Monday- I actually didn't do such a terrible job with this today as I thought I initially would. All in all humility wise I'd give myself a B. There's room for improvement but I didn't make any significant blunders.
Tuesday- I bombed in the land of humility today... Between an online class and an email to a close friend... Well I flunked.
Wednesday- I actually believe I may have done well with this today. I didn't have to work and so I was home all day attempting to catch up on honors history stuff that I fell behind on when I was camping. I was fine with my parents and other than that the only real communication that I had with the world was through an email to a friend and the emails sole intention was to bring the recipient encouragement.
Thursday- Hmmm... Well I went behind my parents back and went to see a movie at midnight and spent the whole night driving around with some friends... I lied about my whereabouts to them and was pretty selfish all in all... Yeah I'd give today an F.
Friday- I spent all day with Emily and her mother. I flunked terribly at this assignment today... They actually had to start keeping track on paper all of the times that I failed. Whoops!
Saturday- Well my mother learned about my midnight excursion and I came clean and confessed. Honesty really is good for the soul and humility ;-) Other than that I worked an 8 hour shift and became part of the working community. It was rough.. But humility wise today I get an A :-)
Sunday- Well I skipped church to sleep in, didn't go to the cookout and singing because I decided to work, and then spent all evening arguing with my two atheist parents about religion. They were instigating but I should know better... F.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A Midwife's Tale- Authors Intent
The book A Midwife's Tale was constructed by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. It is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Ulrich proves himself to be a fairly craft historian through the writing of this book. The book is entirely about the life of Martha Ballard and the community that she lived in. It is based mainly upon a diary that Martha kept between the years 1785-1812.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was the first person to truly take Martha's thoughts seriously. She was the first one to peer beyond the sex prattle and see all of the historical facts that lied just beyond it. Ulrich is a professor of history at Harvard. Many historians had thumbed through Martha's diary before her but none had taken it seriously.
When Ulrich flipped through Martha's writings she saw much more potential. She gave Martha the credit that no one else had and constructed an entire work around it. She discovered that there was much to learn from these writings. Martha could not have made it very easy on Ulrich as she was a woman of very little emotion and kept her entry's as precise as possible. Through her writings we discover that she was not a woman of great emotion and her many of her entry's become more repetitive and appear more like a log of births and deaths than anything. This is most likely what had turned off so many historians before Ulrich.
Ulrich took the time to decode Martha's misspellings and to look deeper into the lack of emotion to draw some more influential conclusions. She looked at the writings of another man from Martha's time as well and compared some of their recordings and found that many of them matched up in a decent fashion and from this was able to pull even more conclusions. From constructing this book and the research that it took Ulrich learned many things about what the role of women was like during this time period and the community that they all lived in.
By publishing her book she was able to share all that she had learned with many people. Ulrich is able to accurately depict the life of a midwife or any woman during the late 18th and early 19th century. She is able to outline the roles of the average woman and in doing so even the role of the average man. Through this book many things can be learned about the community that Martha lived in and what types of things Martha was expected to do as midwife. This also leads the reader to see the types of medicinal practices that were used during this time period. Ulrich saw many things in Martha's diary that historians that had come before her had missed. By publishing these things in A Midwifes Tale she found herself able to share all of those revelations with any genuinely interested person today.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was the first person to truly take Martha's thoughts seriously. She was the first one to peer beyond the sex prattle and see all of the historical facts that lied just beyond it. Ulrich is a professor of history at Harvard. Many historians had thumbed through Martha's diary before her but none had taken it seriously.
When Ulrich flipped through Martha's writings she saw much more potential. She gave Martha the credit that no one else had and constructed an entire work around it. She discovered that there was much to learn from these writings. Martha could not have made it very easy on Ulrich as she was a woman of very little emotion and kept her entry's as precise as possible. Through her writings we discover that she was not a woman of great emotion and her many of her entry's become more repetitive and appear more like a log of births and deaths than anything. This is most likely what had turned off so many historians before Ulrich.
Ulrich took the time to decode Martha's misspellings and to look deeper into the lack of emotion to draw some more influential conclusions. She looked at the writings of another man from Martha's time as well and compared some of their recordings and found that many of them matched up in a decent fashion and from this was able to pull even more conclusions. From constructing this book and the research that it took Ulrich learned many things about what the role of women was like during this time period and the community that they all lived in.
By publishing her book she was able to share all that she had learned with many people. Ulrich is able to accurately depict the life of a midwife or any woman during the late 18th and early 19th century. She is able to outline the roles of the average woman and in doing so even the role of the average man. Through this book many things can be learned about the community that Martha lived in and what types of things Martha was expected to do as midwife. This also leads the reader to see the types of medicinal practices that were used during this time period. Ulrich saw many things in Martha's diary that historians that had come before her had missed. By publishing these things in A Midwifes Tale she found herself able to share all of those revelations with any genuinely interested person today.
A Midwife's Tale Part Two
There are many things needed to make a community successful. Objects such as money, equipment, and laws are all major requirements. Many things can be used to make a community larger and more successful and an all around better place to be, but at the very heart lies the people. A community is nothing without willing and able hands. A community where no one is willing to lend an ear to listen, a hand to help, or a heart to pray, is a place that is unfit to live in. It can be a place that has the most money, several town establishments, a huge schooling system, and many clinics and still be unsuccessful.
Martha Ballard's community held that which we do not always possess today, willing and able hearts and minds. If someone was hurt or in trouble the people would bind together to help them. Resources would be pooled and help would arrive on scene. If a fire were to break out then the neighbors would show up with buckets in hand ready to douse the fire with water. If a family was going hungry there would be neighborly families handing over their extra resources to help feed them.
Today if you were to drive through nearly any city you would find many people homeless and starving. The basic principals that used to be applied in Martha's time no longer seem to hold any value. Many years ago most people would know every family that lived within several miles of them on a personal basis. Today it is considered a rarity to know your next door neighbor that lives but a few feet away.
Martha Ballard and her husband were almost always opening their house up to someone in need. Be it someone that had lost a family member or a child in need of a home or nearly anyone there was almost someone residing in their home. We see several times in the diary "--slept here". Today in big communities many shelters can be found. Is this because people are less willing to open up their houses and allow people to stay? Or is it merely because the community itself has become so dysfunctional in so many areas, that there are simply too many people in need of housing to be able to provide for them all?
Stores during Martha Ballard's time were much more scarce in a small community than they are today. The people learned to rely upon one another. The women did a great deal of trading amongst themselves. Most women had their hand at some small trade and if one woman found herself skilled in the art of growing or collecting herbs and the another found herself skilled in the kitchen than they would trade with one another. Today when something is needed instead of trading with a close neighbor people will take a trip out to Walmart.
Another thing that brought a community closer together back then was that the town events were considered important. Today very few local meetings occur and the ones that do receive very small turnouts. In Martha's time on average each town had a meeting house. Every Sunday nearly every man, woman, and family could be found in the church service. It was found to be an important part of the week that most people would frown upon sleeping through.
Church was not the only thing that brought in full scale community action though. Men from every household would go to town meetings where laws and punishment would be discussed. It was important to them for their communities to be kept together and clean. Back then voting a person as head of one of the town committees was important business. Today many people could not tell you who is in charge of their local communities to contact for something important. Many people would find it necessary to Google it.
Martha Ballard's community had many things that are still present in local communities today. Every place is going to have its bad seeds (in more than one sense) and its rough patches. But Martha Ballard's community also had something that is not present in many communities today. The people that are willing to come together to help make it through the rough times. The people that are willing to hold hands on a Sunday morning and pray for those in need, the people willing to bake something for a family going hungry, and the people willing to reach out a hand to someone and say "I'm here." The relationships within a community have changed drastically since Martha's time and not in a decent manner. Communities today could be considered anything but successful.
Martha Ballard's community held that which we do not always possess today, willing and able hearts and minds. If someone was hurt or in trouble the people would bind together to help them. Resources would be pooled and help would arrive on scene. If a fire were to break out then the neighbors would show up with buckets in hand ready to douse the fire with water. If a family was going hungry there would be neighborly families handing over their extra resources to help feed them.
Today if you were to drive through nearly any city you would find many people homeless and starving. The basic principals that used to be applied in Martha's time no longer seem to hold any value. Many years ago most people would know every family that lived within several miles of them on a personal basis. Today it is considered a rarity to know your next door neighbor that lives but a few feet away.
Martha Ballard and her husband were almost always opening their house up to someone in need. Be it someone that had lost a family member or a child in need of a home or nearly anyone there was almost someone residing in their home. We see several times in the diary "--slept here". Today in big communities many shelters can be found. Is this because people are less willing to open up their houses and allow people to stay? Or is it merely because the community itself has become so dysfunctional in so many areas, that there are simply too many people in need of housing to be able to provide for them all?
Stores during Martha Ballard's time were much more scarce in a small community than they are today. The people learned to rely upon one another. The women did a great deal of trading amongst themselves. Most women had their hand at some small trade and if one woman found herself skilled in the art of growing or collecting herbs and the another found herself skilled in the kitchen than they would trade with one another. Today when something is needed instead of trading with a close neighbor people will take a trip out to Walmart.
Another thing that brought a community closer together back then was that the town events were considered important. Today very few local meetings occur and the ones that do receive very small turnouts. In Martha's time on average each town had a meeting house. Every Sunday nearly every man, woman, and family could be found in the church service. It was found to be an important part of the week that most people would frown upon sleeping through.
Church was not the only thing that brought in full scale community action though. Men from every household would go to town meetings where laws and punishment would be discussed. It was important to them for their communities to be kept together and clean. Back then voting a person as head of one of the town committees was important business. Today many people could not tell you who is in charge of their local communities to contact for something important. Many people would find it necessary to Google it.
Martha Ballard's community had many things that are still present in local communities today. Every place is going to have its bad seeds (in more than one sense) and its rough patches. But Martha Ballard's community also had something that is not present in many communities today. The people that are willing to come together to help make it through the rough times. The people that are willing to hold hands on a Sunday morning and pray for those in need, the people willing to bake something for a family going hungry, and the people willing to reach out a hand to someone and say "I'm here." The relationships within a community have changed drastically since Martha's time and not in a decent manner. Communities today could be considered anything but successful.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
A Midwife's Tale Part One
There is very little evidence in relevance to women's roles in the early 19th century. Much of what we "know" is based merely on assumption or some well educated guesses. This is due to many different circumstances. A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, is one of the very few remaining articles that may provide us with some insight as to what a woman's role truly was during that era.
Perhaps, the main reason that we do not have an ample amount of evidence left for us to discover today that will describe a woman's role is because it never really existed to begin with. Very few woman found themselves educated and even fewer actually made written accounts that still survive today. Martha Ballard was a midwife and her diary is one of very few accounts that still survive today that can provide us with some insight into how people lived in the 19th century.
Another reason that we have so little evidence remaining of women's roles during that time is that the women were not considered to be of the same importance as men. They were either stay at home moms, midwives, or working in textile production. The big jobs belonged to the men. All of the judges, reverends, and the majority of doctors were all men. Very few things were recorded during the early parts of the 19th century and those that were generally fell into a religious, medical, or lawful category and the women did not technically play very large roles in these fields.
Many people before Ulrich has read Martha's diary and dismissed it as just a bunch of ramblings. They found it to be of very little use. By taking the time to scour through and assess the smaller pieces of the diary Ulrich was able to determine many things about the average daily life of a woman in the 19th century. He was able to make many discoveries and even prove a few historians and their educated guesses wrong.
Women played a much more important role in the early 19th century than many people commonly believe. For instance Martha herself as only a midwife often treated many of the common and sometimes uncommon illnesses in the areas surrounding her home. She not only delivered babies but administered medicine to the sick and occasionally played the role of mortician as well. She often took on the duties known to only doctors today and only on a rare occasion actually consulted with a physician. Many sick people found relief through Martha Ballard, a female resident of Maine in the early 19th century.
The 19th century appears to have been a time of transition. Moving out of an age where men controlled every aspect of life and into an age where the role was shared mutually with women. The women helped to assure that the household was running and were able to take on many of the common local duties. Men seemed to be just learning the true value of women.
Not only were women key to making a household run smoothly and useful in medical practices but they were also essential when it came to local trade as well. They were needed to continue making the economy run in an organized fashion. Women were constantly trading with one another for cooking necessities, blankets, clothing, vegetables etc. If one family seemed to be having a particularly hard time making ends meet than the women would go over to that household and take the looming equipment and such with them and provide them with the necessary help.
By the beginning of the 19th century women's roles had increased drastically and Ulrich's research through Martha's diary and few other accounts help us to see this. Women were a necessity for success and no man could have failed to recognize it during such an era. They were needed in almost every aspect. The very medical foundations, economy, and heart of 19th century would have been missing if the women had not taken on the roles that they did and accomplish tasks daily that many still struggle with today. One can only wish that more women had taken it upon themselves to keep an accurate daily record of their activities. So much still remains to be learned.
Perhaps, the main reason that we do not have an ample amount of evidence left for us to discover today that will describe a woman's role is because it never really existed to begin with. Very few woman found themselves educated and even fewer actually made written accounts that still survive today. Martha Ballard was a midwife and her diary is one of very few accounts that still survive today that can provide us with some insight into how people lived in the 19th century.
Another reason that we have so little evidence remaining of women's roles during that time is that the women were not considered to be of the same importance as men. They were either stay at home moms, midwives, or working in textile production. The big jobs belonged to the men. All of the judges, reverends, and the majority of doctors were all men. Very few things were recorded during the early parts of the 19th century and those that were generally fell into a religious, medical, or lawful category and the women did not technically play very large roles in these fields.
Many people before Ulrich has read Martha's diary and dismissed it as just a bunch of ramblings. They found it to be of very little use. By taking the time to scour through and assess the smaller pieces of the diary Ulrich was able to determine many things about the average daily life of a woman in the 19th century. He was able to make many discoveries and even prove a few historians and their educated guesses wrong.
Women played a much more important role in the early 19th century than many people commonly believe. For instance Martha herself as only a midwife often treated many of the common and sometimes uncommon illnesses in the areas surrounding her home. She not only delivered babies but administered medicine to the sick and occasionally played the role of mortician as well. She often took on the duties known to only doctors today and only on a rare occasion actually consulted with a physician. Many sick people found relief through Martha Ballard, a female resident of Maine in the early 19th century.
The 19th century appears to have been a time of transition. Moving out of an age where men controlled every aspect of life and into an age where the role was shared mutually with women. The women helped to assure that the household was running and were able to take on many of the common local duties. Men seemed to be just learning the true value of women.
Not only were women key to making a household run smoothly and useful in medical practices but they were also essential when it came to local trade as well. They were needed to continue making the economy run in an organized fashion. Women were constantly trading with one another for cooking necessities, blankets, clothing, vegetables etc. If one family seemed to be having a particularly hard time making ends meet than the women would go over to that household and take the looming equipment and such with them and provide them with the necessary help.
By the beginning of the 19th century women's roles had increased drastically and Ulrich's research through Martha's diary and few other accounts help us to see this. Women were a necessity for success and no man could have failed to recognize it during such an era. They were needed in almost every aspect. The very medical foundations, economy, and heart of 19th century would have been missing if the women had not taken on the roles that they did and accomplish tasks daily that many still struggle with today. One can only wish that more women had taken it upon themselves to keep an accurate daily record of their activities. So much still remains to be learned.
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