A Midwife's Tale: The Life Of Martha Ballard

Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich provides a glimpse of America post Revolutionary war through her critically acclaimed book, A Midwife’s Tale, which is the interpretation of Martha Ballard’s seemingly humble diary—a record of her life as a midwife, mother, wife, and caregiver from 1785 through 1812. The book features Ballard’s account of her average day’s activities, which, in turn, serves to represent the tasks of women in her society; however, Ulrich cross-references the diary with documents such as court transcripts, land records, maps, and other diaries in order to piece together a more detailed account than one gathered solely from Ballard’s words. While popular belief envisions women in this timeframe as being constrained to the home and a litter of children, it is Ballard’s diary that reveals that women played a major role in other aspects of society, including the market economy, medicine and childbirth, versus just being mothers and homemakers.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich proves with this book is that the every day journal entries that may seem mundane and unimportant at first are actually very important to understanding Martha’s life. If one is to truly understand Martha Ballard’s life historians must dive deeper than the larger, more attention grabbing details of her diary, such as the Puritan family incident. It is the daily seemingly “less important” events that can show Martha’s internal struggles and emotions of what she had to go through as being a women during that time period.

     Before I watched 'A Midwife's Tale', a movie created from the diary found by Laurel Ulrich chronicling the life of a woman named Martha Ballard, I thought the women in these times were just housewives and nothing else. I pictured them doing the cleaning and the cooking for their husbands and not being very smart because of the lack of education or them being unable to work. My view on the subject changed however when I watched this specific woman's life and her work.

We first uncover some important details about Hennie and how she had to drive twenty miles in order to get care and treatment due to racism. Next, we discussed her family and that they were originally from Roanoke, Virginia but after her mothers death they all moved back to Clover, Virginia. Finally we examined the places that she moved such as Clover, Virginia and Baltimore; we also examined what happened to her after the moves. Such as, Crazy Joe trying to kill himself over Henrietta because he loved her so much and was slightly jealous of David. But the most important thing that happened in chapter two was when David left to go to Baltimore to find work in 1941 after Pearl

Deborah Sampson didn’t have such a great childhood. She was born on December 17, 1760, and was the oldest of 6 siblings. She lived in a very poor family and her father never returned from a trip to sea. After, her mother was unable to care for her kids that when they became older she divided them into different homes. Deborah was soon taken by an 80 year old woman named Mrs.Thatcher that lived in Middleborough. Mrs. Thatcher was

Ann Marie Low’s diary opens in 1927 when she is a teenager living with her family on a stock farm in southeastern North Dakota. Low’s diary tells the story of her family's struggle to maintain a way of life, keeping their farm, and educate their children. She discusses her family and friends, descendants of homesteaders, through the next ten years, a time when entire communities lost their homes to mortgages and to government recovery programs. Low’s faces economic hardship, unfortunate family circumstances, and the restrictions that society had placed on women. Low's diary is about life in during the Dust Bowl, and Great Depression.

Kate Branch, an orphaned servant girl, began to suffer from a series of fits that disturbed her employers Mister and Mistress Wescot. Through Mister Daniel Wescot’s public service, the family had become prominent figures and were charged with providing Kate the basic needs and spiritual guidance as if she were a part of their family. Soon after Kate’s symptoms began, Mistress Abigail Wescot summoned the local midwife, Goodwife Sarah Bates, to examine

As the story begins, we are first introduced to Mrs. Freeman, a hired hand on the Hopewell farm. At first glance Mrs. Freeman appears to be simple “good country people,” but that is not the case. It is very ironic that Mrs. Hopewell refers to her as a “lady and that she was never ashamed to take her anywhere or introduce her to anybody that they might meet” (452.) In reality Mrs. Freeman is a busybody and harbors secret fascination with the macabre. She has “a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children. Of diseases she preferred the lingering or the uncurable" (455). Her secret fascination and penchant for gossip is quite different from what one would think “good country people” let alone a “lady” would be interested in. Mrs. Freeman never hesitates to share the details of her daughters' lives with Mrs. Hopewell. One gets the impression that Mrs. Freeman will divulge

Medical knowledge and the production of textiles were valuable and necessary commodities – medical knowledge was essential for everyday problems as well as during outbreaks of disease. Textiles were crucial for the local and national economy as they were locally produced, traded and exported. Martha was a midwife who helped successfully bring hundreds of babies into the world and she was also played a huge role in seeing to the wellness and welfare of the community. As a midwife, Martha served anyone who required her, regardless of their religion, race or place in society. Socializing was an important part of daily life. Even when Martha spent days at home, she was still connected to the locals, which is evident in the way she described the visitors she had. In 1790 alone, “Martha recorded 642 encounters, at home or abroad with 299 persons outside her family” (Ulrich 92). Martha was paid for her services – she sometimes had to travel great distances in treacherous weather to reach her patients and she kept records in her diary about the circumstances she found herself in while carefully recording births, deaths, marriages, weather, and other events, both important and mundane.

As the women walk through the house, they begin to get a feel for what Mrs. Wright’s life is like. They notice things like the limited kitchen space, the broken stove, and the broken jars of fruit and begin to realize the day-to-day struggles that Mrs. Wright endured. The entire house has a solemn, depressing atmosphere. Mrs. Hale regretfully comments that, for this reason and the fact that Mr. Wright is a difficult man to be around, she never came to visit her old friend, Mrs. Wright.

In the second entry of Anne Frank's diary, Margot got a call-up from the SS, which forced the Franks to go into hiding in fear of their future. After Otto Frank came home, "Margot and I started packing our most important belongings into a schoolbag" (Frank para. 15). Margot and Anne went packing after their Father told them they were going into hiding. This was the same day that Margot got called-up.

     Ada Monroe was the pampered daughter of a Charleston minister, Monroe. Sheltered by her father, who came to Cold Mountain to minister to the “heathen’s,” she is unprepared for his death. Like any lowland lady, she reads well, play the piano, and can plan parties. She knows not to plant, or sow, or reap. She comes very close to starving on her lovely mountain farm before Ruby comes walking up her lane. Ada’s savior is a scrawny mountain girl with will and work ethic for them both. She came to work the land with Ada, saying. “…if I’m to help you here, it’s with both us knowing that everybody empties their own night jar (68).” Ruby forces Ada off the porch rocker and into the fields. Through days of weeding,

Sally Mann’s style incorporates black and white photographs of her children, which are presented with “ordinary moments of childhood, suspended in time and transformed into aesthetic objects, takes on a distorted, even uncanny quality” (Arnason and Mansfield 719). Sally Mann photographed The New Mothers in 1989. This photograph’s most dominant elements are value and space. Having the photographs black and white really enhances the visibility of values. Most of Mann’s work is outside and has a define depth of field to blur out the background and emphasize the focus of the children. This compositional style helps to identify the high and low key values within the photos. The clothes, the reflection of the sun on the girls’ hair, and the girls fair skin are the part of the image that show high-key values, while the rest of the photo in more middle and low-key values. The intense depth of field increases a feeling of space for the viewer. In the photo you can see that the two young girls and their stroller is all in a line horizontally. Behind the girls you can notice they are outside in a open area because of the blurred grass and trees behind them. This photograph’s most dominant principles are movement and variety. The depth of field and lack of distraction in the background of the photo allows your eye to focus and move around with the subjects in the photo. The height of the subjects forms a triangle shape, which is

Hearing the word midwife leaves many people thinking of unprofessional, inexperienced women who help deliver babies naturally, without the help of medication. In truth, nurse-midwives are registered nurses who have attended additional schooling for women’s health and are taught to make women feel as comfortable as possible. In the beginning, remedies were the females’ legacies, their “birthright”; these females were known as “wise-women by the people, witches of charlatans by authorities”. (Ehrenreich, 1973). “Females were wanderers, traveling from one place to another, healing the sick and wounded.” (Ehrenreich 1973). These women were among the first human healers and they were especially helpful when it came to childbearing. The midwives