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Sharon McMahon (0:00)
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Narrator/Host (1:14)
August 2025 marks 20 years.
Sharon McMahon (1:16)
Since Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, changed New Orleans forever. There have been countless stories about the storm and their recovery, but there's another story, one that shaped the lives of thousands of children. Where the Schools Went is a new five part podcast series that digs into what happened to New Orleans public schools after the levees broke, ushering in the most radical education experiment in American history. Hosted by Ravi Gupta, a former school principal, where the Schools Went looks back at decades of dysfunction before Katrina and unpacks the high stakes decisions made in the storm's wake. You'll hear from veteran teachers who lost everything, the outsiders who came to rebuild, and the students and families who lived through it all. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or someone who cares about how public systems and communities evolve after crisis, this is a story worth your time. From the branch in partnership with the 74 and Midas touch. Where the Schools Went is out now. Find it wherever you get your podcasts and start listening today.
Carvana Customer (2:23)
Foreign.
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Welcome. Delighted that you are here today. We're gonna return to the life of one of my favorite first ladies. I just love her because she is such an independent thinker and she was way before her time. I shared a lot of details about her in episode 44 of this podcast, an episode called 1100 Strongly Worded Letters. And so if you haven't listened to it yet you can check that episode out. It will give you a lot of biographical details about Abigail Adams. But today I want to concentrate on one of the times when John and Abigail were together. In particular the years they spent living abroad during the first few years after the American Revolution. So dive in. I'm Sharon McMahon and here's where it gets interesting. Okay, first, let's do a very quick recap of Abigail's early life in case it's been a while since you listened to episode 44. She was born into a very prominent and politically involved Massachusetts family. Her name was Abigail Smith. Before she got married, she was educated at home by her mother, along with her two sisters, Mary and Betsy. She was taught to read and write, something that many girls of her era did not get to experience. And she was given leave to use her father's library and the libraries of her uncles, which meant that she had access to extensive English and French literature libraries. So she developed a reputation for being a very avid reader. And you can see that manifested in the letters that she wrote throughout her life. She often filled filled them with her favorite passages from literature. She met a man named John Adams who was nine years older than her. When she was 15, her parents were not convinced that he was a good match for her. He was a very small time lawyer making not a lot of money and he had what her parents considered farm manners. From his country upbringing, he did not have any level of aristocracy to him. He wasn't refined. But eventually they relented and Abigail and John Adams married in 1764. Unlike the Splendor of the wedding between Martha and George Washington, the Adams wedding was a quiet event. When it was over, Abigail joined John on the back of his horse and they rode off together to his little salt box home on the outskirts of Boston. They literally rode off into the sunset. This, you know, sort of riding off into the sunset romantic moment was really just the beginning of their very eventful story. Together they had six children over a period of 12 years, four of whom made it to adulthood. Their daughter, Abigail Adams, who had the nickname Nabby, was the only surviving girl. And she became her mother's constant companion as she grew up. John Adams expanded his legal practice and became increasingly involved in revolutionary politics. And he moved the family and their servants to Boston in 1768. If you don't know, the Adams's did not believe in enslaving humans. He is the only early President of the United States to not own slaves. Instead, they hired white and free African American workers. And while they didn't practice enslavement. They also were not strongly involved in abolitionist politics. They viewed that the abolition of slavery should be done slowly and with caution. And over the next few years, as his law practiced, prospered, and the violence in Boston began to rise. Remember, this is the epicenter of colonial discontent against the rule and taxation of the British. The Addams family would move several times between their original country home in braintree, Massachusetts, and downtown Boston. By 1774, John was away from home regularly, spending much of his time in Philadelphia, helping the continental congress draft grievances to king George iii, and then during the war, working with congress by sitting on 99. Zero committees, strategizing, drafting plans, and becoming a sort of unofficial secretary of war. A few years later, John Adams, along with his 10 year old son, John Quincy Adams, sailed to France to join Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee to negotiate an alliance with France. But by the time John Adams arrived, Benjamin Franklin had already signed a deal. And during that time, John Adams's hostility towards his fellow diplomat grew. John Adams went home, but he did not stay there for very long. The following year, without talking to Abigail first, he accepted congress's offer to return to Europe. And this time he went to France with two of his sons, John Quincy and his younger son Charles. He wrote to Abigail on the east evening of his departure from Boston, and this is what he said. Let me entreat you to keep up your spirits and throw off cares as much as possible. Love to Nabby and Tommy. We shall yet be happy, I hope and pray, and I don't doubt it. I shall have vexations enough as usual. You will have anxiety and tenderness enough as usual. Pray strive not to have too much. I will write by every opportunity I can get. By 1783, John's European duties had separated him from his wife, his daughter, and his youngest son, Thomas, for nearly four years. And when congress started bouncing around the idea of sending John Adams to London to become the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, and Abigail was, to put it mildly, fretful, she wanted him to come home and not prolong his stay in Europe. Here's a portion of her letter to John in June of 1783. It reads, I do not wish you to accept an embassy to England should you be appointed. This little cottage has more heartfelt satisfaction for you than than the most brilliant court can afford. The pure and undiminished tenderness of wedded love. The filial affection of a daughter who will never act contrary to the advice of a father or give pain to the maternal heart. She was basically saying, like, please come home. We love you. But nevertheless, John Adams ultimately did accept the position. And so Abigail began making preparations to join her husband overseas. The plan was to first arrive in Paris, where he was still situated, and then move to London. In her 39 years of life, Abigail had never left Massachusetts. In fact, she'd rarely even left the coastline around Boston. The city may have been well established, but it really only had a population of about 15,000 people. But Paris was home to 650,000 people. So you can imagine how intimidating the thought of traveling across the ocean to settle in somewhere so different had to be for Abigail. She was nervous about the voyage, which in the 1700s averaged about 30 days at sea. And she was nervous about leaving the comforts of home and the people that she loved. I'm somebody who gets terrible motion sickness and the idea of spending 30 days at sea is an immediate hard nope from me. And another member of the Addams family who did not want to move to Europe was Abigail and John's daughter, who was 18 at the time. Nabby I've always wanted to make sure.