J.L. Bell recounts Abigail Adams's Thanksgiving in 1798, when husband John was off presidenting in Philadelphia (Thanksgiving then being just a New England thing, not a national holiday), her children were far away (sons John Quincy and Thomas Boylston being the farthest, in Moscow, where John was his father's minister to Russia and Thomas was along for the ride) and her nearby relatives were ill. Two neighbors did join her, as did Phoebe Abdee, originally her father's slave, who continued to work for the family even after she was freed.