The Lives and Times of Our Founding Fathers - 18
In this post: Lewis Morris, Phillis Wheatley, Abigail Adams
Founding Fathers Series
Step into history like never before.
Starting today and on a daily basis (Mon thru Fri), we will be posting 2 to 3 videos, about 5 minutes worth of videos, presenting the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the ladies of the American Revolution come alive through vivid, first-person storytelling.
This Series will be tagged on the right column of our blog as Founding Father Series
You may not know some, that does not devalue the contributions they provided in the founding of our country.
Their courage, sacrifice, and triumph unfold in gripping moments that shaped America’s founding.
Lewis Morris
Lewis Morris (April 8, 1726 – January 22, 1798) was an American Founding Father, landowner, and developer from Morrisania, New York, an area now part of Bronx County. He was the third individual in his family to bear the name Lewis Morris. Morris was educated by private tutors and graduated from Yale College in 1746. After his graduation, he returned to help manage his father’s extensive agricultural estate, Morrisania. Upon his father’s death in 1762, Morris inherited the majority of the estate. He held various governmental positions, including an appointment by the Crown as a judge of the Admiralty Court in 1760 and election to the Colonial Assembly in 1769.
Lewis Morris was a delegate to the Continental Congress from New York and an advocate for independence. He signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence as one of the New York delegates, alongside Francis Lewis, William Floyd, and Philip Livingston. Although initially unsure about their instructions from New York, the delegation later resolved the confusion, and Morris signed the Declaration. He was also a member of the New York legislature, a county judge, and served as a brigadier-general in the New York militia. Lewis Morris’s property and wealth were largely destroyed during the American Revolution, and he spent several years working to rebuild his farm after the war.
Lewis Morris came from an influential political family. His half-brother, Gouverneur Morris, was also a Founding Father and is believed to be the primary author of the U.S. Constitution. Gouverneur Morris emphasized the right of societies to determine the conditions for admitting new members during the Constitutional Convention. Another relative, Robert Morris, also a Founding Father from Pennsylvania, was known as the financier of the revolution. Robert Morris initially opposed signing the Declaration of Independence but later did so and funded the revolution
Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley Peters, born in West Africa around 1753, was the first African American author to publish a book of poetry and one of the best-known poets in pre-19th century America. She was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight, transported to Boston on the slave ship Phillis in 1761, and purchased by the wealthy Boston merchant and tailor John Wheatley and his wife Susanna. The Wheatley family provided her with an extensive education, which was uncommon for an enslaved person or a woman of that era, allowing her to learn history, British literature, Greek, and Latin. She quickly learned English, and her first poem was published in a newspaper in 1767. Some scholars believe she was born in present-day Gambia or Senegal.
Wheatley’s book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in London in 1773, making her the first American slave and the first person of African descent to publish such a work. She traveled to London to facilitate its publication with the help of the Wheatleys and Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon. Shortly after her return to Boston in September 1773, she was emancipated by the Wheatleys, possibly due to pressure from her English admirers. After the deaths of John and Susanna Wheatley, Phillis married John Peters, a poor grocer, in 1778. She continued to write, publishing a 64-line poem titled Liberty and Peace in 1784, which celebrated America’s struggle for freedom. Phillis Wheatley Peters died on December 5, 1784, at the age of 31, after contracting pneumonia, with her last surviving child buried alongside her.
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams (1744-1818) was the wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President. Born Abigail Smith in Weymouth, Massachusetts, she lacked formal schooling, which was common for women at the time. Despite this, she was a self-taught intellectual who made extensive use of her father’s library, reading works by authors such as William Shakespeare and John Milton. She married John Adams in 1764, and their partnership was characterized by frequent separations due to John Adams’s political career, leading to an extensive correspondence that is now considered a national treasure. These more than 1,100 letters offer insight into their relationship, political discussions, and daily life during the early American republic.
During John Adams’s long absences, Abigail Adams was responsible for managing their family farm, household, and finances, successfully preventing financial ruin that other early presidents faced. She was a confidante and advisor to her husband, who frequently sought her political insights. Abigail Adams advocated for women’s rights, female education, and the abolition of slavery. Notably, in a letter written to John Adams in March 1776, she urged him to “Remember the Ladies” when drafting new laws, advocating for women to have more participation in decisions and not be subject to unlimited power by husbands. Although John Adams sometimes responded dismissively to her suggestions, he grew more reliant on her counsel as his political career advanced. Historians consistently rank Abigail Adams as one of the most highly regarded First Ladies.