Episode 5 - An Age Of Discovery

Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, September 24, 1786 In which John Quincy Adams studies so much he makes himself dizzy, Mary Smith Cranch has some unkind things to say about Shay's Rebellion, and some incendiary gossip threatens to tear a family apart. Many thanks to this week's guest, Rachel Steinberg! And SUPER SPECIAL thanks to Gwen Fries, Editorial Assistant at the Adams Papers Editorial Project at the Massachusetts Historical Society for SENDING ME THIS LETTER! Learn more: Rachel R. Parker, "Shay's Rebellion: An Episode in American State-Making," Sociological Perspectives, vol. 34, no. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 95-113. The Adams Family Papers Electronic Archive: https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/ The Massachusetts Historical Society Adams Family Papers Website: http://www.masshist.org/adams/adams-family-papers