engine of souls | forum 2

Date: Sep 5, 2008

Assignment #2: Doing History

Date: Sep 6, 2008

Where do we post the historiography answers???

Date: Sep 6, 2008

Pamela,

It's coming.

Date: Sep 6, 2008

i cant find the two rape stories all i found was a not ugilty plea and a sentence about the foster girl visiting martha

plkease help!!!

Date: Sep 6, 2008

walter. when you get to the page with the maroon and the blue box, scroll allllllll the way down. there is a little paragraph with two links. click the link table of contents.

Date: Sep 6, 2008

mre wrote:

Source: http://dohistory.org/, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife/index.html

Background: Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman whose daily diary, once discovered and studied, became a fascinating window to the events and issues of her time. She was born in 1735 and died in 1812. In that time, for most of her life, she lived in Maine and served her small town as a midwife.  Over the course of decades, she delivered hundreds and hundreds of babies. Her diary offers her perspective on battles, betrayal, rape, love, work, family and more. Passed down generation by generation, her diaries were finally discovered and studied by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published in a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwifes Tale.

Assignment:
1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.As your reading Martha Ballards diary you can tell the dedication to her profession, her daily life and the others around her, and also the tragedies and happiness that she had witness in her community . In Exploring the Diary I found that she wrote constantly for 27 years, leaving behind 10,000 and over 1,400 pages. Also going through diary you can conclude that the legibility of her hand writing was very terrible and most have taken countless hours of decoding her diary. Also reading her diary in its original context the way she abbreviated things is much different if which we abbreviate today. For example the ways she abbreviated yesterday it would be just written as yes or the way she would write neighbor with only a capitalize N. But when I began to look into Practice Reading the Diary it gave me glimpse on the horrific and wonderful things she had saw through 27 years as midwife. The one most horrific scenes thats caught my eye was that of the Purrinton Murders. The horrific tail of how he axed his wife and his 6 children and then taking his own life was great tragedy. And finding out the only one to survive was his son James Purrinton. But with all the tragedy that she had witness, she also witness a lot happiness in her work with helping with the delivery of 800 children. Which must of brought joy to her heart seeing mostly everyone in town she had help bring into the world. The reason I like to look through history like this is because you get to see how people reacted in certain situations and the way they spoke in there daily live. Also you learned how people wrote, spelled certain words during there time.
2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
A.) In the analyst of a man-midwife and that of women-midwife is very different in their point of views. With controversies over medicines, practices, and ethics towards both women and men midwives. But both with a common goal to help bring a healthy baby into the world and the protecting the life of mother so she would comfortable through pain and would face the possibility of mortality. In the field of being a male midwife they were more prepared in modern medicines and medical procedures. As John Maubray states in his book The Female Physician, London, 1724,Men . . . being better versed in Anatomy, better acquainted with Physical Helps, and commonly endued with greater presence of Mind, have been always found readier or discreeter, to devise something new, and to give quicker Relief in Cases if difficult or preternatural births, than common midwives generally understand. Also with this statement men at the time were only people allowed to higher them selves in higher education. Making the men of the day more able to understand and help if something was went wrong with pregnancy and would be able to help the mother and the child to survive.
In the analyst of a female mid-wife is much different than a man. First women were not truly prepared for any near fatal complication. The reason for this was female midwives was the women were unable to receive a higher education because of the mentality of the time, Women shall not be heard only to be seen. Also female midwives were taught like male midwives through show and practice on real patients , but female midwives lack the understanding of anatomy. With any completions with a birth a female midwife would have to call upon male surgeon to remove the fetus. On the website
http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/interpreting.html and under Was this a typical birth for Midwife Martha?,
Traditionally, female midwives attended normal births. When an abnormal birth threatened to cause death, then a male surgeon would be called to remove the fetus surgically. This often ended in the death of mother or child if they were not already dead. After the invention of the forceps and improved understanding of anatomy, the coming of the man-midwife did not necessarily mean death. Nevertheless, historians have estimated that around 95% of births in eighteenth-century England and the early U.S. were normal. In her own practice, Martha Ballard handled most difficulties herself, if they arose. Her diary shows that she called upon male doctors for help in deliveries only twice between 1785 and 1812.
In conclusion with female midwife they normal birth rate was at 95% but any complications would make it fatal to either the mother or the child.
In my opinion I would rather have a male midwife to help my love one to deliver the child. My reason is that with a male midwife as in John Maubry book The Female Physician, London, 1724,
Men . . . being better versed in Anatomy, better acquainted with Physical Helps, and commonly endued with greater presence of Mind, have been always found readier or discreeter, to devise something new, and to give quicker Relief in Cases if difficult or preternatural births, than common midwives generally understand.
In the line and commonly endued with greater presence of Mind, have been always found readier or discreeter, to devise something new, states that men under pressure and in serve cases of labour complications will act quickly and precisely to situation. But for women under these circumstances would become frantic and emotional towards. Because most women understand the pain of pregnancy and the emotions of losing a child so early in the dawn of life. That why I would have male midwife deliver my love ones child.
B.)
In the evidence of One Rape Two Stories Rebecca Foster accuses Judge Joseph North of rape. Joseph North pleas not guilty to the crime witch at the time is punishable to death. He accuses Mrs. Foster of accusing two other men of the crime. But evidence presented to the case wouldnt and did not
matter to the jury. For she was married to a discredit minister, she was accusing prominent person of the community, a judge, and came from well off family. With the jury being all men and with status of the person being tried the verdict came back not guilty to the crime of rape. And for the other two men accused of rapping Rebecca Foster were also dropped.
In my opinion I believe that Judge Joseph Foster was innocent along with other men. The reason is that in Martha Ballard diary she writes,
Shee also Said that Said North had abused her wors than any other person in the world had, but Shee believd it was best for her to keep her troubles to her Selfe as mutch as Shee Could till her Husband returnd which Shee hop^t w^d be soon, on December 23, 1789 (Wednesday)
In this statement the Martha Ballards rights down, makes me believe that she was having an affair with Judge North and one they might of got into a fight and he got a little rough with living bruises, which is still wrong for a man to out his hands on a women. The reason I believe this cause he admits it to her,
I also testified that Said N Said to me Last weak (which I find by this diarey to be on y^e 18^th inst), that he really believd mrs Foster was treated as Shee Complains but he Should Deny the Charg Exhibeted against him. he also Said he never had the least reason to Suspect her virtue or modesty. on December 23, 1789 (Wednesday) In conclusion I believe the Rebecca Foster was so livid that her lover put her hands on her that she would condemn him to death with a false accusation of rape. So when her husband came home she created a her story of rape. Believing that her husband being a minister, in my opinion believed that the jury would choose her word over his because of her husband being ordain. But her planned back fired. Thats the reason why I believe Judge Foster was innocent.
Evaluation: You will receive 20 points for your description of Martha Ballards Diary Online and 30 points for each brief essay you wrote on Doing History (based on the quality of essays written see rubric), and finally you will receive 10 points for a question, comment or suggestion asked to a fellow student and 10 points for your response to a students post.

-- Edited by mre at 11:07, 2008-09-05

Date: Sep 6, 2008

mre wrote:

Source: http://dohistory.org/, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife/index.html

Background: Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman whose daily diary, once discovered and studied, became a fascinating window to the events and issues of her time. She was born in 1735 and died in 1812. In that time, for most of her life, she lived in Maine and served her small town as a midwife.  Over the course of decades, she delivered hundreds and hundreds of babies. Her diary offers her perspective on battles, betrayal, rape, love, work, family and more. Passed down generation by generation, her diaries were finally discovered and studied by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published in a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwifes Tale.

Assignment:
1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.
2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

Evaluation: You will receive 20 points for your description of Martha Ballards Diary Online and 30 points for each brief essay you wrote on Doing History (based on the quality of essays written see rubric), and finally you will receive 10 points for a question, comment or suggestion asked to a fellow student and 10 points for your response to a students post.

-- Edited by mre at 11:07, 2008-09-05

1) Browsing the diary of Martha Ballard demonstrated how a historian interprets a primary source to form an understanding of history. In Martha Ballards diary specifically, it showed how one person has to take a dialect, such as her shorthand or spelling, and determine the intent and meaning behind the words. Transcribing Martha Ballards diary was difficult because of the style of her penmanship combined with her shorthand.

Exploring the themes of the diary gave a unique perspective on issues of the eighteenth-century. One of the themes Martha focused on was the scarlet fever epidemic. The diary gave a first person view of how the problem was handled by someone who treated patients in a time where they had little medical knowledge. Viewing the various themes through the diary gave a interesting description of events that are not always the primary focus when studying history by a person who was involved in the historical events. Browsing, transcribing, and exploring the themes of Martha Ballards diary gave me a different perspective of the problems of the time period that she lived in.

2) A. Midwifery was a common medical practice in the eighteenth-century. The position was usually held by females to help assist women in births. During the eighteenth-century, a new surge of male midwives began to cause controversy among the public.

The two occupations shared many similarities, and had minimal differences. Female midwives assisted in most births, unless the birth was considered high risk. They were very knowledgeable in their field as shown in Martha Ballards diary where she states ..."

& Calld Dr Page who gave my Patient [20] drops of Laudanum which put her into Such a Stupor her pains (which were regular & promising) in a manner Stopt till near night..." This statement demonstrates the knowledge of a midwife, and shows their capability of handling normal births.

Male midwives more commonly handled the higher risk births. They had a larger range of training than the regular midwives, and were more like the doctors of their time. Male midwives used more medicines, while midwives used more simple remedies such as herbs. As shown in the "A Man-Mid-Wife" cartoon, the male midwives had a surgical type of procedure when they handled the births where ..."either the mother or child would likely die."

I believe that instead of working separately, male and female midwives should have worked together. The male midwives demonstrated a surgical skill where they used tools to remove the fetus in high risk births, and also had a knowledge of medicine. The female midwives have their own knowledge of how to safely deliver a baby. Together, they could have worked with their own individual knowledge, and potentially have reduced the number of deaths in abnormal births.

B) In the controversial case of Foster v. North,the wife of a minister, Rebecca Foster accuses a well respected Judge, also called Colonel North, and two other men of rape. The lack of evidence makes it difficult to draw a conclusion. Still, there are many possibilities regarding what happened. In the diary of Martha Ballard, she makes a statement where she writes "I Begd her never to mention it to any other person, I told her Shee would Expose & perhaps ruen her Self if Shee Did." In this statement Ballard seems to be concerned that Foster making rape accusations would ruin her character. However, previous to Fosters case, ten men had been convicted of attempted rape. Foster would not have been the first to report, and go to trial with this type of crime. Then, on the same page Ballard also wrote "Col^o North had positively had unlawfull Concourse with a ~~another~~ woman ~~besides~~ which was not his wife and Begd her never to mention it to any other person,..." These two statements, if read in conjuction, show a relationship. Martha Ballard states that Judge North had an affair, and begged the woman never to mention to another person, and tells Foster not to expose the rape allegations. North also tells Ballard that he believes Fosters story was true, but he was not guilty.

Rebecca Foster stated to Martha Ballard ..." North had abused her wors than any other person in the world had..." These statements give an impression that Rebecca Foster must have shown some signs of being abused. I believe that her husband could have abused her, leading her into an affair with Judge North. Then, when they thought there was a chance it could be exposed, they used a rape case, and she accused two other men to solidify it. This is one of many possible interpretations of the evidence in the "One Rape, Two Stories." case.

Date: Sep 6, 2008

Browsing her diary is a lot like reading a note my dad writes; hard to understand, but generally worth the trouble. Martha Ballard was a witness to some extraordinary events that she recorded in her diary, and I count 800 deliveries as extraordinary. Trying, and for the most part failing, to transcribe her diary reminded me of digging for fossils, looking for clues to tell us about our past. Looking at the list of themes in her diary made me realize just how many things can happen to and around an ordinary person, it makes you wonder what the next day could have in store for you.
A. The argument seems to me not to be for female or male midwives, but for or against conventional midwifery, with the man-midwife supporters being supporters of what seems to be the old equivalent of the modern c-section, which seems to have been abused by the man-midwife's. My support is further swayed by the fact that two of the four quotes for female midwives were made by males, while at least one of the man-midwife supporters, William Smellie, attacks the female gender, calling them the weaker sex, which weakens his argument, making him come off as sexist to the modern reader.
Looking at Martha's entries about Dr. Ben Page, one of the man-midwives, adds another edge to the argument. In one case, on October 10, 1794, Dr. Page administered opium to a laboring mother, which, in Martha's opinion, delayed the birth, which, though long, was a normal birth. In other entries she looks down on the man, whose surgical methods often caused infant death during delivery. With this kind of failure rate, it is no wonder that the man-midwives were often looked down upon, they were inferior at the time.
B. The rape story poses two problems. One, that of an inefficient court system that tailored to prominent male members of the community, and two, that the facts could be ignored so that the desirable outcome occurs. Martha Ballard believed in the Judge's guilt, and most of the people(most likely women) she talked to agreed. Yet the Judge was acquitted, which shows that power spoke louder than evidence, if in fact any evidence was presented, or if it was simply a matter of testimony. If it was word against word, the Judge could not lose, he was in his element, and surrounded by allies, even if he was innocent(which is possible) it shows how corrupt the system was, and how unfair the trial likely was.

Date: Sep 6, 2008

In response to Leslie.

If Rebecca Foster was not raped by Judge North, why would she accuse him of it? What did she stand to gain from the accusation?

Date: Sep 6, 2008

I like your view on the Midwife issue Leslie, and I think you have a good point. The deaths could have been greatly reduced if the male and woman midwives worked together.

Date: Sep 6, 2008

Assignment, 9/5/08; Pamela Racine

1.) While exploring the diary and practicing reading the diary I was struck by how differently a diary was kept back then. Not to mention I was surprised by the kind of technology available for students to use to examine the diary. Using the lens I could see just how a person reading the diary would print it and translate it, and it was quite easy to interpret what was being said. But, when I actually translated a page myself it was so much harder to do, I had to listen to the voice actor say what was on the page to even understand how she wrote. Then I still had to try and understand exactly what she wrote, and I had to stop myself from paraphrasing many times. Really, that made me appreciate the job Laurel Thatcher Ulrich did translating and studying what this one midwife wrote. It even made me wonder just how much a woman was educated back then.

When I went on to decoding the diary and saw just how her pages were written it was even more surprising. She wrote her dates in the margin, along with the amount of money made that day to keep track of her midwife work, and her dates were written with the name of the month, the day of the month, and the number of the day in the week. According to sources this was done in a manner similar to an almanac, which they said might be how she learned it. Even more I found that Marthas odd spelling actually came from the fact that she was writing the words phonetically, or how she heard them, not to mention she used abbreviations that you would never see used today.

Exploring the diary I was surprised at how choppy Martha wrote, until I read that later her entries began to grow and she wrote about more than the weather. She began to write about her jobs too, and even about what was going on around her later. Reading the beginning pages was hard because not much of it made sense, at least not as a full sentence, but if you added in words it began to make more sense. The stuff she wrote about though seemed to be all job related, but according to people who studied her diary she was presented with so many things in her life and she wrote about each of them, but later on.

2.)

A.)Throughout following the links about male and female midwives I could only think that the female midwives are better suited to the occupation than the men are. The woman will usually let nature take its course and that can result in a better birth than if a male midwife steps in and tries to surgically remove the baby in difficult deliveries. The woman understand what is happening since they have probably gone through it themselves, and they can correctly judge when a woman has had enough and needs help, and can tell what kind of help they may need. The men have a more difficult time with this and can incorrectly assume things and make matters worse. The gravest incident that occurs that shows this is when Martha helps with the birth of Tabitha and Henry Sewalls first born son. During this birth the family calls in the new doctor, Ben Page, who as we can understand didnt respect the female midwifes usual authority and used his own method. His method of giving the mother opium actually seemed to stop the contractions, or so Marthas writing indicates was her belief. Luckily the mother and the baby both survived the birth but it would have worked better if he had just let the labor continue as nature intended. (Cited http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/interpreting.html The Bigger Picture)

B.)

All I can say after reading the two sides of the story is, that poor woman. If indeed Mrs Foster had been raped, and I do believe she was raped, she must have felt so beaten when Judge North won the case. If you read through everything you can see that almost nothing about it was mentioned in court records but that the case happened and Judge North was given the verdict not guilty as you can see on this page, with the actual document stating the verdict: http://dohistory.org/two_stories/Official/ch00/index.html .

But, reading over Marthas diary you can see her mention, almost as an aside when Mrs Foster comes forward with the story, that she was told about the rape. She even adds to the page on later dates that she recalls how she reacted to hearing about these great abuses from people unknown to her. Martha adds that Mrs. Foster said Shee hoped they would not quite kill her, that they Could do nothing wors than they had unless they killd her.

http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch09/index.html

Reading that passage from Martha I really believe that Mrs. Foster was telling the truth, since she really did not write much unless it seemed rather important. She didnt even write this on the date she heard of it, but later when the issue became known to the town. So I think that shows that as far as evidence went, those men were guilty.

Date: Sep 6, 2008

James wrote:

In response to Leslie.

If Rebecca Foster was not raped by Judge North, why would she accuse him of it? What did she stand to gain from the accusation?

I think if she wasnt raped by Judge North, but was the woman in the affair she was having, then involving him in the accusations would lessen the likelihood that he would be prosecuted for the crime because he was a respected Judge. Also, if the affair was discovered by the public, she wouldnt be as disgraced as the victim of a crime, as she would if she was viewed as a married woman involved in an affair.

Date: Sep 6, 2008

*the affair he was having.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Leslie I like how you really proved that there was not enough evidence to prove the rape crime against Joseph North.. And Im glad that someone also agrees that there might of been an affair going on between Rebecca and North

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Ok. That makes sense.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Walter Bohn A-Block 9/6/08

Martha Ballard Diary

Exploring the Diary: As I was reading through the diary and looking at the pages I thought to myself, how could anyone ever read this?. As I continued reading I realized that Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman who wasnt afraid to stand up for herself. She is truly an almost Renaissance woman for the time period. She acted like any man in the society of the time would. Examining history like this is very interesting. Having firsthand accounts of some of the things that happened in early America is very cool, I think, because I am such a history fanatic. One thing I learned about these early times were that women were actually allowed to observe autopsies. Martha actually observed four before women were no longer allowed to watch. Martha watched the autopsies of two of her relatives and two other townspeople.

Walter Bohn A-Block 9/6/08

Man Mid-wives vs. Woman Mid-wives

I think the woman mid-wives would be a better choice for a family because the male mid-wives were very expensive and required all kinds of fees, female mid-wives did as well, if not better jobs as the males for a cheaper price. The male mid-wives also had a reputation of not checking in on the children when they were very young to make sure they were ok. Female mid-wives though did visit the children very often till they were old enough to be out of danger of disease. *

*Info found in Elizabeth Nihells Book on Housewifery. http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/071_nihell/071_p70_img.html#pagetop

Walter Bohn A-Block 9/6/08

One Rape Two Stories

Given the evidence, I think that Rebecca Foster was raped by all 3 men. Why else would she even talk about it? It wasnt really common place back then to make up lies to go to court. This is more a modern day phenomenon. Most women are ashamed when they are raped, but Rebecca obviously was able to overcome her fear and stand up against Judge North. If it was money or something else she wished to gain by pleading rape, Rebecca probably would have accused someone she knew people would believe. She wouldnt accuse the judge she would have accused the town drunk or lowlifes not the judge. It just makes no sense for her to blame someone such as Judge North something as bad as rape, which was a big deal back then because rape was punishable by death.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Question: For sources do we just use the links provided that bring us to the dairy and other stories?

Date: Sep 7, 2008

1.) Looking through Martha Ballards diary reminded me of reading doctors handwriting; messy and barely legible but with important information being written down. She recorded tons of things in her diary from everyday accounts showing us history from her view. Transcribing her diary drove me crazy; it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but eventually I found it rather fun to see what the next day was like. The themes in her diary varied from day to day and differed greatly showing how someones life could change quickly.

2.) A. After reading the links of the man-midwife I saw that females were better suited during the time period for being midwives. Still the males looked down upon females though they had been doing it longer and with a better birth rate. Males used drugs and modern tools during the age to be midwives and they ended up killing more than letting the mothers have a natural birth. A good example is Dr. Page administering opium to the laboring mother and delaying the birth when Martha a well experienced midwife said that the mothers pain was natural and normal. During the time period I think the lack of experience the male midwifes had made the females superior.

B. The rape story shows how females were disregarded during the time period. The court system favored male members of the community and that the judge was allied by the town members. Martha has her own account of the rape which ends with the judge looking guilty, but he was acquitted showing the favoritism of the judge. The two varying stories of the rape show just how unfair the justice system was back during the time period.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

mre wrote:

Assignment:
1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.
     Examining Martha Ballards diary was not among the easiest tasks Ive ever performed. After spending some time examining her handwriting, transcribing actually wasnt too hard for me. However, if it werent for the Decoding the Diary link, I would be completely lost! I found her dating system odd, probably because we dont use it today. However, according to the site, it was used in most almanacs from her time period, which explains why she used it. As I continued to read, I noticed that in her diary, she spells phonetically, which makes me feel as though she wasnt too educated in the fields of literature. Additionally, it shows the mispronunciation in a number of her words.       In her diary, Martha Ballard described several things that tell us a lot about the time period in which she lived. One example is Premarital Pregnancy, which she wrote about between the years of 1788 and 1792. Through her entries, we learn that under certain circumstances, society does not frown upon premarital pregnancy. 2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
     To my understanding, male and female midwives operated in two completely different ways. Female midwives seemed to let nature take its course, so to speak. Meanwhile, male midwives (who were said to be more qualified due to their education and specialty in anatomy), would always turn to drugs, surgery, etc, which could potentially harm the baby as well as their mother. For example, in the case of delivering Tabitha and Henry Sewalls first born, Martha Ballards assessment was not trusted and a new doctor, Benjamin Page was called in. His solution to Tabithas contractions was to give her drugs, which she later threw up. According to Martha Ballard, it wasnt until after the drugs were out of her system that she could have a successful delivery. http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/interpreting.html In response to that occurrence, I believe that female midwives were generally more qualified. However, it may be ideal if male midwives were present if complications did occur where surgery was necessary and approved by the female midwives.b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position. After reading both sides of the rape story, I believe that Judge North, along with the other men, were innocent. Until I got to Rebecca Foster has a child, http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch13/index.html the case was up in the air. However, as I continued to read, it became most likely to me that Judge North and Rebecca Foster were having an affair while her husband was out of town. By the slight chance she may have become pregnant, it makes sense that she would tell Martha about the rape and then speak up once she knew it was certain. This way, she would not be frowned upon by the people of her town.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Me again! Same answers, this just might be a little easier to read

1.
Examining Martha Ballards diary was not among the easiest tasks Ive ever performed. After spending some time examining her handwriting, transcribing actually wasnt too hard for me. However, if it werent for the Decoding the Diary link, I would be completely lost! I found her dating system odd, probably because we dont use it today. However, according to the site, it was used in most almanacs from her time period, which explains why she used it. As I continued to read, I noticed that in her diary, she spells phonetically, which makes me feel as though she wasnt too educated in the fields of literature. Additionally, it shows the mispronunciation in a number of her words.
In her diary, Martha Ballard described several things that tell us a lot about the time period in which she lived. One example is Premarital Pregnancy, which she wrote about between the years of 1788 and 1792. Through her entries, we learn that under certain circumstances, society does not frown upon premarital pregnancy.

2A.
To my understanding, male and female midwives operated in two completely different ways. Female midwives seemed to let nature take its course, so to speak. Meanwhile, male midwives (who were said to be more qualified due to their education and specialty in anatomy), would always turn to drugs, surgery, etc, which could potentially harm the baby as well as their mother. For example, in the case of delivering Tabitha and Henry Sewalls first born, Martha Ballards assessment was not trusted and a new doctor, Benjamin Page was called in. His solution to Tabithas contractions was to give her drugs, which she later threw up. According to Martha Ballard, it wasnt until after the drugs were out of her system that she could have a successful delivery. http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/interpreting.html In response to that occurrence, I believe that female midwives were generally more qualified. However, it may be ideal if male midwives were present if complications did occur where surgery was necessary and approved by the female midwives.

2B.
After reading both sides of the rape story, I believe that Judge North, along with the other men, were innocent. Until I got to Rebecca Foster has a child, http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch13/index.html the case was up in the air. However, as I continued to read, it became most likely to me that Judge North and Rebecca Foster were having an affair while her husband was out of town. By the slight chance she may have become pregnant, it makes sense that she would tell Martha about the rape and then speak up once she knew it was certain. This way, she would not be frowned upon by the people of her town.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Laura wrote:

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

I agree with Laura, and thats probably the best way to put it.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Laura wrote:

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

True, but think about this. If she accused North of rape to cover up having an affair with him, she would have been able to choose ANY man. After all, it would have still been "rape" and not her fault if someone other than North had done so. In Martha's diary, it says that Rebecca must have been raped 3 times by 3 different men. If she was lying, why include North? Why not just say that it was only someone else? The only reason i can think of why she would set her goals on going against North would be that he actually did it. After all, if she wanted to cover up an affair, she would have accused someone with less influence and power, for she would have a higher chance of winning.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

That last reply to Laura's post was me, Taran.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

1.         Actually, for the most part seeing another part of history through a personal journal was...interesting? It raised an eyebrow, so to speak. Especially when it came to looking at original pages of the actual diary. Of course, seeing the original diary in her hand-writing brought learning about history to a whole new level, but when it came to the penmanship, spelling, and overall grammar of her entries, there were only questions. How difficult must it have been to decode even several entries, let alone thousands of them? Was her bad spelling and run on sentences a result of women's limited education at the time, if so, wouldn't she have learned to spell even in grade school? Also, If she ever reread her diary, was she confused by the pages' weird organization, or lack thereof?

2.        A. The male midwives seemed to be less credible with successful births than females. The female midwives had less modern equipment and drugs than the newcoming men. The men seemed to come in and just use drugs to make things easier on themselves, basically using their physician status with no where near as much work as the natural births that many of the women worked through. Though at first glance the men, with their higher eduactions and better training in physical practices, would seem better qualified, the real reason many began to turn to them was the fact that they naturally had higher merit, being men. But, it seems that the men, though seen as better and more respectable by their patients and employers, usually treated the female midwives equally, to a degree, at least.
          B. This rape case goes right back to the idea that at that time in history, usually the evidence to reach a true verdict would be the very records that have "dissappeared", so it is left to the jury to side with whichever side fo the case has a more prominent male. It's predictable to say the least. I do believe that Judge North was guily of the rape of Rebecca Foster. Just think. She would have no reason to accuse him other than the distant hope that he would be brought to justice.
          She wasn't covering up an affair, because then she could have pinned the rape on the other 2 alone, who were not as powerful as the Judge. The only real reason she would HAVE TO include the judge in her cover-up of an affair would be...none, because back then there was no way to prove it wasn't he who impregnated her, so there would be no real reason to focus on him.

---I didn't understand what it was meant be citing.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Laura wrote:

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

True, but think about this. If she accused North of rape to cover up having an affair with him, she would have been able to choose ANY man. After all, it would have still been "rape" and not her fault if someone other than North had done so. In Martha's diary, it says that Rebecca must have been raped 3 times by 3 different men. If she was lying, why include North? Why not just say that it was only someone else? The only reason i can think of why she would set her goals on going against North would be that he actually did it. After all, if she wanted to cover up an affair, she would have accused someone with less influence and power, for she would have a higher chance of winning.

But if she chose someone with less influence and power, and she was actually having an affair with Judge North, there would be a higher chance of the person being convicted. Accusing two other men along with North, who would be less likely to be convicted because he was considered a well respected figure, it would allow them both to walk away with good reputations, because people could assume that she was raped by one of the two other men. At the time, there had only been ten men convicted for rape, and I think it is unusual for one person to be accusing three different men of raping her on three different occassions, and having no type of evidence to support it.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Laura wrote:

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

True, but think about this. If she accused North of rape to cover up having an affair with him, she would have been able to choose ANY man. After all, it would have still been "rape" and not her fault if someone other than North had done so. In Martha's diary, it says that Rebecca must have been raped 3 times by 3 different men. If she was lying, why include North? Why not just say that it was only someone else? The only reason i can think of why she would set her goals on going against North would be that he actually did it. After all, if she wanted to cover up an affair, she would have accused someone with less influence and power, for she would have a higher chance of winning.

But if she chose someone with less influence and power, and she was actually having an affair with Judge North, there would be a higher chance of the person being convicted. Accusing two other men along with North, who would be less likely to be convicted because he was considered a well respected figure, it would allow them both to walk away with good reputations, because people could assume that she was raped by one of the two other men. At the time, there had only been ten men convicted for rape, and I think it is unusual for one person to be accusing three different men of raping her on three different occassions, and having no type of evidence to support it.

Sorry,that post was by me.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

1. In Martha Ballard's Diary it shows the life of a typical woman in the 1700's. Trying to transcribe Martha Ballards diary was IMPOSSIBLE for me. She doesnt seem as though she has had a lot of education. Her hand writing is VERY messy and a lot of her spelling and grammar is wrong. She is at home most of her days, and does not really go out unless its to go visit one of her lady friends or deliver a baby. She talks a lot about how her husband attended town meetings or goes out with his friends and such, but she has to stay home and make soap or stitch something together from my perspective this shows that woman were only capable to do the housework and were not expected have a good education or achieve anything great in life. But as I continued to read I realized that she was a very smart lady and was much respected in her community. She delivered so many babies I could not keep track. It was crazy to think that this lady dedicated her life to her town; People looked up to her and I admire her very much for that. Martha Ballard had seen a lot of tragedies; and one I think was very devastating was the Purrinton murders. Its sad to see a man kill his whole family without a second thought and the crazy part is its still going on to this day where people go on a crazy killing spree. I wonder though why he did it but I guess well never know. Also looking at the themes, you see that pre-marital pregnancy is actually accepted back then as long as the father takes responsibility of the child. Today having a baby before your married is accepted but frowned upon because the father most likely will leave (not in all cases). Going through Martha Ballards diary made me realize that sometimes history isnt as far away as it seems. The troubles that were going on back then are still occurring now and I didnt realize that until after I read this.

2 ). A. The male mid-wives were more professionally trained in there field and they used more medicine and tools when they performed which was not always the best thing for the patient. Also the males were mainly called in for the abnormal or high risk pregnancies. They worked very well and helped saved a couple mothers and babies in Marthas town. The female mid-wives were the most convenient to use for delivering the baby. They used a more comfortable setting and did not use special tools and gadgets for the birth. They were more accustomed to the normal births and did not tamper with the high risk ones. They used herbs and home-made remedies instead of medicine that the male mid-wives used.

I think that they should have provided education for women too so that they would be able to learn how to deliver the high risks births. It wasnt as convenient for the mother to send for another doctor when the female mid-wife should have just been able to do it herself. Also I dont think the men should have been using the sharp tools every time they did a birth. These tools most likely hurt the mother and affected her even after the delivery. The male mid-wives should have learned from the female mid-wives and vise versa so that each could do a delivery themselves and fewer lives would be lost.

2.) B. in the rape trial , Rebecca Foster accused Judge Joseph North and two other men of raping her. I believe there wasnt enough evidence for the jury to accuse Judge Joseph of rape and the only real evidence they had was word for word. Whether or not he raped her their was no real way to prove it back then and since it was a word for word case the judge would have won hands down. Back then it was a sexist community and the judge was very respected in his town and had many friends in the court room so he knew he would plead not guilty. If situations would have been different and the trial would have taken place today we would know the trial would have been fair for each person but for now I guess we will never know.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

sorry its Rachel
i forgot to put my name in *
but yeah the one right above this is mine : )

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Walter Bohn wrote:

Walter Bohn     A-Block     9/6/08

Martha Ballard Diary

        Exploring the Diary: As I was reading through the diary and looking at the pages I thought to myself, how could anyone ever read this?. As I continued reading I realized that Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman who wasnt afraid to stand up for herself. She is truly an almost Renaissance woman for the time period. She acted like any man in the society of the time would.         Examining history like this is very interesting. Having firsthand accounts of some of the things that happened in early America is very cool, I think, because I am such a history fanatic. One thing I learned about these early times were that women were actually allowed to observe autopsies. Martha actually observed four before women were no longer allowed to watch. Martha watched the autopsies of two of her relatives and two other townspeople.

Walter Bohn     A-Block     9/6/08

Man Mid-wives vs. Woman Mid-wives

        I think the woman mid-wives would be a better choice for a family because the male mid-wives were very expensive and required all kinds of fees, female mid-wives did as well, if not better jobs as the males for a cheaper price. The male mid-wives also had a reputation of not checking in on the children when they were very young to make sure they were ok. Female mid-wives though did visit the children very often till they were old enough to be out of danger of disease. *

  *Info found in Elizabeth Nihells Book on Housewifery. http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/071_nihell/071_p70_img.html#pagetop

Walter Bohn     A-Block     9/6/08

One Rape Two Stories

        Given the evidence, I think that Rebecca Foster was raped by all 3 men. Why else would she even talk about it? It wasnt really common place back then to make up lies to go to court. This is more a modern day phenomenon. Most women are ashamed when they are raped, but Rebecca obviously was able to overcome her fear and stand up against Judge North. If it was money or something else she wished to gain by pleading rape, Rebecca probably would have accused someone she knew people would believe. She wouldnt accuse the judge she would have accused the town drunk or lowlifes not the judge. It just makes no sense for her to blame someone such as Judge North something as bad as rape, which was a big deal back then because rape was punishable by death.

( with the rape story) i agree ; because back then it was shameful to get raped and she wouldnt just say it to get attention or money. there was no reasonable explanation exept that she was really raped by the three men but since it was just word for word they would never believe a woman so yes judge joseph got off easy but maybe in her doing the trial they would keep a closer eye on him and he would not be able to get away with it the next time.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

CRAP ! i keep forgetting to write my name ; but yeah the comment to walter was from me .

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Leslie wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Laura wrote:

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

True, but think about this. If she accused North of rape to cover up having an affair with him, she would have been able to choose ANY man. After all, it would have still been "rape" and not her fault if someone other than North had done so. In Martha's diary, it says that Rebecca must have been raped 3 times by 3 different men. If she was lying, why include North? Why not just say that it was only someone else? The only reason i can think of why she would set her goals on going against North would be that he actually did it. After all, if she wanted to cover up an affair, she would have accused someone with less influence and power, for she would have a higher chance of winning.

But if she chose someone with less influence and power, and she was actually having an affair with Judge North, there would be a higher chance of the person being convicted. Accusing two other men along with North, who would be less likely to be convicted because he was considered a well respected figure, it would allow them both to walk away with good reputations, because people could assume that she was raped by one of the two other men. At the time, there had only been ten men convicted for rape, and I think it is unusual for one person to be accusing three different men of raping her on three different occassions, and having no type of evidence to support it.
Sorry,that post was by me.

So, what you're saying was that she wanted she AND North to walk away with honor intact? That when compared to the other 2 men, North would get away but the others would more likely get the heat? Well i guess that makes sense, if she was having an affair with him she would have SOME feelings and not want him put to death.
But you have to remember that she and her husband were basically unwanted and unwelcomed in the town after all the drama, and with her husband away, anything could happen, and those other rape cases out of the 10 were probably not charges filed by women who were generally unwelcomed in their towns, whereas Rebecca was. And most cases like this were kept quite, very few it said made it to the actual courts. Not to mention, there WAS evidence of harassment by citizens of the town, just not of the actual rape.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

TaranlikeAcid wrote:

Leslie wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Laura wrote:

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

        True, but think about this. If she accused North of rape to cover up having an affair with him, she would have been able to choose ANY man. After all, it would have still been "rape" and not her fault if someone other than North had done so. In Martha's diary, it says that Rebecca must have been raped 3 times by 3 different men. If she was lying, why include North? Why not just say that it was only someone else? The only reason i can think of why she would set her goals on going against North would be that he actually did it. After all, if she wanted to cover up an affair, she would have accused someone with less influence and power, for she would have a higher chance of winning.

But if she chose someone with less influence and power, and she was actually having an affair with Judge North, there would be a higher chance of the person being convicted. Accusing two other men along with North, who would be less likely to be convicted because he was considered a well respected figure, it would allow them both to walk away with good reputations, because people could assume that she was raped by one of the two other men. At the time, there had only been ten men convicted for rape, and I think it is unusual for one person to be accusing three different men of raping her on three different occassions, and having no type of evidence to support it.
Sorry,that post was by me.

           So, what you're saying was that she wanted she AND North to walk away with honor intact? That when compared to the other 2 men, North would get away but the others would more likely get the heat? Well i guess that makes sense, if she was having an affair with him she would have SOME feelings and not want him put to death.
          But you have to remember that she and her husband were basically unwanted and unwelcomed in the town after all the drama, and with her husband away, anything could happen, and those other rape cases out of the 10 were probably not charges filed by women who were generally unwelcomed in their towns, whereas Rebecca was. And most cases like this were kept quite, very few it said made it to the actual courts. Not to mention, there WAS evidence of harassment by citizens of the town, just not of the actual rape.

True, I agree that Judge North was guilty of something, he proved that when he ran away, but there is too little evidence to prove more than she the harassment.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

*the harassment.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Leslie wrote:

TaranlikeAcid wrote:

Leslie wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Laura wrote:

Walter Bohn wrote:

This is a continuation of James' comment to Leslie. She had nothing to gain by falsely accusing Judge North so why else would she bring him to court if he had not actually raped her. Her family had no wealth and honor and he was a Judge, and wealthy, so she knew she would lose but she probably brought him to court so now he would be watched with more scrutiny in case he ever tried it again.

She may have done it if she and Judge North were having an affair while her husband was out of town. Think about it: Her husband is out of town and when he gets back she's suddenly pregnant. How is that going to look? What better thing to do than cry rape?

        True, but think about this. If she accused North of rape to cover up having an affair with him, she would have been able to choose ANY man. After all, it would have still been "rape" and not her fault if someone other than North had done so. In Martha's diary, it says that Rebecca must have been raped 3 times by 3 different men. If she was lying, why include North? Why not just say that it was only someone else? The only reason i can think of why she would set her goals on going against North would be that he actually did it. After all, if she wanted to cover up an affair, she would have accused someone with less influence and power, for she would have a higher chance of winning.

But if she chose someone with less influence and power, and she was actually having an affair with Judge North, there would be a higher chance of the person being convicted. Accusing two other men along with North, who would be less likely to be convicted because he was considered a well respected figure, it would allow them both to walk away with good reputations, because people could assume that she was raped by one of the two other men. At the time, there had only been ten men convicted for rape, and I think it is unusual for one person to be accusing three different men of raping her on three different occassions, and having no type of evidence to support it.
Sorry,that post was by me.

           So, what you're saying was that she wanted she AND North to walk away with honor intact? That when compared to the other 2 men, North would get away but the others would more likely get the heat? Well i guess that makes sense, if she was having an affair with him she would have SOME feelings and not want him put to death.
          But you have to remember that she and her husband were basically unwanted and unwelcomed in the town after all the drama, and with her husband away, anything could happen, and those other rape cases out of the 10 were probably not charges filed by women who were generally unwelcomed in their towns, whereas Rebecca was. And most cases like this were kept quite, very few it said made it to the actual courts. Not to mention, there WAS evidence of harassment by citizens of the town, just not of the actual rape.

True, I agree that Judge North was guilty of something, he proved that when he ran away, but there is too little evidence to prove more than she the harassment.

Agreed. The most powerful confession of guilt is to flee.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

1.   The first thing I noticed was that Martha normally wrote only a few sentences to sum up an entire day. It reminded me more of a medical log that doctors used rather than a diary. I learned after, however, that she later wrote more in her daily entries. Another thing I saw was that she had many entries on one page, which was probably to save money on paper. From this I could conclude that midwives did not make a great amount of money in the time that she lived. Midwives today make almost as much as doctors.
   While browsing the diary online I was amazed that she wrote nearly everyday for 27 years. From the diary I learned about everyday life in the 1700s and customs of the time. I really liked that because normally, history is simply learning of important events throughout time. One theme that caught my attention was premarital pregnancy. I expected Marthas time to be very strict and look down upon women that this happened to, but it seems that it just the opposite. This is confirmed in the sentence, The concern was to establish paternity so that child support would not fall on the community. Morals, it appears, were not a problem.
   Decoding the diary was quite hard and I learned just how much historians have to work to decode a single word. I did not know that women were so uneducated in those days that most could not even write. Marthas phonetic spelling gives interesting insight into the dialect of the time. The diary itself gave me a whole new perspective of the 1700s.

2.
   A.    A normal delivery of a healthy infant was the result desired by both male and female midwives of the time, and is the same today. The only difference that I can see between both genders was the way they reached that outcome.
    Female midwives were the more holistic of the two and sequentially, they very rarely use instruments or medicine to assist the birth. The logic behind this approach is that women have been giving birth for thousands of years and have never needed the intervention of modern medicine unless either the mother or child was in danger. The only drawback is that females were not given the same opportunities as males for education, which meant that they could not study such things as anatomy to further assist their practices. Male midwives, on the other hand, had every opportunity for education in medicine and anatomy. This knowledge, though, forced them to look at a birth from a medical point of view instead of a natural one. They were taught that surgical methods are the best way to delivery an infant. Yet at the time, the instruments used were crude and caused deaths of infants and mothers.
    In my opinion, female midwives were more fitting for the occupation than males, but to ensure the complete safety of the mother and infant during delivery, both should have be present. However, females should have been in complete control of the situation. Their more natural approach to delivering babies was healthier for the times. One of the pages that swayed my opinion towards female midwives is The Controversy page. (http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/index.html) In reading the opinions of other people from the 1700s and 1800s, I noticed that all four of the arguments for male midwives were from males, while only two of the four arguments for female midwives were from females. I believe that this gives the anti-male midwife case more credibility.
    Another reason for my opinion is based simply upon their genders and experience. Since female midwives had more than likely given birth to many infants themselves, they had more maternal knowledge of what is really happening to a woman giving birth. For example, Dr. Page mistook a long, but normal labor (according to Martha), for a labor needing medical attention in the case of the first son of Tabitha and Henry Sewall. (http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/interpreting.html) There was no need for the medicine administered by Dr. Page, but because he was the new doctor his inexperience led him to give it to Tabitha. Later entries in Marthas diary only further proves his inexperience when an infant dies from his surgical methods. In conclusion, female midwives were more suited for their chosen occupation than their male contemporaries in Marthas time.

B.    The case of the rape charge against Judge North by Rebecca Foster is the longest entry in Marthas diary, and arguably the most important. Her side of the story gives us many clues that the town did not record.
    In the official side of the story, no testimony survives, but I did learn that Judge North was found innocent. There was a trial in Vassalboro and one in Pownalboro, the latter which was presided by Supreme Court Judges from Massachusetts. I also learned from Henry Sewalls diary that Rebecca Fosters husband, the new minister, was disliked by nearly everyone in town. He had many debts and was dismissed from his position as the towns minister after only two years. In Marthas side of the story, she clearly believed that Judge North was guilty of raping Rebecca in August. Her diary is the only actual account of the rape and she was called as a witness for both trials. Also, unlike most of her town, she was fond of the Fosters. After Isaac Foster was dismissed from his position of minister by the town committee, she hardly went to church at all.
    I firmly believe that Rebecca Foster was raped by Judge North. Her husband was almost hated by the townspeople, so in hearing that his wife was home alone for the month of August, it is quite likely that someone would do something. Also, being raped was shameful to admit in those days, and most kept quiet. This explains why there were so few rape cases in 18th century. Martha proves this by begging Rebecca to be silent about her ordeal.

    She "Calld to mind" further details about her August meetings with Rebecca Foster. In fact, she remembered telling -- begging -- Rebecca to keep quiet. "I Begd her never to mention it to any other person, I told her Shee would Expose & perhaps ruen her Self if Shee Did." from Marthas Story, Chapter 9.

    An additional explanation for my opinion, and one that I believe validates that Rebecca did not have an affair with Judge North, is that Rebecca told Martha about the rapes in August, a few weeks after the attacks. (http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch13/index.html) She could have no way of knowing that she was pregnant at the time, so why would she tell Martha about the rapes unless they were actually true? The only reason Rebecca took the case to court was because she learned she was pregnant a few months later, and needed to clear her name of what others might suspect. If it was an affair, then Rebecca would have told Martha that she was raped after she learned she was pregnant. This proves that Rebecca Foster was raped by Judge North.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

I do have a question for everyone though. What happend with that whole thing about some guy letting Judge North go? I reread it, but I just cannot seem to make any sense of it.

confused

Date: Sep 7, 2008

James wrote:

Browsing her diary is a lot like reading a note my dad writes; hard to understand, but generally worth the trouble. Martha Ballard was a witness to some extraordinary events that she recorded in her diary, and I count 800 deliveries as extraordinary. Trying, and for the most part failing, to transcribe her diary reminded me of digging for fossils, looking for clues to tell us about our past. Looking at the list of themes in her diary made me realize just how many things can happen to and around an ordinary person, it makes you wonder what the next day could have in store for you.
A. The argument seems to me not to be for female or male midwives, but for or against conventional midwifery, with the man-midwife supporters being supporters of what seems to be the old equivalent of the modern c-section, which seems to have been abused by the man-midwife's. My support is further swayed by the fact that two of the four quotes for female midwives were made by males, while at least one of the man-midwife supporters, William Smellie, attacks the female gender, calling them the weaker sex, which weakens his argument, making him come off as sexist to the modern reader.
Looking at Martha's entries about Dr. Ben Page, one of the man-midwives, adds another edge to the argument. In one case, on October 10, 1794, Dr. Page administered opium to a laboring mother, which, in Martha's opinion, delayed the birth, which, though long, was a normal birth. In other entries she looks down on the man, whose surgical methods often caused infant death during delivery. With this kind of failure rate, it is no wonder that the man-midwives were often looked down upon, they were inferior at the time.
B. The rape story poses two problems. One, that of an inefficient court system that tailored to prominent male members of the community, and two, that the facts could be ignored so that the desirable outcome occurs. Martha Ballard believed in the Judge's guilt, and most of the people(most likely women) she talked to agreed. Yet the Judge was acquitted, which shows that power spoke louder than evidence, if in fact any evidence was presented, or if it was simply a matter of testimony. If it was word against word, the Judge could not lose, he was in his element, and surrounded by allies, even if he was innocent(which is possible) it shows how corrupt the system was, and how unfair the trial likely was.

I like how you interpreted the argument for male or female midwives as an argument for old or new methods of midwifery. Most people do not adapt to change well and this could be the reason for the controversy.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Jessica wrote:

James wrote:

Browsing her diary is a lot like reading a note my dad writes; hard to understand, but generally worth the trouble. Martha Ballard was a witness to some extraordinary events that she recorded in her diary, and I count 800 deliveries as extraordinary. Trying, and for the most part failing, to transcribe her diary reminded me of digging for fossils, looking for clues to tell us about our past. Looking at the list of themes in her diary made me realize just how many things can happen to and around an ordinary person, it makes you wonder what the next day could have in store for you.
A. The argument seems to me not to be for female or male midwives, but for or against conventional midwifery, with the man-midwife supporters being supporters of what seems to be the old equivalent of the modern c-section, which seems to have been abused by the man-midwife's. My support is further swayed by the fact that two of the four quotes for female midwives were made by males, while at least one of the man-midwife supporters, William Smellie, attacks the female gender, calling them the weaker sex, which weakens his argument, making him come off as sexist to the modern reader.
Looking at Martha's entries about Dr. Ben Page, one of the man-midwives, adds another edge to the argument. In one case, on October 10, 1794, Dr. Page administered opium to a laboring mother, which, in Martha's opinion, delayed the birth, which, though long, was a normal birth. In other entries she looks down on the man, whose surgical methods often caused infant death during delivery. With this kind of failure rate, it is no wonder that the man-midwives were often looked down upon, they were inferior at the time.
B. The rape story poses two problems. One, that of an inefficient court system that tailored to prominent male members of the community, and two, that the facts could be ignored so that the desirable outcome occurs. Martha Ballard believed in the Judge's guilt, and most of the people(most likely women) she talked to agreed. Yet the Judge was acquitted, which shows that power spoke louder than evidence, if in fact any evidence was presented, or if it was simply a matter of testimony. If it was word against word, the Judge could not lose, he was in his element, and surrounded by allies, even if he was innocent(which is possible) it shows how corrupt the system was, and how unfair the trial likely was.

I like how you interpreted the argument for male or female midwives as an argument for old or new methods of midwifery. Most people do not adapt to change well and this could be the reason for the controversy.

I agree with Jessica about James' interpretation of the man midwife argument he had a good thought of how it was of an argument for or against new methods. Nice work James.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Replying to Walter's comment: I also agree that Rebecca Foster would have nothing to gain if she had lied about accusing Joseph North unless she held some sort of grudge against him and was just trying to get back at him.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

1) Before I first began to explore the diary I looked at it as almost privilege to have the ability to read someones personal log of their everyday life. We are lucky to be able to examine this, what is now to us a piece of history. Had the diary not been handed down over generations and finally discovered be a historian, the wonderful and interesting story of Martha Ballards life as a midwife would not even exist to us today and history would not be created.
When I first started to explore the diary, the first thing that amazed me was that Martha Ballard wrote in it ever day for 27 years, starting when she was only 15. Then I got into examining the way she structured everything. I found it interesting how she spelled many of her words phonetically which is spelling them as she hears them. This showed me how limited a womens education was at that time. When searching the diary I found out that Martha would keep tract of the anniversaries of anyone she knew had past, I found out that one of her daughters died on the first of July and also that she had a dog named Martha that died on the fifth of July in 1786.
Transcribing her diary was much more challenging than I had expected. The way she spelled, abbreviated, and the overall handwriting of her words made it very difficult to transcribe. When reading about certain stories and themes the one I found most interesting was the one about the Purrington family murders and how Martha Ballard helped prepare the bodies that had been murdered by their own father who then killed himself and also that the Ballard family housed the only surviving child, James Purrington. That is what I learned from my experience exploring the diary of Martha Ballard.

2) A. In the time of Martha Ballard a midwife was a common position for mostly women to assist in the birth of an infant. Although the occupation was manly for women, it soon became fashionable for men to take the position of a man-midwife. The man-midwife played almost the same role as a normal midwife except the men would deal with the more at risk births. If I had to take sides with one it would be with the normal midwife. I trust that they have more care and experience since they have been doing it longer then the men. I would trust that an infant would be delivered safer with a midwife since they do not use tools that can harm the child like the men do as it says here on the controversy page. http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/index.html I also think that the use of natural herbs as the midwives would do, rather than chemicals in medicines would be safer at that time.

B. The story of one rape, two stories was a case of a woman named Rebecca Foster who accused Joseph North, Hallowells local judge, of rape. The verdict states that he pleaded not guilty and that the jury found him not guilty.
http://dohistory.org/two_stories/Official/ch00/index.html Although what Martha Ballard wrote in her diary gives you a different look on the situation. http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch00/index.html With the evidence of what she wrote in her diary I would strongly defend Rebecca Foster in accusing Joseph North guilty just for the fact that I dont think she would have any reason to lie about the situation I agree that she would gain nothing from it unless she held some sort of grudge against Mr. North and she just wanted to get back at him. That is where I stand on the case of the rape of Rebecca Foster.

Open for questions or comments :)

Date: Sep 7, 2008

mre wrote:

Source: http://dohistory.org/, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife/index.html

Background: Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman whose daily diary, once discovered and studied, became a fascinating window to the events and issues of her time. She was born in 1735 and died in 1812. In that time, for most of her life, she lived in Maine and served her small town as a midwife.  Over the course of decades, she delivered hundreds and hundreds of babies. Her diary offers her perspective on battles, betrayal, rape, love, work, family and more. Passed down generation by generation, her diaries were finally discovered and studied by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published in a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwifes Tale.

Assignment:
1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.

1B) Reading this diary, about a mid-wife from the late 18th century and early 19th century proves that it takes a lot of work to transcribe a diary that is almost 200 years old. Martha Ballard definetly did a lot of things in her life, but she wrote very little on her day, she could sum up a day in one sentance, and the sentance never really said much, only about the weather and maybe a walk or two. Another interesting fact was that in a lot of words in the dairy, Martha only wrote the phonetics of most words. Even though she could write and knew how to deliver babies, she was still not educated enough, to spell correctly. She also had horrible penmanship and shorthand, that made it even harder to read. What was good about Martha's writing though, was that it was all in chronological order, and she didn't go back and forth. Her dating system was also consistent enough to know what was happening in her life.
This is a good way to learn history because it is a primary source, so there is very little bias in it to begin with. This is a chronology of what happened, so there is not much elaboration in it, either. Looking into this diary, is like looking into a window into the past. You can read many things that could not be read in a textbook about important people and what they did for politics, or whatever. This is the real life, the real life that can't be told by anyone, but a person from that time period living in that kind of lifestyle. I've learned that this is the only way to know about the average mid-wife's lifestyle.

2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

2A) There is a big difference between male and female mid-wives's practices, when looking through the documents. They were so different, that both mid-wives often get to some degree of confrontation.
The males would do it one way, while the females, would prefer a completely different way.
Males would want to use a more medicinal way. The doctors would use drugs, as a muscle relaxer, and to get the woman feeling safer and more secure. Then after the women was ready she would continue in labor. As in the case of of Tabitha Sewall (http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/interpreting.html), this is exactly what happened. While Martha Ballard was delivering the baby, the husband got nervous and called the doctor. The doctor, Benjamin Page, gave drugs to Tabitha Sewall. The drug was opium, a now illegal substance. The substance stopped the contractions, then started again when Tabitha was fine.
Martha Ballard on the other hand, like all female mid-wives, preferred to go through the pregnancy the natural way. She did not have any problems with the labor, until Dr. Page came in and drugged up the patient. Martha was very mad also, because she considered Tabitha Sewall her patient, cited in Martha's October 10, 1794 diary entry. Martha believed that it was a female mid-wife's duty to deliver that baby. Even when Martha was there to do most of the work, she only recieved half pay.
I personally believe that it is the female mid-wife's duty to deliver that baby. In those days, about 200 years ago, there were many health problems with people that were not understood yet. It was a doctor's duty to figure those out, a medical professional. It should be the women who do the more natural work, and birth was very common, so a doctor didn't have to do it. Women at that time There should always be a doctor on call, if something extreme happens, but over all, the females should be mid-wives.

b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

2B) The rape story, One rape Two Stories, of Rebecca Foster is a very biased story. In the late 1700's and early 1800's the society was male dominant, and whatever the man said went. No man in that time period was ever convicted of rape, only attempted rape. There were different events that corrolate to both sides of the story, but there were facts, that need to be brought to attention.
The facts making the accused, Judge Joseph North innocent. A Henry Sewall sued Rev. Foster, Rebecca's husband. The judge gave the verdict, and the town wanted Revereand Foster to be discontinued being the town's minister. He stayed around though for a few months, then left his wife in town. This is when she said she was raped. This could of been a scandal by the Fosters to get back at Judge North, but there are bigger facts to deal with otherwise. But with a scandal, Rebecca has nothing to gain in this situation.
The first fact, is that almost exactly nine months after the rape, Rebecca Foster gave birth to a daughter. This could not be her husbands daughter, because he was out of town at that time. Also, after the town said that Judge North was guilty of his charges, he fled, knowing that he did wrong. The last fact, is that after Rev. Foster left the area after the trial with the Supreme Court, Rev. Foster became an alcoholic and abandoned the ministry. This is not the act of a man commiting a sceme, but a depressed man, who has to father the child of his wife's rapist.
All in all, i believe that Judge North was guilty.There were no facts saying otherwise. The only reason that people said he wasn't guilty, was the male-dominated society of the time. This system could only be seen as corrupt, and even then, the facts shown through, again proving Rebecca Foster was raped.

Evaluation: You will receive 20 points for your description of Martha Ballards Diary Online and 30 points for each brief essay you wrote on Doing History (based on the quality of essays written see rubric), and finally you will receive 10 points for a question, comment or suggestion asked to a fellow student and 10 points for your response to a students post.

-- Edited by mre at 11:07, 2008-09-05

Date: Sep 7, 2008

1. This diary underlines the vast differences between our time and Martha Ballard's. It gives me a more direct, personal connection to the era than modern texts written by scholars. In order to understand her journal, one needs to try to think in the terms she did to understand her form of shorthand and the things she takes for granted. She inadvertently reveals that even the the uncommon chances for education given to girls in her time were inadequate through her nearly incomprehensible handwriting and frequent spelling errors. It is surprising to me that just a little over 200 years ago, people in the American colonies occasionally bartered goods. Looking through a person's journal can provide, if it is kept as faithfully as Martha Ballard's, an astonishingly clear view of minds in the time the writer lived in.

2a. It is difficult to say whether male or female midwives were more qualified to assist births in colonial North America, but female midwives were the best choice for financial reasons. Both William Smellie (in A Collection of Cases and Observations in Midwifery, Vol. II, London, 1754), who opposed female midwives, and Sarah Stone (in A Complete Practice of Midwifery, London, 1737), who opposed male midwives, claimed the people they opposed were too quick to use newly revolutionized medical instruments such as the forceps. This clearly means that neither male nor female midwives were yet proficient with the new technology. This is understandable, since we look back on this time period with 200 more years' worth of medical knowledge. Since the qualifications between the sexes were the same, other factors were more important. Elizabeth Nihell (in A Treatise on the Art of Midwifery: Setting Forth Various Abuses Therein, Especially as to the Practice with Instruments. London, 1760.) wrote that male midwives charged more because of the illusion that they were more qualified. When presented with two choices that are equal in any service, including midwifery, it is only logical to choose the option that is less expensive.

2b. I believe that Rebecca Foster was viciously assaulted by Judge North, but that he did not rape her. The Fosters were all but run out of town because of Rev. Isaac Foster's theological differences with the people whose tax money they lived on. Folio 91 of the town records, which recants the meeting of December 18, 1788, states that the town voted to ban Rev. Foster from preaching in the town meeting house.
Martha Ballard wrote in her diary on October 1, 1789, "mr Savage here, informs that mrs Foster has Sworn a Rape on a number of men among whome is Judge North. Shocking indeed." (emphasis mine) She later seems to have changed her story to only being raped by Judge North. It is not a matter of question that the Foster home was assaulted while Isaac was away. It is also clear from their decision to ban him from preaching that he was not well-liked in the town. Judge North probably fled because he feared that the fact he assaulted Mrs. Foster could have been bent to include rape during the assault. It seems to me that Mrs. Foster was bitter that her husband was scorned by the townspeople and attempted to use the assaults to attempt to smear town officials' reputations in revenge.

In response to Walter's comment about Rebecca not having a motive, I think she could have been bitter over the town shunning her husband and tried to smear town officials using her allegations and the known fact that her home was attacked.

Did anyone else think the Fosters could have felt angry at the townspeople? I'm looking at the previous responses and not seeing anyone else with that idea.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

Aaron

I totally agree with you about Rebecca Foster getting raped was the real thing, there is no proof otherwise that she wasn't

Date: Sep 7, 2008

I don't know how male mid-wifes would be better than women mid-wives, considering the women were more abundant, and that the males needed to be doctors and related with those affairs, please someone who said males were more suited has to agree with me.

Date: Sep 7, 2008

G. Larsen wrote:

1. This diary underlines the vast differences between our time and Martha Ballard's. It gives me a more direct, personal connection to the era than modern texts written by scholars. In order to understand her journal, one needs to try to think in the terms she did to understand her form of shorthand and the things she takes for granted. She inadvertently reveals that even the the uncommon chances for education given to girls in her time were inadequate through her nearly incomprehensible handwriting and frequent spelling errors. It is surprising to me that just a little over 200 years ago, people in the American colonies occasionally bartered goods. Looking through a person's journal can provide, if it is kept as faithfully as Martha Ballard's, an astonishingly clear view of minds in the time the writer lived in.

2a. It is difficult to say whether male or female midwives were more qualified to assist births in colonial North America, but female midwives were the best choice for financial reasons. Both William Smellie (in A Collection of Cases and Observations in Midwifery, Vol. II, London, 1754), who opposed female midwives, and Sarah Stone (in A Complete Practice of Midwifery, London, 1737), who opposed male midwives, claimed the people they opposed were too quick to use newly revolutionized medical instruments such as the forceps. This clearly means that neither male nor female midwives were yet proficient with the new technology. This is understandable, since we look back on this time period with 200 more years' worth of medical knowledge. Since the qualifications between the sexes were the same, other factors were more important. Elizabeth Nihell (in A Treatise on the Art of Midwifery: Setting Forth Various Abuses Therein, Especially as to the Practice with Instruments. London, 1760.) wrote that male midwives charged more because of the illusion that they were more qualified. When presented with two choices that are equal in any service, including midwifery, it is only logical to choose the option that is less expensive.

2b. I believe that Rebecca Foster was viciously assaulted by Judge North, but that he did not rape her. The Fosters were all but run out of town because of Rev. Isaac Foster's theological differences with the people whose tax money they lived on. Folio 91 of the town records, which recants the meeting of December 18, 1788, states that the town voted to ban Rev. Foster from preaching in the town meeting house.
Martha Ballard wrote in her diary on October 1, 1789, "mr Savage here, informs that mrs Foster has Sworn a Rape on a number of men among whome is Judge North. Shocking indeed." (emphasis mine) She later seems to have changed her story to only being raped by Judge North. It is not a matter of question that the Foster home was assaulted while Isaac was away. It is also clear from their decision to ban him from preaching that he was not well-liked in the town. Judge North probably fled because he feared that the fact he assaulted Mrs. Foster could have been bent to include rape during the assault. It seems to me that Mrs. Foster was bitter that her husband was scorned by the townspeople and attempted to use the assaults to attempt to smear town officials' reputations in revenge.

In response to Walter's comment about Rebecca not having a motive, I think she could have been bitter over the town shunning her husband and tried to smear town officials using her allegations and the known fact that her home was attacked.

Did anyone else think the Fosters could have felt angry at the townspeople? I'm looking at the previous responses and not seeing anyone else with that idea.

Greg i do think they would be bitter that the townspeople shunned she and her husband, and that could be her motive for accusing North. But, that could also be reason to believe that she was assaulted and raped, assaulting her could have been the last attempt at running them out of town, the rape shaming her and degrading her to the point that she would flee.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

mre wrote:

Source: http://dohistory.org/, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife/index.html

Background: Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman whose daily diary, once discovered and studied, became a fascinating window to the events and issues of her time. She was born in 1735 and died in 1812. In that time, for most of her life, she lived in Maine and served her small town as a midwife.  Over the course of decades, she delivered hundreds and hundreds of babies. Her diary offers her perspective on battles, betrayal, rape, love, work, family and more. Passed down generation by generation, her diaries were finally discovered and studied by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published in a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwifes Tale.

Assignment:
1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.
2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

Evaluation: You will receive 20 points for your description of Martha Ballards Diary Online and 30 points for each brief essay you wrote on Doing History (based on the quality of essays written see rubric), and finally you will receive 10 points for a question, comment or suggestion asked to a fellow student and 10 points for your response to a students post.

-- Edited by mre at 11:07, 2008-09-05

1) I thought reading directly from her diary was cool. It's alot more interesting reading from someone's point of view directly rather than someone describing what it is like and putting their own opinion into it. Although it does make it difficult sometimes because of the way she writes (like the manner of speech). Half of that is because of the time period and the other half because of her eduacation. But apart from having some diffuculty reading it, it is extrmly interesting reading her diary. Not just for what she did, but just as an insight into what life was like back in the day, which was a wednesday by the way (dane cook reference if you didn't know).

2)
a) Like in every time period, something new and radical starts alot debates and arguements on whether it is right or not. In this case, during the mid to late 1700's it was men being midwives. Most arguements of the time seemed to be very opinionated. For the pro-man-midwife side, it makes sense that people would want men to be midwives because of the eduacation. Only men were really educated past grammar school. But on the other side, most women midwives had alot of expreience and knowledge from whomever they learned to be a midwife from. Also, women would be able to relate to the mothers because they most likly would have had children themselves. But men could also be taught this knoledge, so for the time period having men become midwives was probably a good thing. Although i don't think men would have been a better midwife then a female because of like i said earlier, the men wouldn't be able to relate to the mother and help relax her during the birth.
b)On the rape case, I beleive that North was guilty. Why would Martha risk her reputation and her husband's job if it were not true? But during the time of the actual case, that didnt matter, nor did any evidence. In a world ruled by man, simply stating a woman was a liar could end an aruguement. So, unfortnatley, unless the rape was comitted in front of basically the whole town, North would have been innocent.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

"EXACTLY running away is the international sign of GUILT" =]

quoted from Psych the TV Series lol

Date: Sep 8, 2008

1. Reading Martha Ballard's diary gave me an different perspective on a woman's life in the 17-1800's. Browsing the actual pages of her diary was interesting, but at the same time difficult because of her unreadable handwriting. The abbreviations she used were also very different. However, I enjoyed trying to transcribe lines from her diary the most. I have not often read about history from a relatively ordinary person's point of view, and reading Martha's diary seemed just that. To my surprise, I learned that it was basically acceptable for premarital pregnancy in her time. I have always thought the opposite. I did like learning about history by viewing Martha Ballard's diary online, but I would much rather be able to study it in person.

2A. It is clear that there was a drawn out controversy between male and female midwives. Both, in a way served different jobs while doing the same one. A male midwife not only delivered babies, but served general medical needs as well. Many people believed men were more qualified for this job. During this time period, it was easier for a man to receive a higher education than a woman. This meant that he supposedly knew how to correctly use medical instruments and medicines. It was also thought that a man could react quicker in a difficult birth situation than a woman could. It seems as though the general consensus would be that men are better qualified for the midwife job.

Women, as well as some men, thought differently. It was not known for a woman to serve as an actual doctor in the 17-1800's, but it was allowed for them to take a position as a midwife. Women could not receive as high an education as men, and therefore most likely did not know how to handle medical instruments and/or medicines. When a female midwife was in charge of a delivery, a male midwife/surgeon was usually only called if the birth threatened death. Doctors and midwives generally cooperated, and during the job there usually wasn't much controversy about who was better qualified. This argument starts with men who believe that they're better simply because they're men, educated men.

I, infact believe that women were probably more suited to the position than men. Because they had the knowledge of instruments and medicines, men might have used them unnecessarily simply because they can. For instance, John Blunt, author of "Man Midwifery Dissected" stated "Great mischief...has been done since man-midwifery [became] general, owing to the ignorance and impatience of those professors who erroneously imagined, their instruments must be used on all occasions . . . ". This proves that men used instruments when they were not needed. There is also an incident in the diary of Martha Ballard, that suggests that men may have carelessly used medicine as well. She wrote that one particular birth was 'regular and promising'. However, Dr. Page who was called to this birth gave the mother Laudanum. After the mother rid herself of the medicine, the labor pains increased again and the child was born. One could assume from this that the medicine did nothing, seeing as the child was only born after the medicine was gone. This incident may be another example of men abusing the technologies of their time. I also believe women are better suited for the job because while, yes, men might have an education, female midwives most likely have firsthand experience with giving birth. While an education may seem appealing to some, I would place my trust in experience.

2B. The rape case of Rebecca Foster seems to have a lot of holes in it, although I think it is evident which side holds truth. During this case, Rebecca Foster accused Judge North as well as two other men of attempting/actually raping her. During the time between the alleged rapes and the actual court time, Rebecca Foster confided this information with Martha Ballard. Martha Ballard, in turn wrote this information in her diary, which she later used to testify in court. The charges were dropped on Judge North however, and the accusations cleared. I do believe that Judge North got off wrongly, and that he was infact guilty of the charges placed on him.

The verdict of this case seem unfair as well as sketchy for a couple reasons. First of all, there is no record of this court case in Hallowell's official town history. If North was really innocent, then why wouldn't the case be remotely mentioned? There is also the fact that Judge North was tried by an all male jury. Men during that time were usually sexist, and that alone gave North the upper hand, because who would believe the wife of an unpopular ex-minister? I think the most blatant evidence we have, is the fact that Rebecca Foster became pregnant. Judging from the time her child was born, she had to have become pregnant around the time the alleged rapes occurred. This would be out of the ordinary, except for the fact that her husband was out of town at the time. According the Martha Ballard's journal entry on December 23rd, (http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch09/index.html) stating what Mrs. Foster told her back in August, is probably the best evidence we have that Judge North is guilty of rape. Why would Rebecca confide this in Martha if it weren't true? If she wanted to make Judge North and the others two men look bad, then she would have most likely spread this rumor around. Rebecca's own words were "he did go after an other woman besides his own wife". These words were exchanged confidentially, which gave Mrs. Foster no reason to lie about the accusations. I believe that this case was viewed as completely one sided, and that the verdict had subconsciously been decided before the trial began.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

1) Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.

1. While browsing the website about Martha Ballards, I came across many interesting things. I had a first hand look at how a typical midwife lived during this period of time. I also learned that many woman were mostly self taught concerning English and grammar. She had a very interesting way in setting up her entries. It was interesting for me to examine history in this way because I got a first hand account of the events that took place. Yes they were from someone elses point of view and not mine, but it was from someones journal; thus it was only one persons perspective, not many, many historians filtering through the accounts that Martha witnessed.

2) Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis. a. In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

b. In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

2a. Woman had a much more practical view on midwifery due to experience. Woman know woman; they know how their bodies work and what is supposed to happen. Many woman who were midwifes had no formal education; they simply learned through trial and error. For example, if a teenage girl had 15 younger siblings and had helped deliver all of them, then she probably would be a very good midwife due to the fact that she had experience.

Men, on the other hand, had what they liked to call 'education'. Yes most men were smarter than woman because they were offered more formal education. Most people who had medical education believed in only their medical education and not practical, natural processes. However, most of their education was flawed. Men will always be men. They love their toys. Back then, most men believed that their tools and technology automatically made them better. However, this is not the case. As Sarah Stone states, '. . . there are many sufferers, both mothers and children; yea, infants have been born alive, with their brains working out of their heads, occasioned by the too common use of instruments . . . ' By saying this she means that most male doctors (midwives) would just go in, do their business, and if anything went wrong, pretty much it would be 'God's will'. Men thought that their medical education gave them an advantage over woman who actually had practical experience and actually knew how a woman's body worked during pregnancy/labor/birth.

Men, however, were sexist back in the 1700-1800s. They believed that since they had education, they were better than woman. In one of the comparisons, John Maubray states that basically that since men took classes on anatomy and health, that they knew more than woman did aobut their bodies. He believed that just because it was in a texbook or something (note writting by a man) that it was right, even though it probably wans't even close. However, woman actually had a better understanding about what is going on in a woman's body because it was happening or had happened to herself. Therefore, I believe that woman midwifes had a better grasp on delivering babies in a mor natural process.

2b. It appears that what little reliable evidence remains points to the fact that Rebecca Foster was indeed raped. The only real reliable source of evidence comes from Martha Ballard's diary. Even though Martha would have a bias in support of proving that Rebecca did not have an affair and claim it as rape due to their friendly relationship, it clearly states in the diary entries that Rebecca claimed the attacks done onto her just weeks after they happened. Now, back in the 1700-1800s there probably were no pregnancy tests except morning sickness or a lump in the stomach area. Meaning, Rebecca wouldn't have know that she was pregnant until a few months after, not just a few weeks.

It also appears that no one, with maybe the excpetion of Martha, liked the Foster family. Therefore, it may appear to be logical that someone (or perhaps several someones) would rape her out of anger or hate. To get her pregnant so it would appear as if she had an affair with the judge so they (the Fosters) would lose their already low respect in the town. It seems, that all the evidence I gathered, that it is much more likely that Rebecca Foster was raped by someone to frame her in order to put yet another black mark up against the ex-minister's name.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

okay did anyone else have a hard time making heads or tails of the rape story thingy? or was it just me and my lack of iron and/or sleeping? i dunno. maybe i should take more naps during school, like first thing A block, right?

Date: Sep 8, 2008

this is in responce to greg's essay about midwives. so, i guess my question is if you were back in the 1700-1800 and you were given the choice of a male or a female midwife, and you had complete acsess to both, which would you choose?

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Monica! wrote:

1.       Reading Martha Ballard's diary gave me an different perspective on a woman's life in the 17-1800's. Browsing the actual pages of her diary was interesting, but at the same time difficult because of her unreadable handwriting. The abbreviations she used were also very different. However, I enjoyed trying to transcribe lines from her diary the most. I have not often read about history from a relatively ordinary person's point of view, and reading Martha's diary seemed just that. To my surprise, I learned that it was basically acceptable for premarital pregnancy in her time. I have always thought the opposite. I did like learning about history by viewing Martha Ballard's diary online, but I would much rather be able to study it in person.

2A.        It is clear that there was a drawn out controversy between male and female midwives. Both, in a way served different jobs while doing the same one. A male midwife not only delivered babies, but served general medical needs as well. Many people believed men were more qualified for this job. During this time period, it was easier for a man to receive a higher education than a woman. This meant that he supposedly knew how to correctly use medical instruments and medicines. It was also thought that a man could react quicker in a difficult birth situation than a woman could. It seems as though the general consensus would be that men are better qualified for the midwife job.
             Women, as well as some men, thought differently. It was not known for a woman to serve as an actual doctor in the 17-1800's, but it was allowed for them to take a position as a midwife. Women could not receive as high an education as men, and therefore most likely did not know how to handle medical instruments and/or medicines. When a female midwife was in charge of a delivery, a male midwife/surgeon was usually only called if the birth threatened death. Doctors and midwives generally cooperated, and during the job there usually wasn't much controversy about who was better qualified. This argument starts with men who believe that they're better simply because they're men, educated men.
            I, infact believe that women were probably more suited to the position than men. Because they had the knowledge of instruments and medicines, men might have used them unnecessarily simply because they can. For instance, John Blunt, author of "Man Midwifery Dissected" stated "Great mischief...has been done since man-midwifery [became] general, owing to the ignorance and impatience of those professors who erroneously imagined, their instruments must be used on all occasions . . . ". This proves that men used instruments when they were not needed. There is also an incident in the diary of Martha Ballard, that suggests that men may have carelessly used medicine as well. She wrote that one particular birth was 'regular and promising'. However, Dr. Page who was called to this birth gave the mother Laudanum. After the mother rid herself of the medicine, the labor pains increased again and the child was born. One could assume from this that the medicine did nothing, seeing as the child was only born after the medicine was gone. This incident may be another example of men abusing the technologies of their time. I also believe women are better suited for the job because while, yes, men might have an education, female midwives most likely have firsthand experience with giving birth. While an education may seem appealing to some, I would place my trust in experience.

2B.        The rape case of Rebecca Foster seems to have a lot of holes in it, although I think it is evident which side holds truth. During this case, Rebecca Foster accused Judge North as well as two other men of attempting/actually raping her. During the time between the alleged rapes and the actual court time, Rebecca Foster confided this information with Martha Ballard. Martha Ballard, in turn wrote this information in her diary, which she later used to testify in court. The charges were dropped on Judge North however, and the accusations cleared. I do believe that Judge North got off wrongly, and that he was infact guilty of the charges placed on him.
            The verdict of this case seem unfair as well as sketchy for a couple reasons. First of all, there is no record of this court case in Hallowell's official town history. If North was really innocent, then why wouldn't the case be remotely mentioned? There is also the fact that Judge North was tried by an all male jury. Men during that time were usually sexist, and that alone gave North the upper hand, because who would believe the wife of an unpopular ex-minister? I think the most blatant evidence we have, is the fact that Rebecca Foster became pregnant. Judging from the time her child was born, she had to have become pregnant around the time the alleged rapes occurred. This would be out of the ordinary, except for the fact that her husband was out of town at the time. According the Martha Ballard's journal entry on December 23rd, (http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch09/index.html) stating what Mrs. Foster told her back in August, is probably the best evidence we have that Judge North is guilty of rape. Why would Rebecca confide this in Martha if it weren't true? If she wanted to make Judge North and the others two men look bad, then she would have most likely spread this rumor around. Rebecca's own words were "he did go after an other woman besides his own wife". These words were exchanged confidentially, which gave Mrs. Foster no reason to lie about the accusations. I believe that this case was viewed as completely one sided, and that the verdict had subconsciously been decided before the trial began.

I agree with your take on the male/female midwife debate. Many men from the 18th and 19th centuries believed that becuase they were educated, they were better than women. Hell, some men still think that today =]

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

1. In Martha Ballard's Diary it shows the life of a typical woman in the 1700's. Trying to transcribe Martha Ballards diary was IMPOSSIBLE for me. She doesnt seem as though she has had a lot of education. Her hand writing is VERY messy and a lot of her spelling and grammar is wrong. She is at home most of her days, and does not really go out unless its to go visit one of her lady friends or deliver a baby. She talks a lot about how her husband attended town meetings or goes out with his friends and such, but she has to stay home and make soap or stitch something together from my perspective this shows that woman were only capable to do the housework and were not expected have a good education or achieve anything great in life. But as I continued to read I realized that she was a very smart lady and was much respected in her community. She delivered so many babies I could not keep track. It was crazy to think that this lady dedicated her life to her town; People looked up to her and I admire her very much for that. Martha Ballard had seen a lot of tragedies; and one I think was very devastating was the Purrinton murders. Its sad to see a man kill his whole family without a second thought and the crazy part is its still going on to this day where people go on a crazy killing spree. I wonder though why he did it but I guess well never know. Also looking at the themes, you see that pre-marital pregnancy is actually accepted back then as long as the father takes responsibility of the child. Today having a baby before your married is accepted but frowned upon because the father most likely will leave (not in all cases). Going through Martha Ballards diary made me realize that sometimes history isnt as far away as it seems. The troubles that were going on back then are still occurring now and I didnt realize that until after I read this.

2 ). A. The male mid-wives were more professionally trained in there field and they used more medicine and tools when they performed which was not always the best thing for the patient. Also the males were mainly called in for the abnormal or high risk pregnancies. They worked very well and helped saved a couple mothers and babies in Marthas town. The female mid-wives were the most convenient to use for delivering the baby. They used a more comfortable setting and did not use special tools and gadgets for the birth. They were more accustomed to the normal births and did not tamper with the high risk ones. They used herbs and home-made remedies instead of medicine that the male mid-wives used.

I think that they should have provided education for women too so that they would be able to learn how to deliver the high risks births. It wasnt as convenient for the mother to send for another doctor when the female mid-wife should have just been able to do it herself. Also I dont think the men should have been using the sharp tools every time they did a birth. These tools most likely hurt the mother and affected her even after the delivery. The male mid-wives should have learned from the female mid-wives and vise versa so that each could do a delivery themselves and fewer lives would be lost.

2.) B. in the rape trial , Rebecca Foster accused Judge Joseph North and two other men of raping her. I believe there wasnt enough evidence for the jury to accuse Judge Joseph of rape and the only real evidence they had was word for word. Whether or not he raped her their was no real way to prove it back then and since it was a word for word case the judge would have won hands down. Back then it was a sexist community and the judge was very respected in his town and had many friends in the court room so he knew he would plead not guilty. If situations would have been different and the trial would have taken place today we would know the trial would have been fair for each person but for now I guess we will never know.

I think you took an intersting position on this case. Like you said, it was a sexist community back then, which means that no one would believe Mrs. Foster either way. But how can you say there wasn't enough evidence? I think alone the fact that Mrs. Foster became pregnant during the time her husband was away is evidence enough, as well as the fact that she confided these rapes with only one person.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

oh yeah, if you didn't know my last post/question was for rachel.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

joel the not so brave wrote:

1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.


         1. While browsing the website about Martha Ballards, I came across many interesting things. I had a first hand look at how a typical midwife lived during this period of time. I also learned that many woman were mostly self taught concerning English and grammar. She had a very interesting way in setting up her entries. It was interesting for me to examine history in this way because I got a first hand account of the events that took place. Yes they were from someone elses point of view and not mine, but it was from someones journal; thus it was only one persons perspective, not many, many historians filtering through the accounts that Martha witnessed.

2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis. a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

     2a. Woman had a much more practical view on midwifery due to experience. Woman know woman; they know how their bodies work and what is supposed to happen. Many woman who were midwifes had no formal education; they simply learned through trial and error. For example, if a teenage girl had 15 younger siblings and had helped deliver all of them, then she probably would be a very good midwife due to the fact that she had experience.
     Men, on the other hand, had what they liked to call 'education'. Yes most men were smarter than woman because they were offered more formal education. Most people who had medical education believed in only their medical education and not practical, natural processes. However, most of their education was flawed. Men will always be men. They love their toys. Back then, most men believed that their tools and technology automatically made them better. However, this is not the case. As Sarah Stone states, '. . . there are many sufferers, both mothers and children; yea, infants have been born alive, with their brains working out of their heads, occasioned by the too common use of instruments . . . ' By saying this she means that most male doctors (midwives) would just go in, do their business, and if anything went wrong, pretty much it would be 'God's will'. Men thought that their medical education gave them an advantage over woman who actually had practical experience and actually knew how a woman's body worked during pregnancy/labor/birth.
     Men, however, were sexist back in the 1700-1800s. They believed that since they had education, they were better than woman. In one of the comparisons, John Maubray states that basically that since men took classes on anatomy and health, that they knew more than woman did aobut their bodies. He believed that just because it was in a texbook or something (note writting by a man) that it was right, even though it probably wans't even close. However, woman actually had a better understanding about what is going on in a woman's body because it was happening or had happened to herself. Therefore, I believe that woman midwifes had a better grasp on delivering babies in a mor natural process.

2b. It appears that what little reliable evidence remains points to the fact that Rebecca Foster was indeed raped. The only real reliable source of evidence comes from Martha Ballard's diary. Even though Martha would have a bias in support of proving that Rebecca did not have an affair and claim it as rape due to their friendly relationship, it clearly states in the diary entries that Rebecca claimed the attacks done onto her just weeks after they happened. Now, back in the 1700-1800s there probably were no pregnancy tests except morning sickness or a lump in the stomach area. Meaning, Rebecca wouldn't have know that she was pregnant until a few months after, not just a few weeks.
   It also appears that no one, with maybe the excpetion of Martha, liked the Foster family. Therefore, it may appear to be logical that someone (or perhaps several someones) would rape her out of anger or hate. To get her pregnant so it would appear as if she had an affair with the judge so they (the Fosters) would lose their already low respect in the town. It seems, that all the evidence I gathered, that it is much more likely that Rebecca Foster was raped by someone to frame her in order to put yet another black mark up against the ex-minister's name.

I like your thought on how a motive for North's alleged rape was to degrade the Foster family even further. I hadn't even thought of that until now. I know I'm contradicting myself here, but what if North was caught in the act? Wouldn't that degrade him as well?

Date: Sep 8, 2008

1 When I began browsing and searching the diary I realized how similar this assignment is to my job, which includes reading and searching within whaling journals of the nineteenth century. This made transcribing and reading it slightly easier due to the fact I am quite used to the abbreviations and writing styles. Once I began to read the journal I also noticed how similar it is written to whaling journals, they both use the same basic format and mention some of the same information, such as the weather. Although much of her entries are similar in format to whaling journals, they are quite different in the way that Martha Ballard didnt keep a very neat journal, this was very surprising, but at the same time it wasnt, because she probably didnt plan on it being studied by people hundreds of years later.

2a From the readings I came to the conclusion, which many probably did as well, that women mid-wives were definately better suited and gentler. For one female midwives did not seem to have much trouble with the births unless something had happened unlike the men who used several instruments. http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/index.html The use of these instruments would cause, as Sarah Stone wrote, infants have been born alive, with their brains working out of their heads, occasioned by the too common use of instruments. The men seemed to be very quick to give new medicines and try new techniques which could get very risky and dangerous to the mother and the baby.

2b In the rape case I would have to believe Rebecca Foster. I came to this conclusion based on things: 1. Why would a woman in the 18th century ruin her husbands reputation as a minister and cause all the embarrassment associated with a rape. 2. Womens opinions and accusations were not highly regarded, therefore why would Foster make a fraudualent statement.
These stories remind me of the play Sweeney Todd, in the story a judge named Lord Turpin rapes the barbers wife, but there is no proof of this. This actually brings up another point that if you were to falsely accuse someone of rape and expect to benefit form it you wouldnt accuse a high ranking official. http://dohistory.org/two_stories/Official/ch00/index.html .

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Moncia! wrote:

joel the not so brave wrote:

1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.


         1. While browsing the website about Martha Ballards, I came across many interesting things. I had a first hand look at how a typical midwife lived during this period of time. I also learned that many woman were mostly self taught concerning English and grammar. She had a very interesting way in setting up her entries. It was interesting for me to examine history in this way because I got a first hand account of the events that took place. Yes they were from someone elses point of view and not mine, but it was from someones journal; thus it was only one persons perspective, not many, many historians filtering through the accounts that Martha witnessed.

2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis. a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

     2a. Woman had a much more practical view on midwifery due to experience. Woman know woman; they know how their bodies work and what is supposed to happen. Many woman who were midwifes had no formal education; they simply learned through trial and error. For example, if a teenage girl had 15 younger siblings and had helped deliver all of them, then she probably would be a very good midwife due to the fact that she had experience.
     Men, on the other hand, had what they liked to call 'education'. Yes most men were smarter than woman because they were offered more formal education. Most people who had medical education believed in only their medical education and not practical, natural processes. However, most of their education was flawed. Men will always be men. They love their toys. Back then, most men believed that their tools and technology automatically made them better. However, this is not the case. As Sarah Stone states, '. . . there are many sufferers, both mothers and children; yea, infants have been born alive, with their brains working out of their heads, occasioned by the too common use of instruments . . . ' By saying this she means that most male doctors (midwives) would just go in, do their business, and if anything went wrong, pretty much it would be 'God's will'. Men thought that their medical education gave them an advantage over woman who actually had practical experience and actually knew how a woman's body worked during pregnancy/labor/birth.
     Men, however, were sexist back in the 1700-1800s. They believed that since they had education, they were better than woman. In one of the comparisons, John Maubray states that basically that since men took classes on anatomy and health, that they knew more than woman did aobut their bodies. He believed that just because it was in a texbook or something (note writting by a man) that it was right, even though it probably wans't even close. However, woman actually had a better understanding about what is going on in a woman's body because it was happening or had happened to herself. Therefore, I believe that woman midwifes had a better grasp on delivering babies in a mor natural process.

2b. It appears that what little reliable evidence remains points to the fact that Rebecca Foster was indeed raped. The only real reliable source of evidence comes from Martha Ballard's diary. Even though Martha would have a bias in support of proving that Rebecca did not have an affair and claim it as rape due to their friendly relationship, it clearly states in the diary entries that Rebecca claimed the attacks done onto her just weeks after they happened. Now, back in the 1700-1800s there probably were no pregnancy tests except morning sickness or a lump in the stomach area. Meaning, Rebecca wouldn't have know that she was pregnant until a few months after, not just a few weeks.
   It also appears that no one, with maybe the excpetion of Martha, liked the Foster family. Therefore, it may appear to be logical that someone (or perhaps several someones) would rape her out of anger or hate. To get her pregnant so it would appear as if she had an affair with the judge so they (the Fosters) would lose their already low respect in the town. It seems, that all the evidence I gathered, that it is much more likely that Rebecca Foster was raped by someone to frame her in order to put yet another black mark up against the ex-minister's name.

I like your thought on how a motive for North's alleged rape was to degrade the Foster family even further. I hadn't even thought of that until now. I know I'm contradicting myself here, but what if North was caught in the act? Wouldn't that degrade him as well?

Yes it would, and She would have had justice. But that would not mean her already discredited name would be made any better.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

mre wrote:

Source: http://dohistory.org/, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife/index.html

Background: Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman whose daily diary, once discovered and studied, became a fascinating window to the events and issues of her time. She was born in 1735 and died in 1812. In that time, for most of her life, she lived in Maine and served her small town as a midwife.  Over the course of decades, she delivered hundreds and hundreds of babies. Her diary offers her perspective on battles, betrayal, rape, love, work, family and more. Passed down generation by generation, her diaries were finally discovered and studied by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published in a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwifes Tale.

Assignment:
1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.
2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

Evaluation: You will receive 20 points for your description of Martha Ballards Diary Online and 30 points for each brief essay you wrote on Doing History (based on the quality of essays written see rubric), and finally you will receive 10 points for a question, comment or suggestion asked to a fellow student and 10 points for your response to a students post.

-- Edited by mre at 11:07, 2008-09-05

1. When looking through the diary I had trouble trying to read what she had wrote. The hand writing was messy and very difficult to make sence of. The vocabulary of back then was very different and spelling and grammer have changed a lot since her time period. Transcribing the diary was almost impossible seeing as I could only make out 1 out of every 10 of her words. This makes me wonder how the spelling and vocabulary have changed so much over time and if they are going to continue to change a great amount into the future.

2.A. Taking a position on a side is difficult even with all the evidence given. Some evidence contradicts itself when hearing it from two different sides. It sounds to be that male midwives are the more responsible ones and are always able to be free for when it comes time to help. But when you are looking from the womans view the male would never be available to assist making the woman the better choice. In my opinion it sounds to be that a woman midwife would be the better choice seeing as the male midwives appear to charge more including lots of fees. It also seems that male midwives would have more obligations leaving the woman midwives more available and the better choice.

2.B. Looking back through the evidence it appears that Rebecca Foster was raped by Judge North. Judge North appeared to be a violet man. When he was out of town his wife told stories of how he would beat her. If he would beat his wife wouldn't seem he would do worse such as rape. Since Mrs. Foster was pregnant when her husband returned home it shows that she would have had an affair or have been raped. I believe that Mrs. Foster was raped by Judge North but I can not see enough evidence to say she was also raped by two other men as well. Judge North must have been guilty or else why would he flee after his sessions hearings unless he was trying to escape something. Why else would Mrs. Foster say she had been raped if she wasn't, what would should have to gain and the following quote shows how violent Judge North is.

"Said that Said North had abused her wors than any other person in the world had, but Shee believd it was best for her to keep her troubles to her Selfe as mutch as Shee Could till her Husband returnd which" Martha's Story, chapter 9.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

If somehow Judge North was not guilty then why would someone cry rape? I also agree with James that the legal system is unjust.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

If somehow Judge North was not guilty then why would someone cry rape? I also agree with James that the legal system is unjust.

That was me sorry about the anonymous thing.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

mre wrote:

Source: http://dohistory.org/, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/midwife/index.html

Background: Martha Ballard is a remarkable woman whose daily diary, once discovered and studied, became a fascinating window to the events and issues of her time. She was born in 1735 and died in 1812. In that time, for most of her life, she lived in Maine and served her small town as a midwife.  Over the course of decades, she delivered hundreds and hundreds of babies. Her diary offers her perspective on battles, betrayal, rape, love, work, family and more. Passed down generation by generation, her diaries were finally discovered and studied by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published in a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwifes Tale.

Assignment:
1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.
2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

Evaluation: You will receive 20 points for your description of Martha Ballards Diary Online and 30 points for each brief essay you wrote on Doing History (based on the quality of essays written see rubric), and finally you will receive 10 points for a question, comment or suggestion asked to a fellow student and 10 points for your response to a students post.

-- Edited by mre at 11:07, 2008-09-05

1.) In surfing the the diary of Martha Ballard, at first glace you think whoo an old dirty piece of paper with some scribbles on it. then once you acctually read some of what you can you find out that its acctually pritty interesting. like how she was in poverty and her nabors helped each other and that the diary second as an account book, and how scarlet fevor was going around.

2.)
     A.) I think in the arrguement over male or female mid-wives i think it shouldn't really make much of a difference as long as the baby is ok and the mommy is ok and there are no problems then everyone is happy and we're good

     B.) I think in the case of rape that there was no real way to tell who to believe the court was basicly rigged. it was a male based court and the women of the time were not taken ciriously so its hard to say

Date: Sep 8, 2008

joel the not so brave wrote:

this is in responce to greg's essay about midwives. so, i guess my question is if you were back in the 1700-1800 and you were given the choice of a male or a female midwife, and you had complete acsess to both, which would you choose?

If for some reason my wife had a preference, whatever she wanted, considering that I'm not the one giving birth and in the end, it's up to the person who is. If she didn't have a preference, if I knew for a fact one of the local midwives was too quick to use their instruments, as the sources I read said some midwives from either sex did, the one that wasn't. If they're equally competent, the female midwife if she follows the trend I read about and charges less. Just like picking doctors today, it's all about that butter zone of high competence, low cost.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Previous Anon. was me, I guess I need to get a bit more used to this forum...

Date: Sep 8, 2008

joel the not so brave wrote:

okay did anyone else have a hard time making heads or tails of the rape story thingy? or was it just me and my lack of iron and/or sleeping? i dunno. maybe i should take more naps during school, like first thing A block, right?

i definitely had a hard time picking a position on the rape story too just because it's always a "he said, she said" type of thing, but sleeping might definitely improve judgement? haha

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

If somehow Judge North was not guilty then why would someone cry rape? I also agree with James that the legal system is unjust.

A cry of rape would be the scapegoat from some other event that could have happened. Like i believe there was an affair between the two and she did not want to look bad when her husband comes home, so whats better than to say she was raped?

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Laura wrote:

joel the not so brave wrote:

okay did anyone else have a hard time making heads or tails of the rape story thingy? or was it just me and my lack of iron and/or sleeping? i dunno. maybe i should take more naps during school, like first thing A block, right?

i definitely had a hard time picking a position on the rape story too just because it's always a "he said, she said" type of thing, but sleeping might definitely improve judgement? haha

Seriously, I struggled with choosing a side fr that story. I agree with the
sleeping idea though haha

Date: Sep 8, 2008

1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.

Trying to read this diary definitely wasn't easy. I have a lot of respect for the historians who transcribed Martha Ballard's diary. Because she spelled her words phonetically, it makes the diary harder to read. It did get easier after a while though, after I looked at the page that showed her common abbreviations for words. The story of The Purrinton Murders definitely frightened me, and I found the Premarital Pregnancy section interesting as well as surprising. All the stories and themes were interesting, but I know I could never have read her handwriting myself. Writing down the babies she delivered in the left hand margin was a clever way to keep track of her midwifery work. Without the website's help with transcribing these stories and events, I don't think I would have ever been able to know what Martha Ballard wrote in her diary.

2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis.
a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

Female midwives were more traditional in bringing children into the world. Their methods were simple and natural, without the use of drugs or complicated tools. It seems like the male midwives were so caught up in using all of their drugs and fancy tools, that they didn't realize most of the time a natural birth was best. Martha Ballard stated in one of her diary entries "...Dr. Page who gave gave MY patient drops of Laudanum which put her into such a stupor her pains (which were regular & promising) in a manner stopt till near night when shee pukt & they returned & she was delivd..." indicating that she felt he was interfering with her practice by giving her patient drugs unnecessarily. She is implying that once her patient threw up Dr. Page's drugs, she could have a normal birth. Many would be led to think that a male midwife would be more qualified than a female due to their higher education and certain medical degrees, but by believing this, one is underestimating the knowledge obtained by the female midwives. Dr. Page was indeed a good physician; when Martha could no longer walk because of a misplaced bone in her toe, he set the bone in Martha Ballard's foot back in place so that she could walk again. As you can see, males did make fine doctors, but it doesn't make them better midwives. I firmly believe that females made better midwives.

http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/interpreting.html

http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/drbenpage/157_page_ads/157_p1_img.html

b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

This is a very controversial issue. As I was researching the case and looking at both sides, I started to form my opinions... But then I found myself changing them as well. At first I thought Judge North was definitely guilty. Then I thought twice and formed an opinion similar to Laura's. It made sense that she would accuse him of rape after an affair that led to pregnancy. It's the perfect cover up. But then I started to think: Why Judge North? Why not some other random guy who it would be easy to accuse, who would definitely get convicted? Rebecca Foster confided in Martha about the attacks before she could have known she was even pregnant, which made Martha a very valuable witness. Because of this, I do in fact believe that Judge North was guilty. Judge North also fled just before he was ordered to be put in jail after the Sessions hearing. If he wasn't guilty, why would he feel that he had to flee? To me, it is quite obvious that he committed the crime.

http://dohistory.org/two_stories/contents.html

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Aaron wrote:

Laura wrote:

joel the not so brave wrote:

okay did anyone else have a hard time making heads or tails of the rape story thingy? or was it just me and my lack of iron and/or sleeping? i dunno. maybe i should take more naps during school, like first thing A block, right?

i definitely had a hard time picking a position on the rape story too just because it's always a "he said, she said" type of thing, but sleeping might definitely improve judgement? haha

Seriously, I struggled with choosing a side fr that story. I agree with the
sleeping idea though haha

Not gonna lie, this whole thing was difficult for me as well. sleep<3

Date: Sep 8, 2008

1) Looking at Martha Ballards diary made me think about a lot of different things regarding history, how it is told, and how it is made. I was astounded that she had written thousands and thousands of entries over a span of 27 year that not only kept a personal record of her day-to-day life, but also acted as an account book for all the deliveries she assisted. The system of how she wrote is so fascinating. She created her own abbreviations for words she used more commonly. For example, she wrote the word doctor like doctr. I found this amusing because it is so similar to how we abbreviate commonly used words today when we text or IM. We get lazy, so we take out a couple of vowels or two. Her system of accounting on the left, writing details of the day in the center, and summarizing on the right is very bright, but I found it extremely difficult to read and comprehend, providing me with the up-most respect toward Robert and Cynthia McCausland, the couple who patiently transcribed the diary. Using the Magic Lens I learned about a woman who was harshly abused and I tried to transcribe a passage about what a doctor used on her patient who was in labor. My favorite part of this whole exercise was reading the first word of every entry. Clear. Cloudy. Martha would first describe the weather with a word or two and then continue on with the events of her day. This was consistent throughout everything I read. I guess I just found it sort of funny that a diary that provides us with so much insight into the life of a midwife and the times she lived in included such basics as the weather for every single day. Examining history this way was interesting because from this one womans diary, its possible to learn about the entire town. From her diary, I learned about premarital pregnancy and how in most cases, couples whose first child was conceived out of wedlock would get married. This was extremely personal for Martha because her own son Jonathan impregnated a woman named Sally Pierce. Issues like this written by someone who really saw it all helps shine a brighter light on the past.

2)a At a time where male midwives were something new and not as customary, well-practiced woman and men from either side of the issue voiced their opinions. After looking at pieces from John Maubrays book The Female Physician and Sarah Stones A complete Practice of Midwifery, it seems to be that the study of human anatomy is the major difference between the training of a female midwife and a male one. John Maubray quotes Has absolutely perfected the work begun by others; for their rules are firmly founded on anatomy http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/070_maubray/070_p169b_img.html#pagetop. If the difference is that only men can study anatomy and the other cannot, it puts woman at a disadvantage. I understand why woman would be annoyed by male midwives if they were using methods the woman didnt know due to the males study of anatomy, yet, I dont see any problem with having male midwives if they can build their knowledge on what female mid wives already do and help with tougher births. Male midwives using birth instruments when theyre not needed is both mentioned by Sarah Stone and Martha Ballad. As Sarah Stone says, I am certain, where twenty woman are delivered with instruments (which is now become a common practice that nineteen of them might be delivered without if not the twentieth, as will appear in my observations. http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/097_stone/097_pxivb_img.html#pagetop. Martha Ballard said. Calld Dr Page who gave my Patient [20] drops of Laudanum which put her into Such a Stupor her pains (which were regular & promising) http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/makingsense.html. He was young and not as experienced as Martha but his method was not wrong, it was just different. It good if you can apply the new to the old to expand a womans options for how she can give birth more safely and/or less painfully.

b. The story of Rebecca Fosters rape developed from two sources. After looking at Martha Ballards diary entries and the records of the supreme judicial, I believe that Rebecca Foster truly was raped. First, Martha tried to dissuade Rebecca Foster from going to court with the charges because it would Expose & perhaps ruin her Self if Shee Did. http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch11/index.html. Rebecca did anyway. Why would she do this if it were all a lie? What could she gain from court in a male dominated society? Secondly, Martha recounts that Judge North said he believd mrs Foster was treated as Shee Complains but he Should Deny the Charg Exhibeted against him. http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch11/index.html. This statement basically says that he did it but doesnt want to admit it. He seals the deal by running away before being ordered to go to jail. With all the problems in town with Mr. Foster, I believe she could have been raped 3 times in one week from 3 different people. It seems from the Hallowells December town records that the minister was extremely disliked. This could have been a cruel, nasty, last resort to drive the Fosters out of town without having to deal with his haggling and debt.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Thanks to Jessica and Shorey for the compliment on my work.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

1.
Reading a diary of this extent is truely hard to do and it is remarkable that historians could even read the unlegible hand writing. But i guess it payed off because you get the general view of what it is like to be a mid wife in the 1700s and i think that the fact that she delivered over 800 children is amazing. Another thing i discovered from this was the fact of how poorly educated everyone was in this age. Women, never mind the hardships and the massive amount of work they had to do also had to learn to read and write themselves. It also describes how the life of a women was waiting at home for the husband to come home as he does as he pleases , women never really stepped out of the house unless something occures like in ballards situation a child birth, also they basically just did chores and clean the house but that about all. It seems like women never change just kidding but every thing that goes on in this diary seems just the opposite of today, today women control the men , men do chores , and men deliver babys. Alot has changed in 200 years. Also decivering this was a challenge but worthwhile thing to do and hopefully me learning what its like to view history in this manner will pay off.

2. A.

Female Mid wifes are the better choice in this time due to the fact that they were cheaper and can get the job done just as easily using the skills that both men and women have. Saying that just because a man is a man and he is better because he is better trained QOUTE:"Men . . . being better versed in Anatomy, better acquainted with Physical Helps, and commonly endued with greater presence of Mind, have been always found readier or discreeter, to devise something new, and to give quicker Relief in Cases if difficult or preternatural births, than common midwives generally understand."
That is completly hippocritical and rediculous the sex midwive does not determine how welll the birth is going to go. Defects still happen today and in this time people would always go with the wierdest explainations for wrong doings. I think it goes completely by that persons knowledge of delivering a baby and males and females should not be conflicting with each other in such a way as to say one sex is better because they are what they are. But females are better for one reason and one reason only less money and thats what i would do back in this time.

B. The two stories conflict in many ways but one thing is sraight it is a women versus a judge which is power over minority no matter what happens in this case the judge will win the flawed court system helped to for Ballard it was a loss but for the eyes of historians it shows you what the early court of the U.S was like.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Moncia! wrote:

joel the not so brave wrote:

1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.


         1. While browsing the website about Martha Ballards, I came across many interesting things. I had a first hand look at how a typical midwife lived during this period of time. I also learned that many woman were mostly self taught concerning English and grammar. She had a very interesting way in setting up her entries. It was interesting for me to examine history in this way because I got a first hand account of the events that took place. Yes they were from someone elses point of view and not mine, but it was from someones journal; thus it was only one persons perspective, not many, many historians filtering through the accounts that Martha witnessed.

2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis. a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

     2a. Woman had a much more practical view on midwifery due to experience. Woman know woman; they know how their bodies work and what is supposed to happen. Many woman who were midwifes had no formal education; they simply learned through trial and error. For example, if a teenage girl had 15 younger siblings and had helped deliver all of them, then she probably would be a very good midwife due to the fact that she had experience.
     Men, on the other hand, had what they liked to call 'education'. Yes most men were smarter than woman because they were offered more formal education. Most people who had medical education believed in only their medical education and not practical, natural processes. However, most of their education was flawed. Men will always be men. They love their toys. Back then, most men believed that their tools and technology automatically made them better. However, this is not the case. As Sarah Stone states, '. . . there are many sufferers, both mothers and children; yea, infants have been born alive, with their brains working out of their heads, occasioned by the too common use of instruments . . . ' By saying this she means that most male doctors (midwives) would just go in, do their business, and if anything went wrong, pretty much it would be 'God's will'. Men thought that their medical education gave them an advantage over woman who actually had practical experience and actually knew how a woman's body worked during pregnancy/labor/birth.
     Men, however, were sexist back in the 1700-1800s. They believed that since they had education, they were better than woman. In one of the comparisons, John Maubray states that basically that since men took classes on anatomy and health, that they knew more than woman did aobut their bodies. He believed that just because it was in a texbook or something (note writting by a man) that it was right, even though it probably wans't even close. However, woman actually had a better understanding about what is going on in a woman's body because it was happening or had happened to herself. Therefore, I believe that woman midwifes had a better grasp on delivering babies in a mor natural process.

2b. It appears that what little reliable evidence remains points to the fact that Rebecca Foster was indeed raped. The only real reliable source of evidence comes from Martha Ballard's diary. Even though Martha would have a bias in support of proving that Rebecca did not have an affair and claim it as rape due to their friendly relationship, it clearly states in the diary entries that Rebecca claimed the attacks done onto her just weeks after they happened. Now, back in the 1700-1800s there probably were no pregnancy tests except morning sickness or a lump in the stomach area. Meaning, Rebecca wouldn't have know that she was pregnant until a few months after, not just a few weeks.
   It also appears that no one, with maybe the excpetion of Martha, liked the Foster family. Therefore, it may appear to be logical that someone (or perhaps several someones) would rape her out of anger or hate. To get her pregnant so it would appear as if she had an affair with the judge so they (the Fosters) would lose their already low respect in the town. It seems, that all the evidence I gathered, that it is much more likely that Rebecca Foster was raped by someone to frame her in order to put yet another black mark up against the ex-minister's name.

I like your thought on how a motive for North's alleged rape was to degrade the Foster family even further. I hadn't even thought of that until now. I know I'm contradicting myself here, but what if North was caught in the act? Wouldn't that degrade him as well?

         Yes it would, and She would have had justice. But that would not mean her already discredited name would be made any better.

wow I never thought of that either, I like Joel's idea as well. I feel like I should have read more people's posts before starting my essay, there's so many different ways to look at the case.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

The entire rape thing wass super hard to decide. I mean we just don't enough information and there are some pretty big holes. It reminds me of this movie called the 10th circle based on the book by jodie picoult about a rape case. It ended up that she had been raped even though some clues in the beginning pointed othewise. A life time movie, of course. :)

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Victoria wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Moncia! wrote:

joel the not so brave wrote:

1)      Go to Martha Ballards Diary Online (http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html), go through the links of a) Exploring the Diary and b) Practice Reading the Diary and write a paragraph concerning your experiences browsing, searching, exploring themes, transcribing and more. Describe what it is like to examine history directly in this way and explain what you learned from her diary entries.


         1. While browsing the website about Martha Ballards, I came across many interesting things. I had a first hand look at how a typical midwife lived during this period of time. I also learned that many woman were mostly self taught concerning English and grammar. She had a very interesting way in setting up her entries. It was interesting for me to examine history in this way because I got a first hand account of the events that took place. Yes they were from someone elses point of view and not mine, but it was from someones journal; thus it was only one persons perspective, not many, many historians filtering through the accounts that Martha witnessed.

2)      Go to Doing History (http://dohistory.org/DHindex.html), click on both Martha Ballard and Man-Midwife and One Rape-Two Stories, read (or skim) the accounts, and then add your own analysis. a.       In the case of the comparison between female and male midwives, read through the links and documents provided and then write a brief essay analyzing the two occupations. Take a position in your essay and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.
b.      In the case of the rape story, write a brief essay on your analysis of the evidence presented. Who do you believe? Take a position and defend it with evidence. Cite your evidence to support your position.

     2a. Woman had a much more practical view on midwifery due to experience. Woman know woman; they know how their bodies work and what is supposed to happen. Many woman who were midwifes had no formal education; they simply learned through trial and error. For example, if a teenage girl had 15 younger siblings and had helped deliver all of them, then she probably would be a very good midwife due to the fact that she had experience.
     Men, on the other hand, had what they liked to call 'education'. Yes most men were smarter than woman because they were offered more formal education. Most people who had medical education believed in only their medical education and not practical, natural processes. However, most of their education was flawed. Men will always be men. They love their toys. Back then, most men believed that their tools and technology automatically made them better. However, this is not the case. As Sarah Stone states, '. . . there are many sufferers, both mothers and children; yea, infants have been born alive, with their brains working out of their heads, occasioned by the too common use of instruments . . . ' By saying this she means that most male doctors (midwives) would just go in, do their business, and if anything went wrong, pretty much it would be 'God's will'. Men thought that their medical education gave them an advantage over woman who actually had practical experience and actually knew how a woman's body worked during pregnancy/labor/birth.
     Men, however, were sexist back in the 1700-1800s. They believed that since they had education, they were better than woman. In one of the comparisons, John Maubray states that basically that since men took classes on anatomy and health, that they knew more than woman did aobut their bodies. He believed that just because it was in a texbook or something (note writting by a man) that it was right, even though it probably wans't even close. However, woman actually had a better understanding about what is going on in a woman's body because it was happening or had happened to herself. Therefore, I believe that woman midwifes had a better grasp on delivering babies in a mor natural process.

2b. It appears that what little reliable evidence remains points to the fact that Rebecca Foster was indeed raped. The only real reliable source of evidence comes from Martha Ballard's diary. Even though Martha would have a bias in support of proving that Rebecca did not have an affair and claim it as rape due to their friendly relationship, it clearly states in the diary entries that Rebecca claimed the attacks done onto her just weeks after they happened. Now, back in the 1700-1800s there probably were no pregnancy tests except morning sickness or a lump in the stomach area. Meaning, Rebecca wouldn't have know that she was pregnant until a few months after, not just a few weeks.
   It also appears that no one, with maybe the excpetion of Martha, liked the Foster family. Therefore, it may appear to be logical that someone (or perhaps several someones) would rape her out of anger or hate. To get her pregnant so it would appear as if she had an affair with the judge so they (the Fosters) would lose their already low respect in the town. It seems, that all the evidence I gathered, that it is much more likely that Rebecca Foster was raped by someone to frame her in order to put yet another black mark up against the ex-minister's name.

I like your thought on how a motive for North's alleged rape was to degrade the Foster family even further. I hadn't even thought of that until now. I know I'm contradicting myself here, but what if North was caught in the act? Wouldn't that degrade him as well?

         Yes it would, and She would have had justice. But that would not mean her already discredited name would be made any better.

wow I never thought of that either, I like Joel's idea as well. I feel like I should have read more people's posts before starting my essay, there's so many different ways to look at the case.

Unfortunately when i wrote mine there were only a few up. hmm

Date: Sep 8, 2008

becca wrote:

The entire rape thing wass super hard to decide. I mean we just don't enough information and there are some pretty big holes. It reminds me of this movie called the 10th circle based on the book by jodie picoult about a rape case. It ended up that she had been raped even though some clues in the beginning pointed othewise. A life time movie, of course. :)

LOL@ Lifetime Movies. It's a women's channel but it's all rape and domestic violence, isn't it?

Date: Sep 8, 2008

ooops. my blurb was in response to what joel wrote wayyy up somewhere on this chain of essays/ comments.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

yup. and teen pregnacies. My friend convinced me into watching it. sort of a mistake. It's like 45 min. worth of movie and a half an hour worth of commericals

Date: Sep 8, 2008

What if the Judge wasnt a judge and maybe there was more evidence how do you think it would have turned out then ?

Date: Sep 8, 2008

the last one was mine and i agree with joel deciding sides is very tough and i need sleep too.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

yup. and teen pregnacies. My friend convinced me into watching it. sort of a mistake. It's like 45 min. worth of movie and a half an hour worth of commericals

You'd think a network fro women would have more on powerful women than they did on stories of the physical and psychological destruction of them. It's BET "empowering" blacks by shooting out every possible negative stereotype 24/7.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

TaranlikeAcid wrote:

G. Larsen wrote:

2b. I believe that Rebecca Foster was viciously assaulted by Judge North, but that he did not rape her. The Fosters were all but run out of town because of Rev. Isaac Foster's theological differences with the people whose tax money they lived on. Folio 91 of the town records, which recants the meeting of December 18, 1788, states that the town voted to ban Rev. Foster from preaching in the town meeting house.
Martha Ballard wrote in her diary on October 1, 1789, "mr Savage here, informs that mrs Foster has Sworn a Rape on a number of men among whome is Judge North. Shocking indeed." (emphasis mine) She later seems to have changed her story to only being raped by Judge North. It is not a matter of question that the Foster home was assaulted while Isaac was away. It is also clear from their decision to ban him from preaching that he was not well-liked in the town. Judge North probably fled because he feared that the fact he assaulted Mrs. Foster could have been bent to include rape during the assault. It seems to me that Mrs. Foster was bitter that her husband was scorned by the townspeople and attempted to use the assaults to attempt to smear town officials' reputations in revenge.

In response to Walter's comment about Rebecca not having a motive, I think she could have been bitter over the town shunning her husband and tried to smear town officials using her allegations and the known fact that her home was attacked.

Did anyone else think the Fosters could have felt angry at the townspeople? I'm looking at the previous responses and not seeing anyone else with that idea.

Greg i do think they would be bitter that the townspeople shunned she and her husband, and that could be her motive for accusing North. But, that could also be reason to believe that she was assaulted and raped, assaulting her could have been the last attempt at running them out of town, the rape shaming her and degrading her to the point that she would flee.

Taran and Greg have a good point here. The rape could have been a last ditch effort of the Judge North in particular to send them out of town by shameing the wife, but also supporting other peoples opinions it could have only been assault and not rape.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

1. I found exploring the diary to be quite interesting. It gave first hand accounts to things very important to that town's history. Things such as The Purrington murders, in which Captain Purrington killed his wife and six children before committing suicide, and the Scarlet fever epidemic of 1787. Also it was interesting to see the public's views of things such as premarital pregnancy, which surprisingly was not frowned upon as long as the child married the mother or payed child support.

To me, transcribing the diary was very difficult, but also very interesting. It made me appreciate the work of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich much, much more. I see now just how exciting, and sometimes frustrating it would have been to decipher the writings of Martha Ballard.

2a. Many arguments supporting female midwives stated that it was more natural and that females could be far more caring and nurturing than males. Elizabeth Nihell made a strong point, saying, "I know myself one of this last trade [pork butchers] who, after passing half his life in stuffing sausages, is turned an intrepid physician and man-midwife." This quote was used to show the methods of the male mid-wife. Also, Sarah Stone wrote, " . . . there are many sufferers, both mothers and children; yea, infants have been born alive, with their brains working out of their heads, occasioned by the too common use of instruments . . . "This shows that male mid-wives were often fond of using instruments to "help" the child during long pregnancies. This, unfortunately, often resulted in the injury or death in child or mother.

On October 10^th, 1794, Martha Ballard helped to deliver the first-born son of Tabitha and Henry Sewell. Apparently, the Sewalls had become alarmed at either the length or pain level of the birth, and called in a male mid-wife to help. This offended Martha, who felt the birth was going well. The male mid-wife, Dr. Benjamin Page, administered drugs to the mother, which ceased the pain temporarily. Martha felt this only delayed the birthing process until, eventually, the drugs were vomited up and the labor continued normally. I feel this is an excellent example to how the methods of male mid-wives were often unnecessary. It also shows how some parents still called upon them for advice.

Due to the time period, with males still being considered the superior sex, many families saw the idea of a male mid-wife exciting. It was a way to bring the "superior education" of the male sex to the birthing process. And as for their methods; many things in medicine are trial and error. I feel that the methods of male mid-wives were before their time and therefore were not necessary in most cases. I would've stayed with the female mid-wives.

2b. I strongly believe that Rebecca Foster was raped by Judge North. It is a fact that at that point in history, many rapes were not reported because it could ruin a person's reputation, and because it was likely that the case would not appear in court. Also, the Fosters were not well liked in the town of Hallowell. Another reason I believe Judge North raped Mrs. Foster is that he knew that Rev. Foster would be out of town during August and had a perfect opportunity. He was a well respected figure in the community and knew that his power and influence would keep him out of trouble. He had nothing to lose.

Also, Rebecca confided the information to Martha just weeks after the attacks. Why would she lie at that point? No one had to know of her ordeal and the whole thing could be forgotten. However, Rebecca turned out to be pregnant. Telling Martha of her ordeal may have saved her reputation. Had Rebecca told Martha after she discovered she was pregnant, it would have seemed as if she was covering up an affair. But, by telling someone she was raped before she knew she was pregnant, she silenced any accusations of unfaithfulness to her husband.

It is no surprise that Judge North received a verdict of not guilty. At that time, women were not allowed to serve on juries. However, the evidence strongly suggests that he was guilty, and I, too, believe he did in fact rape Rebecca Foster.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Joel the not so brave: Good point in saying that Rebecca Foster could have been raped out of hate. It certainly wouldnt have made her any more popular.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

=Monica! wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

1. In Martha Ballard's Diary it shows the life of a typical woman in the 1700's. Trying to transcribe Martha Ballards diary was IMPOSSIBLE for me. She doesnt seem as though she has had a lot of education. Her hand writing is VERY messy and a lot of her spelling and grammar is wrong. She is at home most of her days, and does not really go out unless its to go visit one of her lady friends or deliver a baby. She talks a lot about how her husband attended town meetings or goes out with his friends and such, but she has to stay home and make soap or stitch something together from my perspective this shows that woman were only capable to do the housework and were not expected have a good education or achieve anything great in life. But as I continued to read I realized that she was a very smart lady and was much respected in her community. She delivered so many babies I could not keep track. It was crazy to think that this lady dedicated her life to her town; People looked up to her and I admire her very much for that. Martha Ballard had seen a lot of tragedies; and one I think was very devastating was the Purrinton murders. Its sad to see a man kill his whole family without a second thought and the crazy part is its still going on to this day where people go on a crazy killing spree. I wonder though why he did it but I guess well never know. Also looking at the themes, you see that pre-marital pregnancy is actually accepted back then as long as the father takes responsibility of the child. Today having a baby before your married is accepted but frowned upon because the father most likely will leave (not in all cases). Going through Martha Ballards diary made me realize that sometimes history isnt as far away as it seems. The troubles that were going on back then are still occurring now and I didnt realize that until after I read this.

2 ). A. The male mid-wives were more professionally trained in there field and they used more medicine and tools when they performed which was not always the best thing for the patient. Also the males were mainly called in for the abnormal or high risk pregnancies. They worked very well and helped saved a couple mothers and babies in Marthas town. The female mid-wives were the most convenient to use for delivering the baby. They used a more comfortable setting and did not use special tools and gadgets for the birth. They were more accustomed to the normal births and did not tamper with the high risk ones. They used herbs and home-made remedies instead of medicine that the male mid-wives used.

I think that they should have provided education for women too so that they would be able to learn how to deliver the high risks births. It wasnt as convenient for the mother to send for another doctor when the female mid-wife should have just been able to do it herself. Also I dont think the men should have been using the sharp tools every time they did a birth. These tools most likely hurt the mother and affected her even after the delivery. The male mid-wives should have learned from the female mid-wives and vise versa so that each could do a delivery themselves and fewer lives would be lost.

2.) B. in the rape trial , Rebecca Foster accused Judge Joseph North and two other men of raping her. I believe there wasnt enough evidence for the jury to accuse Judge Joseph of rape and the only real evidence they had was word for word. Whether or not he raped her their was no real way to prove it back then and since it was a word for word case the judge would have won hands down. Back then it was a sexist community and the judge was very respected in his town and had many friends in the court room so he knew he would plead not guilty. If situations would have been different and the trial would have taken place today we would know the trial would have been fair for each person but for now I guess we will never know.

I think you took an intersting position on this case. Like you said, it was a sexist community back then, which means that no one would believe Mrs. Foster either way. But how can you say there wasn't enough evidence? I think alone the fact that Mrs. Foster became pregnant during the time her husband was away is evidence enough, as well as the fact that she confided these rapes with only one person.

Monica, you have a very good point here. How could she have gotten pregnant if she wasn't raped? But then again, she could have been having an affair too, that would explain getting pregnant while her husband was away as well.

I really have no clue where I stand on this thing, since so many people have come up with good points and arguements. hmm

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Jessica: I agree in saying that both a male and female mid-wife would have been beneficial to any birth at the time, with males simply there to step in if anything went wrong.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Well, it's more Taran's point than mine, I argued assault-but-not-rape in my essay but it certainly would make sense.

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Assignment #2 Ryan Santos
9/7/08

1. Examining Martha Ballards diary was probably the hardest thing I have had to read in all my years of reading. Although it was hard to read, the transcribing was a fun way to try and find out what was written by Martha. Marthas diary gives us a lot of information about different things such as premarital pregnancy, the health care, and the hardships during that time. If I hadnt read about the premarital pregnancy I wouldve still thought that it was looked down upon like it somehow is today. When I read the diary I felt some sort a relief, because I could believe the information. Sometimes I read history books and I feel like the information is false.

2. A) Female and male midwives worked differently. The female midwives relied on a natural pregnancy compared to the males who preferred using instruments and medicines. I could see the reason for the use of forceps and such when an abnormal pregnancy is occurring like in William Smellies point of view (A Collection of Cases and Observations in Midwifery, Vol. II, London, 1754), but some male midwives used them for normal occasions. For example, when Tabitha Sewall was in labor she was in a regular pattern. When Doctor Page came he gave Martha Ballards patient (Tabitha) 20 drops of Laudanum which stopped the regular flow of the pregnancy but then continued again after she vomited from taking the Laudanum. From what Martha wrote in her diary on October 10, 1794 it seems like she was angry at the fact that Dr. Page had come and interrupt the natural pregnancy. Thus, leading to my belief that the female midwives who followed the natural way of giving birth were more qualified than the male midwives who used instruments and medicines on pregnancies that could happen without abnormally.

http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/diary10-94/makingsense.html

B) From the evidence given I came up with the belief that there was an affair between Judge North and Rebecca Foster. It would seem like the perfect fit. At the time her husband was out of town which would make it easy for an affair. Then things went bad, Rebecca was pregnant. There was no way she could have gotten pregnant without her husband being home so she would try to make herself look like the victim by crying rape. By doing so this she thought that her family would not be looked down upon even more so than before.

http://dohistory.org/two_stories/MBstory/ch13/index.html

http://dohistory.org/two_stories/contents.html

Date: Sep 8, 2008

Martha Ballard:

1) At first I thought this assignment was hard to understand,but after reading Martha Ballards diary, the assignment seemed easy! After reading through the diary to understand the wording better I realized how amazing Martha's life was. At first it seemed pretty ordinary, but delievering over 800 babies into the world is nothing ordinary.
   After reading the diary I gained a great respect toward Martha and also for the historians who interpreted her diary. It must of took several of hours and a whole lot of patience. Even though if we spelt the way Martha did now of days we would get zero's on our spelling tests. I thought she was very intelligent even by the way she spelt phonetically and how she abrivated her words it might not be right but I think it shows that she tried and it shows.

2)
     a) A mid-wife to me either it be a man or woman is more than just a job, its a way of life. Around the time period of Martha Ballard it was a normal thing to see a woman as a mid-wife and some males appearing later on.
         Although some may say that men are better in anatomy.(http://dohistory.org/man-midwife/controversy/index.html) I disagree with that statement. I believe it comes easier to woman, more natural. A good majority of people say that women tend to be more caring and patient and it comes through our nature. I think that it is easier for a woman mid-wife to relate to her patient because she probably went through giving birth to a child where as a man never has. To me I think a the woman would rush to conclusions where as most men do. I say that because when Tabitha Sewalls was feeling some painful contractions,Benjamin Page was the one who recomended drugs as a relief to her. During the time the drugs were in her system there was no sign of a soon delievery. After a bucket of vomit and the drugs werent in her system was when the delievery process came into play. That could of happened by chance but I believe labor is a natural expierence and drugs are used for the last option, but to others its different. So a male mid-wife there just incase a complication does occur wouldn't hurt.

b) My honest thought about the rape story is up in the air.I don't know what to think. I want to believe that Mrs. Foster was raped, but then something in the back of my mind keeps thinking that it's just an excuse to hide a lie. The only person who does know is Rebecca. The whole situation horrible and not a pleasant one to be in especially for Rebecca. She either has to live with being raped and the case being ended as Judge North winning the case. Or live guilty of a lie and being humilated. I feel bad for Mrs. Foster.
http://dohistory.org/two_stories/Official/ch00/index.html

Date: Sep 8, 2008

I believe that rebecca was having an affair. I know it sounds bad because who would do that, its crazy but desperate times call for desperate measures. Maybe for rebecca it was that time. Who knows? we sure don't !