Abigail "Abba" Alcott (née May; October 8, 1800 – November 25, 1877) was an American activist for several causes and one of the first paid

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

s in the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. She was the wife of transcendentalist

Amos Bronson Alcott Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and av ...

and mother of four daughters, including Civil War novelist

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Good Wives'' (1869), ''Little Men'' (1871), and ''Jo's Boys'' ...

Early life

Abigail May came from a prominent

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

family. On her mother's side, she was born into the families of Sewall and Quincy. Her mother, Dorothy Sewall, was great-granddaughter of

Samuel Sewall Samuel Sewall (; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay ''The Selling ...

, a presiding judge of

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Not everyone wh ...

. Her father, Colonel Joseph May, was a lauded Unitarian layman. As a child she did not regularly attend a formal school. Rather, she was educated in history, languages, and sciences by her tutor Abigail Allyn in

Duxbury, Massachusetts Duxbury (alternative older spelling: "Duxborough") is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb located on the South Shore approximately to the southeast of Boston, the population was 16,090 at the 2020 census. The tow ...

. She was introduced to her future husband, Amos Bronson Alcott in Brooklyn, Connecticut. Abigail May later applied for an assistant position in Alcott's school in Boston. They married in 1830 and collaborated on projects such as the failed utopian community Fruitlands and the Temple School.

Activism

A woman suffragist and an activist for the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting Temperance (virtue), temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and ...

, the poor, and the

abolition Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: *Abolitionism, abolition of slavery *Capital punishment#Abolition of capital punishment, Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment *Abolitio ...

of slavery, Abigail May Alcott imbued strong values in her four children. She and her husband served as stationmasters on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

. According to her second daughter, author Louisa May Alcott, she "always did what came to her in the way of duty and charity, and let pride, taste, and comfort suffer for love's sake". Such humanitarian ideals extended beyond her household to the city of

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, where she accepted a full-time job as a social worker in 1848.

Writings

Abigail May Alcott's personal writings were first collected and published in 2012, under the title ''My Heart Is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother'' (Free Press). The collection was edited by her great-niece Eve LaPlante (descended from Abba's brother

Samuel Joseph May Samuel Joseph May (September 12, 1797 – July 1, 1871) was an American reformer during the nineteenth century who championed education, women's rights, and Abolitionism in the United States, abolition of slavery. May argued on behalf of all ...

), the author of the dual biography ''Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother'' (Free Press, 2012). She compiled a collection of vegetarian recipes (her husband was a vegetarian and cousin of William Alcott who was a student of the dietary reformer

Sylvester Graham Sylvester Graham (July 5, 1794 – September 11, 1851) was an American Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer. He was known for his emphasis on vegetarianism, the temperance movement, and eating whole-grain bread. His preaching inspired th ...

). The recipes were similar to the diet depicted in '' Transcendental Wild Oats'' (1873),

's fictionalized account of Fruitlands.

Children

* Anna Bronson Alcott (March 16, 1831 – July 13, 1893) *

(November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888) * Elizabeth Sewall Alcott (June 24, 1835 – March 14, 1858) *Frederick Alcott (April 4, 1839 - April 6, 1839) * Abigail May Alcott Nieriker (July 26, 1840 – December 29, 1879)

Death

The death of Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sewall, the model for Beth in ''Little Women,'' on March 14, 1858, made Abba depressed and sad. Nineteen years after Lizzie's death, Abba herself died in November 1877. Louisa wrote in her journal: "I never wish her back, but a great warmth seems gone out of life... She was so loyal, tender, and true, life was hard for her and no one knew all she had to bear but her children." Abba is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord alongside her husband and three of her daughters.

References