“I long to hear that you have declared an independency – and by the way in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.”
Those words were written in a letter from Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, dated March 31, 1776, as he and his fellow members of the Continental Congress were working toward the creation of a new nation, the United States of America.
In her letter, Abigail went on to say, “Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
But they did forget the ladies.
They forgot them in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and even in the Bill of Rights.