Martha Ballard (1735–1812)
Author of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
About the Author
Image credit: via University of Virginia School of Medicine
Works by Martha Ballard
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990) 2,452 copies, 37 reviews
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Ballard, Martha Moore
- Birthdate
- 1735
- Date of death
- 1812
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- Midwife
Diarist
Healer - Short biography
- Martha Moore was born in Oxford, Massachusetts, to a colonial family. She was related to Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. In 1754, she married Ephraim Ballard, a farmer, and settled at Hallowell, on the Kennebec River near Augusta, Maine. Martha Moore Ballard and her husband had nine children. She kept a daily diary for 27 years, recording her arduous work and domestic life. Written with a quill pen and homemade ink, the diary recounts babies delivered and illnesses treated as Mrs. Ballard traveled by horse or canoe around the New England frontier. The entries also describe happenings within her own family, local crimes and scandals, and a woman's perspective on the political events of the early American republic. The diary also is a valuable source of information for historians on late 18th-century and early 19th-century medical practices, religious squabbles, and sexual mores. The diary was kept in her family, eventually coming into the possession of her great-great-granddaughter, Mary Hobart, one of America’s first female physicians. Dr. Hobart donated the diary to the Maine State Library. After eight years of research and editing by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, it was published as A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on her Diary, 1785–1812. A Midwife's Tale received the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1991, as well as the Bancroft Prize, and numerous other awards and honors. PBS developed it into a documentary film for "The American Experience" series.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Oxford, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Hallowell, Maine, USA
- Place of death
- Hallowell, Maine, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Maine, USA
Members
Reviews
A midwife's tale : the life of Martha Ballard, based on her diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich illuminates the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived and worked in Hallowell, Massachusetts (what would later be Maine). She may have been forgotten and all but a footnote in history that kept records of her only in relation to her husband Ephraim, but for one thing: she kept a diary.
At the beginning of each chapter, Ulrich takes about a month's worth of entries, beginning with August 1787, and then uses an account that at first glance appears mundane, show more everyday comings and goings and a lot of mention of "I have been at home" to more broadly describe the people, community, and times it addresses. Whether she talks about the changing medical field where midwifery and birth was almost exclusively female until it became more medical than social, a rape case at which Martha gave a deposition, the ways in which men and women had distinct economic spheres in a town, or sex and marriage behavior in the late 1700s, Ulrich teases out a rich understanding of simple, everyday life not long after the U.S. was founded. show less
At the beginning of each chapter, Ulrich takes about a month's worth of entries, beginning with August 1787, and then uses an account that at first glance appears mundane, show more everyday comings and goings and a lot of mention of "I have been at home" to more broadly describe the people, community, and times it addresses. Whether she talks about the changing medical field where midwifery and birth was almost exclusively female until it became more medical than social, a rape case at which Martha gave a deposition, the ways in which men and women had distinct economic spheres in a town, or sex and marriage behavior in the late 1700s, Ulrich teases out a rich understanding of simple, everyday life not long after the U.S. was founded. show less
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
This is an account of the life of 18th century Maine midwife, Martha Ballard, based on the diaries/daybook that she kept. It won the Pulitzer Prize for history, and was the inspiration for Ariel Lawhorn's novel, "The Frozen River". As I had recently read that for my book club, I was interested to read a true account.
The diary was not the kind of emotional history we expect from a modern diary. It is more of a daily record of the weather, Martha's activities, and her medical call outs, as show more well as a rudimentary financial record. Dr. Ulrich has done an excellent job filling in the unspoken context from other accounts and records of the time.
The book is fascinating as a record of the time, and when I read about the sheer amount Martha Ballard did in the course of a typical day, and under what conditions, I feel like a major slacker! It is a bit dry, since the diary was in no way an autobiography, and Martha was quite circumspect when writing about her family and neighbors. But if you appreciate American history, from the often overlook perspective of women, it is well worth the reader's time. show less
The diary was not the kind of emotional history we expect from a modern diary. It is more of a daily record of the weather, Martha's activities, and her medical call outs, as show more well as a rudimentary financial record. Dr. Ulrich has done an excellent job filling in the unspoken context from other accounts and records of the time.
The book is fascinating as a record of the time, and when I read about the sheer amount Martha Ballard did in the course of a typical day, and under what conditions, I feel like a major slacker! It is a bit dry, since the diary was in no way an autobiography, and Martha was quite circumspect when writing about her family and neighbors. But if you appreciate American history, from the often overlook perspective of women, it is well worth the reader's time. show less
A midwife's tale : the life of Martha Ballard, based on her diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
This is a really exemplary piece of scholarship, as Ulrich uses the diary of a rather obscure woman—Martha Moore Ballard, a midwife from the small town of Hallowell, Maine—to tease out a history of life in late eighteenth century America. Ulrich uses the diary as a springboard to talk about a wide range of social and political issues—everything from sexual morality (40% of the deliveries Martha carried out were births to unmarried women!) to changes in attitudes towards medicine to show more politics and religion—comparing and contrasting it with other surviving (male-authored) sources from the time.
The picture we get is of a world in which women had much greater involvement in the social and economic life of their communities than "traditional" historical narratives would have us believe. There are no "angels in the home" here, just women trying their best to make a living despite domestic strife and political turmoil. Ulrich writes clearly and I think how she uses her evidence is a model for all historians, no matter the field, because of how measured and balanced she is. Fascinating, and an impressive accomplishment—Ulrich has really succeeded in bringing back to life a woman who would otherwise be largely forgotten. show less
The picture we get is of a world in which women had much greater involvement in the social and economic life of their communities than "traditional" historical narratives would have us believe. There are no "angels in the home" here, just women trying their best to make a living despite domestic strife and political turmoil. Ulrich writes clearly and I think how she uses her evidence is a model for all historians, no matter the field, because of how measured and balanced she is. Fascinating, and an impressive accomplishment—Ulrich has really succeeded in bringing back to life a woman who would otherwise be largely forgotten. show less
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
This is an amazing book that I highly recommend. It's non-fiction based on a diary written by a midwife living in Maine at the end of the 18th century. Thatcher starts each chapter with 2-4 weeks of diary entries. These are generally 1-4 sentences describing the weather, how she felt, what she did (spun wool, planted beans, etc.), and if she delivered any babies she'd account for how she got there, how the mother and child did, and when she got paid. It is 27 years of a daily account of her show more life which can sound rather mundane, but Thatcher pulls an amazing amount of information out of this diary. She covers everything: midwife practices, the shift from midwives to doctors, a history of the settlement of Maine, a local murder, a local rape and the court proceedings that followed, debtors prisons, family relations, and the role of women in the local economy. As a midwife, Martha Ballard presided over more than 800 deliveries, only losing one mother. While Thatcher explores all of these topics through Martha's words, she never loses Martha's voice. This is so worth reading! show less
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- Popularity
- #10,458
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 37
- ISBNs
- 14
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