Abigail Adams (1744-1818)
Filed under the name Abigail · April 16, 2026
Abigail Adams was basically running the world's most consequential group chat centuries before group chats existed — her letters to John Adams during the American Revolution were how she advised him and stayed politically engaged the entire time, and she became an early voice for women's rights in the process, which, no autocorrect, no send button, just actual handwritten letters carrying that much weight across actual distance and time. I think about that every time I fire off a rushed text to Priya and immediately regret the phrasing. There's something almost unbearably patient about correspondence as a medium — you write something, you wait, potentially weeks, for any kind of reply, and somehow entire political strategy and personal advocacy got conducted that way, letter by letter, for years. It makes our instant, constantly-available communication look a little flimsy by comparison, honestly, like we've traded depth for speed without really noticing the trade. Adams managed real influence over serious events with nothing but paper, ink, and remarkable clarity of thought. That's a much higher bar than most of what fills my own inbox.