Fun Facts About Some First Ladies

1. Martha Washington — wife to President George Washington

While it’s clear she preferred private life, Martha Washington embraced her role as a high-profile champion of the war, joining her husband at the Continental Army’s winter encampments,  including at Valley Forge. She cared for injured and exhausted soldiers, and did substantial fundraising for money and supplies for the Continental Army. A wealthy widow before she married the General, she even donated $20,000  of her own money to the campaign of 1780 — nearly $380,000 in today’s dollars!

2. Abigail Adams — wife to President John Adams

Abigail Adams vehemently opposed slavery, condemning its supporters in her many letters. 

“The passion for liberty cannot be eaqually [sic] strong in the breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow Creatures of theirs,” she wrote in one 1776 letter to her husband. 

In another dated 1797, she told a story about teaching a young, free Black boy to read and write, and later  enrolling him in school. When a neighbor complained about his presence in the school, she lectured him on his prejudice: “Merely because his Face is Black, is he to be denied instruction? How is he to be qualified to procure a livelihood?”

3. Dolley Madison — wife to President James Madison

During the War of 1812, Dolley Madison was waiting for her husband to return to the White House when British troops approached. She abandoned the couple’s personal belongings and instead hurried to save a full-length portrait of George Washington, much to the frustration of a friend who came to help her escape. The White House was pillaged and burned, but what Madison didn’t know was that the portrait was actually a copy of the original Gilbert Stuart painting. 

4. Elizabeth Monroe — wife to President James Monroe

Mrs. Monroe proved herself an effective diplomatic player when living in Paris with her husband, who was then serving as the ambassador to France. During the French Revolution, when many aristocrats and their families were imprisoned and faced the guillotine, Elizabeth Monroe made a high-profile visit to see political prisoner Adrienne de Lafayette, the jailed wife of Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. Adrienne publicly wept when she saw her very influential visitor, and the visit helped secure Madame de Lafayette’s release.

5. Louisa Adams — wife to President John Quincy Adams

Adams had a keen political sensibility, and used her social standing in Washington to advance her husband’s interests. She even served as an unofficial campaign manager for his 1824 bid for the White House. Her husband, however, stopped soliciting her counsel once he won the presidency and generally ignored her advice unless he needed her to host social functions. A decade after leaving D.C., Louisa Adams began writing an autobiography she shrewdly called “Adventures of a Nobody.”

Love to share a little history!