchen fire to make bullets.”
Summary
Back in that spring and summer of 1775, when he was just seven years old and the War for Independence swirled around him and his family, John Quincy Adams remembered, “[my mother] taught me to repeat daily after the Lord’s prayer [the Ode of Collins] before rising from bed.”
Resources
- Ode: “How sleep the brave, who sink to rest” by William Collins
- Biography of Abigail Adams
- Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 2 May 1775: “Fly to the Woods”
- Painting: The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill by John Trumbull
- Bullet Mold believed to have been used by Abigail Adams
- The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams
- First Family by Joseph Ellis
- Biography of John Quincy Adams
- John Adams: HBO miniseries
Credits
- Narrator: Chris Flannery
- Historian: Patrick Garrity
- Audio Producer: Derek Wood
- Music Supervisor: Blake Huxell
