The Massachusetts family that gave the young republic two presidents, a founding mother, and generations of statesmen.
John Adams was a leader of the American Revolution and became the second President of the United States; his wife, Abigail Adams, was a formidable adviser and letter-writer whose words still shape our picture of the founding.
Their son John Quincy Adams became the sixth President and a fierce antislavery congressman. Later generations — the diplomat Charles Francis Adams and the historian Henry Adams — kept the family at the center of American public life.
No family did more to found and steer the early United States. The Adamses' letters and papers are a national treasure, and their Quincy homestead is preserved as a national historical park.
They set the model of the American public-service dynasty.
The Adams family is based in Massachusetts. America's first great political dynasty, from the Revolution onward
1700s.
John Adams — 2nd President of the United States
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Portrait: Wikimedia Commons (public domain or freely licensed).