MARTHA MOORE BALLARD
Martha Ballard is so fascinating to me because of how utterly normal she was. The most extraordinary thing about her is her sister, Clare Barton, who was the found if the Red Cross. A midwife and mother in New England during the late 18th and early 19th century, Ballard was intelligent and intuitive, organized and authoritative. Born and raised in Oxford, she came to Hallowell, Maine in 1777.
Her diary, which served as the inspiration and primary source analyzed in Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwife's Tale, is nothing like the emotional expulsions that one normally are associated with diaries. Ballard used this diary as a form of record keeping, as a way to keep track of all the births and illnesses she helped with. Throughout the 9, 965 journal entries, three things are always present in each entry: her health, the weather and recent births. This diary, in all its mundane glory, bring the details of Ballard's daily activities to life for twenty-first century readers.
By analyzing Ballard's life, we are able to doing a microcosmic study in order to understand the larger macrocosm of life in New England during this time. Her diary helps fill in the missing work, trade and responsibilities of women, as well as their interaction and collaboration with men, in the 1700 and 1800s. She also provides insight into the medical practices of this time.
Ballard's practice and application of medicine is what fascinated me the most while reading this book. I found that far from striving to discover the cause for any illness or ailment, Martha's primary concern with her patients was to make them feel better. She strongly believed, as most early moderns did, in the humoral theory and the importance of balancing the four bodily humours. She treated internal problems with external remedies. It is so interesting for me to get a peak into how people during this time period viewed medicine, and how far it has come since then.
