Sarah Walsh
The Will of a Woman: Abigail Adams’s Textile Legacy
In the 18th- and 19th-centuries in America, textiles and textile goods were considered a separate legal category from other types of property, and as a result, those without property rights could assert and negotiate ownership of them. Textiles held enormous intrinsic value, whether as clothing or yardage, and were a much more stable form of wealth than cash or other assets. In 1816, Abigail Adams drew up a detailed will bequeathing large sums of money as well as gowns and lengths of fabric to her daughters-in-law, nieces, and granddaughters. She began the will by asserting that it was written “by and with my husband’s consent,” in accordance with the restrictions of coverture. But apportioning out valuable textile goods to the women in her extended family, who had no other expectation of personal property or wealth to call their own, was an act of quiet defiance.
Sarah Walsh (@pins.abigail) is a librarian and educator who became involved in living history thanks to theater. In 2015, she took on the role of Abigail Adams in the first fully staged production of “1776” that had a cast of only women and nonbinary actors. A year later, Walsh was invited to portray Abigail with an 18th century re-enactment group and launched into studying Abigail’s life and letters in earnest. Having learned machine sewing from her mother at age 10, she is now using historical clothing construction techniques and skills to create a wardrobe spanning the years of Abigail’s life.
