Family Economy and Labor in Everyday Life (late 18th / early 19th c.)

   Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s historical portrait of Martha Ballard seems to make history come to life.  Ulrich’s chronicle of Ballard’s diary does much more than decode the journal – it expands our understanding of the everyday actualities and nuances of the lives of women from a period where (still) little is known of women’s lives and thoughts.  A Midwife’s Tale is a fascinating account of women’s lives in pre-industrial America, representing a wonderful record of the vitality of women’s occupations in early America.  The daily dairy records Martha Mallard’s household and her life and experience as a midwife, and details the challenges Martha faced while raising a family and having a career working as a midwife.  I think a major focus of this work is family economy and labor.  The Ballard household on the (what is now) Maine frontier consisted of two economies:  Martha’s husband traded lumber, and she bartered vegetables and textiles with other women and settled accounts (for midwifery) with men.   Ulrich’s interpretation of Ballard’s diary points to the simultaneous separateness and interconnectedness of men’s and women’s work and trade in this period of American history.  “There were really two family economies in the Ballard household” Ulrich posits, “one managed by Martha, the other by Ephraim” (p. 80).  Among other things, we also learn from Martha Ballard’s daily experiences about courtship and marriage practices, and also about weaving, gardening, and tending to livestock.  It is noteworthy that Ulrich’ sources are not limited to the diary: she uses a wide variety of other records like wills, deeds, and court transcripts to give us a good look at the “mundane” details of women’s work and to point to the contributions of women as anything but trivial, rather as essential contributions to family economies and survival.  Ulrich also confronts the transformation of medical practice from a primarily female world of “social medicine” and “social childbirth” to the system of male physicians and female assistants.  The diary presents an evolving / complicated picture of the relationships between midwives and male doctors as childbirth was medicalized.  It seems that it was increasingly not uncommon for male doctors and female healers and midwives to collaborate, as evidenced by Martha Ballard’s attendance at autopsies performed by doctors.  Ultimately, Martha Ballard seemed to be operating at the center of a women’s economic and social network.  Midwifery seemed to give Martha the chance to make her own decisions, spend considerable time away from home, have a career and earn income, and exercise agency in her marriage and in her community.