Article ID: CBB001200579

Stillbirth and Sensibility: The Case of Abigail and John Adams (2012)

unapi

Although live births in America have been the subject of increasingly sophisticated historical study, pregnancy loss has not. This piece presents Abigail Adams's own account of her pregnancy that ended in stillbirth, one she wrote to her husband, John. It presents, too, his response to her. As was true throughout their correspondence, they both drew on the gendered language of sensibility, which is therefore the other chief subject of the piece. It concludes by placing this language in the general context of its ambiguous value to white American women in the Revolutionary era.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001200579/

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Authors & Contributors
Schlumbohm, Jürgen
Leavitt, Judith Walzer
Arena, Francesca
Sarah Handley-Cousins
Strings, Sabrina
Wulf, Andrea
Concepts
Medicine and gender
Childbirth
Medicine and culture
Obstetrics and pregnancy
Public health
Women and health
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
20th century, early
17th century
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
United States
Southern states (U.S.)
Mediterranean region
North America
Germany
China
Institutions
Universität Göttingen
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