Louisa Adams

Louisa Catherine Johnson was born in London on February 12, 1775. She was the second daughter of American merchant Joshua Johnson and Englishwoman Catherine Nuth. The Johnsons were an influential family in American politics, with Louisa's paternal uncle Thomas Johnson being one of the signers of the 1774 Continental Association. Little is known of her mother's life prior to her marriage. Louisa's parents may have only married ten years after her birth, potentially making Louisa the only first lady of the United States to be born out of wedlock. She lived a comfortable life as a child in which all of her needs were seen to. Louisa's father supported American independence, and the Johnsons left England in 1778 in response to the American Revolutionary War. They moved to Nantes, France, where they lived for the next five years. While in France, Louisa attended a Catholic boarding school. She performed well in school, becoming proficient in music and literature, and she learned to speak French fluently. Such was her immersion in French that she was later forced to relearn English. Her self-esteem suffered, and she kept a distance from her peers. She was sent to be educated by John Hewlett, an Anglican minister and a family friend of the Johnsons. Hewlett became a strong influence on her upbringing, encouraging her intellectualism. The Johnsons suffered financially in 1788, and she was pulled out of school to be educated by a governess. ==Marriage (1790–1797)==

, 1794 Johnson's father was appointed the American consul to Great Britain in 1790, and she often assisted in entertaining prominent guests. Among these guests, the Johnson daughters looked for potential suitors, as they were pressured to marry a prominent young man. John Quincy Adams became one such guest in 1795 in his capacity as an American diplomat. He began showing up each day, and only later did the Johnsons realize that he intended to court Louisa, initially believing that his interest was in her older sister Nancy. Only after he complied with a joking request to write her a romantic poem did she consider him a potential suitor. Johnson and Adams began a courtship, though it was intermittent, and they did not immediately take to one another. Both had previously expressed interest in other potential partners. It was their talents and prestige that eventually drew them to one another. Adams in particular was taken by Johnson's aptitude for singing and music. This pairing also caused a rivalry between Louisa and her older sister, who was jealous for the man she thought would court her. Johnson and Adams were engaged by 1796, but Adams left England for work and provided a number of excuses as to why he felt they should not be wed, citing his work, his finances, and their personality conflicts. Another factor was the disapproval of his mother, Abigail Adams, who did not wish to see her son marry an Englishwoman. They communicated by letter over the following year, and Johnson came to dread their communications, as Adams's letters were humorless and chastising. Louisa and John eventually married on July 26, 1797, after pressuring from her father. Shortly after the marriage, the Johnsons lost the remainder of their fortune. Louisa's parents fled the country, leaving Louisa and John with little financial support and a mob of angry creditors. The couple disagreed about how much influence a wife should have in her family, and John often made major decisions without consulting her. Both had strong personalities, and their disagreements often became arguments. == Diplomat's wife (1797–1825) ==

Prussia John was appointed American minister to Prussia in 1797, and the couple moved to Berlin. The resulting dispute grew to the point that it was addressed by the presidential cabinet. Louisa's relationship with John struggled as he became increasingly occupied by his work, but she finally earned her mother-in-law's respect after returning to the United States, and they shared a friendly reunion. Their close relationship was short-lived, however, as Abigail died in 1818. As first lady Elizabeth Monroe did not engage in social activity, the responsibility fell to the Adams household to be the social hub of the capital. Louisa's most celebrated accomplishment in this role was the ball that she threw for Andrew Jackson in January 1824, which came to be recognized as one of the city's grandest social events. As John sought the presidency in the 1824 presidential election, Louisa effectively managed his campaign and worked beside him as an equal partner. When the election failed to produce a winner and the result was determined by the House of Representatives, John was chosen through what was criticized as a corrupt bargain, and Louisa shared the criticism that he faced. ==First lady of the United States (1825–1829)==

, Upon entering the White House, life became more difficult for the Adamses. The administration was unpopular in Congress and unable to advance many of its policies, invoking a bitterness in John that was often directed toward Louisa. Even when separated, they rarely wrote to one another, and the communications they did share were emotionless. Louisa suffered from loneliness while in the White House, which she did not consider a home. The White House itself was in poor condition when Louisa and John occupied it, as it had never been fully restored after the burning of Washington. Despite this, they were criticized for what the public saw as an opulent residence. Louisa responded to the criticism by holding a public exhibition of the home, which was then criticized as distasteful. Louisa herself became a target in political rhetoric against John, in which she was portrayed as an out of touch European that demanded to be treated as an aristocrat. In response, she published a biography of herself that emphasized her modesty and her American heritage. Though it was published anonymously, she was understood to be the author. It was unprecedented for a first lady, and she was only subjected to increased criticism for the act. Louisa had always been vulnerable to illness, but her health worsened during her years in the White House, and she was left bedridden on multiple occasions. Even she acknowledged a psychosomatic aspect to her illness. She became less visible as first lady, and even when she did entertain, she often did not attend her own events. She had faced criticism for being more prominent than was expected of a political wife. Instead, she hid from the public, writing plays, poems, essays, and an autobiography. These writings often contemplated the role of women in society as she lamented gender inequality. Louisa was responsible for making arrangements when Lafayette visited the White House. Louisa's greatest responsibility as first lady came upon the deaths of former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1826. With the president traveling and Congress in recess, it fell to her to set the social rules for mourning in Washington. She also mourned privately, as she had considered her father-in-law to be a father of her own. Against her husband's wishes, she left the White House and traveled to the Adams family home in Quincy Louisa and John reconciled toward the end of the presidential term in 1828. She again worked to campaign for her husband during the 1828 presidential election, traveling to neighboring states to garner support. She was conflicted, as she was determined to get her husband re-elected, but she also loathed White House life. Louisa and John shared a mixture of despondence and relief when he lost re-election. ==Later life (1829–1852)==

. After leaving the White House in 1829, Louisa and John moved to a home at Meridian Hill. Though the White House was still visible from her doorstep, she felt free from the place. Her reprieve was short-lived, as shortly after she left the White House, her son George fell from a steamboat to his death. He had suffered from extensive personal and financial problems, and it was never conclusively determined whether his death was an accident or a suicide. For the first few months after her son's death, Louisa's focus was on consoling her husband. Her grief overpowered her that August, when a trip to Quincy threatened to take her on the very boat from which George had died. She fell severely ill, and the trip was canceled. In May 1830, Louisa and John moved to the home on the Adams estate in Quincy. Here her condition improved, as she found a home and the mental and physical toll of her depression subsided. She was upset by John's return to public life when he ran for Congress that year, at first refusing to return to Washington and only giving in after it became apparent that the home in Quincy was not habitable in the winter. She confessed her belief that having her husband in Congress would be a benefit to the country that outweighed her own suffering. After John took office, Louisa took an active role in his political career. Louisa's son John Adams II died of illness in 1834 with financial problems of his own. She blamed her husband in part for the failures and deaths of their two older sons, believing that they could have been given better lives had they not been separated from their parents in their childhood. In her grief, Louisa began writing a new autobiography, The Adventures of a Nobody. Two years later, in improved spirits, she wrote another autobiography covering her journey from Russia to France in 1815, hoping that it would inspire other women. Though she shared society's dismissive attitudes toward black people, she became an abolitionist, and she supported her husband in his anti-slavery work in Congress. Her position on the matter was even stronger than her husband's, who had aligned with the abolitionists primarily because of his principled opposition to the gag rule against discussing slavery in Congress. Louisa contributed to a fund to free slaves, and she eventually purchased a slave for the purpose of freeing her. Involvement in the abolitionist movement also opened her to feminism. Though she did not accept feminism in its entirety, she began a correspondence with feminist Sarah Moore Grimké and engaged in Biblical studies to challenge the prevailing view that the Bible ordained the subservience of women. She was baptized in the Episcopal Church in 1837. Louisa was widowed on February 23, 1848, two days after her husband lost consciousness due to a fatal stroke in the United States Capitol. He was 80 years old. She had arrived in Washington to visit him on his deathbed, but as a woman, she was asked to leave as his health failed. She retained her schedule of living in Washington during the winters and Quincy during the summers until a stroke left her infirm in 1849. She was then left in the care of her daughter-in-law Mary. She died on May 15, 1852 at the age of 77. She was the first woman to be honored by an adjournment of Congress for her funeral. She was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, but she was moved to the United First Parish Church shortly after on the initiative of her son. ==Legacy==

with Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Louisa Adams in the White House series Adams's role as a first lady has received relatively little scholarly analysis compared to the rest of her life, as she did not keep a diary during her years in the White House. Adams was regarded by contemporaries as the "most traveled woman of her time", as well as a painting of her by Edward Savage. For some time the painting was still owned by Adams's great-great-granddaughter, Mrs. Henry L. Mason, and was loaned to the museum seasonally. The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery holds several portraits of Louisa Catherine Adams, including a silhouette and a portrait on an ivory necklace. Historian polling Since 1982 Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. Consistently, Adams has been ranked in the upper-half of first ladies by historians in these surveys. In terms of cumulative assessment, Adams has been ranked: • 14th-best of 42 in 1982 • 16th-best of 37 in 1993 • 16th-best of 40 in 2020 In the 2014 survey, Adams and her husband were also ranked the 19th-highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple". ==Family tree==

Autobiographies • The Adventures of a Nobody • Narrative of a Journey from Russia to France, 1815 – Published posthumously by her grandson in ''Harper's Magazine and Scribner's Magazine'' • The Record of a Life, or My Story Plays • Suspicion, or Persecuted Innocence Poems • To The Raven, 1828 ==References==