Louisa Adams

Louisa Adams

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (born February 12, 1775 in London , England , † May 15, 1852 in Washington, DC ) was the wife of the sixth US President John Quincy Adams and from 1825 to 1829 First Lady of the United States . Besides Melania Trump, she is the only first lady who was not born in the United States.

origin

Louisa was born to the Englishwoman Catherine Nuth Johnson and the American Joshua Johnson from Maryland . Her father's older brother, Thomas Johnson , became the first elected governor of Maryland in 1777. She had six sisters, including Elizabeth, who later became the wife of US Senator John Pope , and a brother.

Life

After the Johnson family had to leave England to support the American Revolution in 1777, two years after Louisa's birth, they grew up in Nantes , France. In 1786 the family returned to England, where their father worked as a US consul and businessman. In 1794 Louisa met the US diplomat John Quincy Adams, accredited in the Netherlands, in London, whom she married in 1797. The couple initially lived in Berlin, where Adams was the US diplomatic representative in Prussia . Louisa first came to the United States in 1801. The family lived partly in Quincy (Massachusetts) , in Boston and in Washington, DC , where John Quincy Adams served as a US Senator . From 1809 to 1814 Louisa's husband was ambassador to St. Petersburg , Russia, the two older sons continued to be brought up in Massachusetts against their mother's wishes and only the youngest son Charles was allowed to accompany the family. The years of separation from her sons made her feel very guilty. In Russia in 1811 she had a daughter, Louisa Catherine, who died a year later and was buried in St. Petersburg. From 1815 to 1817 the family lived in Louisa's native city of London for two years.

The appointment of John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State in President James Monroe's cabinet brought the family back to Washington. Louisa Adams was first lady after her husband's election as US President from 1825 to 1829, feeling her time in the White House as a prison. After her husband was not re-elected in 1829, they moved to Quincy. However, as early as 1831 John Quincy Adams became a member of the House of Representatives until his death in 1848 . Louisa outlived her husband by three years.

Louisa Adams had numerous health problems, including fifteen pregnancies and ten miscarriages. She suffered from chronic depression and suffered several strokes of fate. After the early death of the only daughter, the eldest son George drowned in 1829, presumably it was suicide by jumping off a ship. The second son, John, died five years later as a result of acute alcohol problems. Only the youngest son, Charles, survived.

Louisa Adams composed music, played the piano and harp and wrote poetry, prose and dramas. As an intellectual, she was a keen observer of the political landscape and a social critic who rebelled against the male world.

Louisa and John Quincy Andams had three sons who reached adulthood:

• George Washington Adams (1801-1829)
• John Adams II (1803-1834)
• Charles Francis Adams, Sr. (1807-1886)

literature

• Catherine Allgor, Margery M. Heffron, Amanda Matthews Norton: A Monarch in a Republic: Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams and Court Culture in Early Washington City. In: Katherine AS Sibley (Ed.): A Companion to First Ladies. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester 2016, ISBN 978-1-118-73222-9 , pp. 89-110.

Web links

Commons : Louisa Adams  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Allida Black: The First Ladies of the United States of America. Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams. White House Historical Association, 2009, accessed November 11, 2019 .  
2. ↑ John Pope (1770-1845). In: Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved November 11, 2019 .  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Louisa Adams. In: Miller Center. University of Virginia, accessed November 11, 2019 .  
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Louisa Adams. In: FemBio. Women's biography research (with references and citations).