{"id":77,"date":"2015-10-14T08:14:44","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T08:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/?p=77"},"modified":"2016-10-20T16:00:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T16:00:46","slug":"founding-mothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-117pinsker\/2015\/10\/14\/founding-mothers\/","title":{"rendered":"Founding Mothers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Martha Ballard’s diary, September 11-25, 1787<\/p><\/div>\n

The same week in September 1787 that the Framers “delivered” their Constitution to the American people, midwife Martha Ballard was busy caring for and delivering real babies in Hallowell, Maine.\u00a0 To the right, one can view an image of her diary from that very week.\u00a0 Compared to James Madison’s notes of the Constitution Convention, this journal might seem insignificant, but it better represents the lives and concerns of the four million Americans who resided in the country at that time.\u00a0 Most of them, whether male or female, could probably relate more easily to the terse, businesslike entries in Ballard’s diary than to the fierce but often abstract political debates over sovereignty, republicanism and governance that the Framers were having in Philadelphia.\u00a0 Students in History 117 should read historian Laurel Ulrich’s account of Martha Ballard’s life and ask themselves if Ulrich has explained the case for remembering this particular midwife.\u00a0 What do we learn from this account of medical care in the early republic?\u00a0 How can we explain Martha Ballard’s place in a survey of American history?\u00a0 And finally, what do we need to know about ordinary lives in order to better understand the context of the past?\u00a0 Students should also experiment with the Do History website<\/a> devoted to Martha Ballard and her story.\u00a0 See especially the transcription engine<\/a> and the Magic Lens<\/a>.\u00a0 Also, a good reference website<\/a> is available from PBS “American Experience,” which did an episode about Ballard a few\u00a0years ago.<\/p>\n