[5] From 1825 to 1829 Abbott was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst College;[3] was licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826; founded the Mount Vernon School for Young Ladies in Boston in 1829, and was principal of it in 1829–1833;[3] was pastor of Eliot Congregational Church (which he founded), at Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1834–1835; and was, with his brothers, a founder, and in 1843–1851 a principal of Abbott's Institute, and in 1845–1848 of the Mount Vernon School for Boys, in New York City.

[6] He was a prolific author, writing juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies, religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science.

In them Abbott did for one or two generations of young American readers a service not unlike that performed earlier, in England and the US, by the authors of Evenings at Home, The History of Sandford and Merton, and The Parent's Assistant.

To follow up his Rollo books, he wrote of Uncle George, using him to teach the young readers about ethics, geography, history, and science.

The successive volumes will comprise a great variety, both in respect to the subjects which they treat, and to the form and manner in which the subjects will be presented; but the end and aim of all will be to impart useful knowledge, to develop the thinking and reasoning powers, to teach a correct and discriminating use of language, to present models of good conduct for imitation, and bad examples to be shunned, to explain and enforce the highest principles of moral duty, and, above all, to awaken and cherish the spirit of humble and unobtrusive, but heartfelt piety.