In the Spring of 1776, Abigail Adams famously asked her husband to “give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend.” Even if, this time, John ignored his wife in the drafting of new laws for the independent republic over which he would one day preside, this private plea to pay attention to women reverberated in a few rare revolutionary proposals to recognize women as citizens and more often to acknowledge them as reasonable mothers and partners. What did liberty and equality mean to women writing novels and plays on both sides of the Atlantic in print, or to Black loyalists from Virginia opening shops in Sierra Leone and revolutionary widows in practice? One group of women threatened that, if their equal rights were not granted, they would all leave for a desert island. Prof. Polasky’s lecture explores how ideas arising in New England in 1776 moved into the revolutionary world beyond, only to return later.
Janet Polasky is Presidential Professor of History Emerita at the University of New Hampshire. Her teaching in transnational history has been recognized with the Lindberg Award for Outstanding Scholar Teacher in the College of Liberal Arts and the UNH Jean Brierley Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her favorite class to teach is a freshman seminar, Global Citizenship. The author of six books, her most recent two — Asylum between Nations: Refugees in a Revolutionary Era (2023) and Revolutions without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World (2015) — were published by Yale University Press. Her books include winners of many prestigious prizes. The Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies have supported her research. She is currently writing two books, one global: Revolutionary Women: A Transnational History, and the other local: Evolution of a Progressive Institution: A Church Built of Granite. Dr. Polasky is a Proprietor of the Athenæum and lives with her husband, William Lyons, in Portsmouth.
For the 2026 Lecture Series “The Spirit of 1776: Revolution, Constitution, Independence,” each program begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Shaw Research Library (unless otherwise noted). Reservations for each program are required as seating is limited. If unable to keep a reservation, please call again to release the seat for someone else. Attendance at programs is free for Athenæum Proprietors, Subscribers and Friends. Guests and members of the public are welcome to attend the entire series by becoming a Friend of the Athenæum for as little as $25 per year, payable at the door. Admission to an individual program is $15.
Registration Information Online registration is available until 24 hours before the event. To reserve any remaining spots after that time, please call us at (603) 431-2538.
You will receive a confirmation email upon completing your registration. If you do not receive one, or if you have any questions, please contact events@portsmouthathenaeum.org.
Members: FREE
Proprietors, Subscribers, and Friends may attend this event for free. Membership at the Proprietor and Subscriber levels includes one complimentary spouse/partner guest pass.
Non-Members: $15
Admission to a single event.
Friend Membership: $25
This annual membership includes free admission for one person to the yearly lecture series.
The 2026 lecture series is sponsored by Whole Wealth Management.
