Adams, Hannah°
ADAMS, HANNAH°
ADAMS, HANNAH ° (1755–1831), considered the first American woman professional writer. Hannah Adams' early interest in religion led to her Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations (18174), a superficial compilation, but significant for the sympathetic tone of the article on Jews. In a later, more careful work, History of the Jews from the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Present Time (1812), she relied on contemporary historical and demographic information prepared by Jewish correspondents. The chapter concerning the Jews in the New World is of particular interest, and has been reprinted and translated into German and Hebrew.
bibliography:
H. Stark, in: dab, 1 (1928), 60–61; J.L. Blau and S.W. Baron, Jews of the United States, 1790–1840, 1 (1963), 87–93.
[Joseph L. Blau]