Morgan Sawyer
Early History
September 12, 2014
A Mid-Wife’s Tale
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is best known for writing books on early New England. She was raised in eastern Idaho. She moved to New England when she married her husband, Gael Urich, in 1960.. She shows a very authoritative role as she completed her graduate studies at the University of New Hampshire, at the time she was also raising her five children. She became a professor at Harvard in 1995 where she teaches history.
This book was enjoyable to myself on a personal level. The main thesis I came across was her trying to show how life was in the past, the bad times, the good, deaths and the births, the economic patterns. She made the diary entries in a simple way that can be compared to the written history. She as a midwife went through many dangerous situations just to be there for the child-birth, this included trekking through bad weather or just sitting there waiting for the new born. I think the main point of this book is to show what life was like in the colonial times, especially for women. In many manuscripts, the role of the woman is overlooked, but …show more content…
Among these are delivering babies , preparing bodies for burial, seeing to sick neighbors, gardening, creating cloth, and trading with her neighbors. Many people envision women of this time sitting around, quilting with other women. This diary offers a unique glimpse into the life of a woman who was anything but idle. This life she lived was very fulfilling to her and others around. The problems that came up later in the book about the others not having a natural birth really stood out to me. This is because I believe in all natural births; my whole family has been this way so it’s what I’ve learned. Ulrich’s conclusion is mostly showing the research with Martha’s practice and comparing it to others doing the same thing. She is using recorded evidence to do
Early History
September 12, 2014
A Mid-Wife’s Tale
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is best known for writing books on early New England. She was raised in eastern Idaho. She moved to New England when she married her husband, Gael Urich, in 1960.. She shows a very authoritative role as she completed her graduate studies at the University of New Hampshire, at the time she was also raising her five children. She became a professor at Harvard in 1995 where she teaches history.
This book was enjoyable to myself on a personal level. The main thesis I came across was her trying to show how life was in the past, the bad times, the good, deaths and the births, the economic patterns. She made the diary entries in a simple way that can be compared to the written history. She as a midwife went through many dangerous situations just to be there for the child-birth, this included trekking through bad weather or just sitting there waiting for the new born. I think the main point of this book is to show what life was like in the colonial times, especially for women. In many manuscripts, the role of the woman is overlooked, but …show more content…
Among these are delivering babies , preparing bodies for burial, seeing to sick neighbors, gardening, creating cloth, and trading with her neighbors. Many people envision women of this time sitting around, quilting with other women. This diary offers a unique glimpse into the life of a woman who was anything but idle. This life she lived was very fulfilling to her and others around. The problems that came up later in the book about the others not having a natural birth really stood out to me. This is because I believe in all natural births; my whole family has been this way so it’s what I’ve learned. Ulrich’s conclusion is mostly showing the research with Martha’s practice and comparing it to others doing the same thing. She is using recorded evidence to do