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The Unfortunate Adams Children

Each of the four surviving children of John and Abigail Adams suffered a great deal of hardship and personal tragedy during their lives. In childhood, they were all frequently separated from their father–and eventually from their mother as well–due to his involvement in the American Revolution. But their struggles had only begun.

The firstborn–Abigail, called “Nabby”–married a financial failure who had difficulty supporting her and their four children. In 1810, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a painful mastectomy, but after two years of remission, she eventually returned to her parents’ home in Massachusetts and died in her father’s arms. John Quincy, the eldest Adams son, had a successful career in diplomacy and politics that mirrored his father’s and culminated in his election as the sixth President of the United States. However, he suffered a bitter political defeat after losing his reelection campaign to Andrew Jackson. He may also have struggled with depression, and two of his own three sons were troubled and died in young adulthood. (He and his wife Louisa lost a daughter in infancy as well.) Charles was a charming child and a favorite of both his parents. Like his brothers, he attended Harvard, married, and began a promising legal career in New York–but behind closed doors, he struggled with a severe alcohol problem. His habits were so disgraceful that his father disowned him, calling him a “Beast,” before he died of cirrhosis of the liver at just thirty years old. The youngest Adams child, Thomas, also began his adult life with promise. He and his wife had seven children, but unfortunately he shared Charles’ alcoholism (the disease ran in Abigail’s family). His decline was much slower, but he was frequently ill and had amassed large debts by the time he died in 1832.

John and Abigail also had a fifth living child, Susanna, but she was sickly and lived for only fourteen months. Abigail’s last pregnancy ended in the stillbirth of what would have been her third daughter. They called the baby Elizabeth.