In June and July 1776, Abigail Adams moved her household to Boston for two months to State Street (then called King Street) to the home of her uncle Isaac Smith so that they could all be inoculated against smallpox. John Adams’ uncle Dr. Zabdiel Boylston had actually started the program 50 years earlier, getting the idea from an enslaved man, Onesimus, who told him about the practice in Africa. Many of the household members were very sick, but they all recovered.
Abigail Adams wrote her husband John:
“We had our Bedding etc. to bring. A Cow we have driven down from B[raintre]e and some Hay I have had put into the Stable, wood etc. and we have really commenced housekeepers here… Our little ones stood the operation Manfully… Such a spirit of inoculation never before took place; the Town and every house in it, as full as they can hold … I wish it was so you could have been with us, but I submit.”
Letter, July 13, 1776
Near the end of her life, from about 1778-1781, when she was a free woman, Phillis Wheatley lived on Court Street (then called Queen Street) with her husband, John Peters. Unfortunately, we don’t know much about her life then.
