Final answer:
Abigail Adams would have sought laws supporting gender equality and diminishing the legal dominance of husbands in marriage. She emphasized including women in the new legal framework, which was a progressive stance during that period. Her advocacy contributed to early discussions on women's rights, including voting rights in New Jersey.
Step-by-step explanation:
Abigail Adams, a prominent figure in early American history, is best known for her advocacy for women's rights and her role as the wife of John Adams. From her correspondence, it is predictable that Abigail Adams would have wanted laws to be passed that remembered the ladies by promoting gender equality and reducing the legal power husbands had over their wives, a concept known as coverture. She believed that women should have a voice in government and protested against unlimited power being placed in the hands of husbands. Abigail Adams expressed her concerns about women's rights in a famous letter written on March 31, 1776, to John Adams, urging him to consider women in the new legal framework the country was forming.
Her advocacy was clear when she wrote, "I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors." Abigail was frustrated with the societal norms that did not allow women to conduct business without their husband's consent. Even when her husband jokingly dismissed her suggestions, stating he could not but laugh at her "extraordinary Code of Laws," it indicated that he did not foresee a shift in the public roles of women anytime soon. Despite her husband's reaction, Abigail Adams's thoughts were progressive for the time, and her correspondence highlights the debate about women's suffrage and rights that began to surface in the wake of the American Revolution, leading to some changes such as New Jersey giving some women the right to vote in that era.