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Documentary, American Experience -S1 OE1 5. A. Midwife's.Tale. 1 998.
American Experience presents The Boy in the Bubble, a story of medical perseverance and personal tragedy produced and directed by Barak Goodman and John Maggio (Kinsey). With first-hand recollections from David's mother and the doctors, nurses, therapists, and the chaplain who cared for him, as well those who were critical of the handling of his case, this one-hour film documents the life of a little boy who became a living experiment in a fight to cure a rare disease.
American Experience presents The Boy in the Bubble, a story of medical perseverance and personal tragedy produced and directed by Barak Goodman and John Maggio (Kinsey). With first-hand recollections from David's mother and the doctors, nurses, therapists, and the chaplain who cared for him, as well those who were critical of the handling of his case, this one-hour film documents the life of a little boy who became a living experiment in a fight to cure a rare disease.
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00:00:29I'll see you next time
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00:02:26Thank You, Justin.
00:02:27If you are here, please get trough, fund Food and Share?
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00:02:34If you are here to help, we can't help you to the chamber of need, A셔서 Será kinks
00:02:46April 24, 1785, I was called to Colonel Sewell's wife in Trevail, stripped into the canoe, sunk in the mire.
00:03:08She was not so ill as to call in other assistants this day.
00:03:14I slept with her till about one in the morn, when she called her neighbours to her assistance.
00:03:22Mrs Sewell was ill till three hours in the afternoon.
00:03:31Mrs Brooks, Bilcher, Coleman, Pollard and Vose assisted us.
00:03:38She was, through divine assistance, made the living mother of a living son, her third child.
00:03:57Colonel Sewell gave me six shillings eight pence as a reward, conducted me over the river.
00:04:09I don't know what Martha Ballard looked like.
00:04:12I still don't know, after all the years that I spent working with the diary.
00:04:19Mrs Vose and daughter, Nathan Howard returned from Boston.
00:04:24She became, for me, a voice.
00:04:27Sally Pierce sleeps here.
00:04:28Sally Pierce sleeps here.
00:04:29Lad of Washington at supper here.
00:04:32But that took a long time.
00:04:35Lad of Washington ate supper here.
00:04:37I'm very sick with the rash.
00:04:38I'm a cool.
00:04:39Go and see Mr. Brooks.
00:04:41Go and see Mr. Brooks, who is sick.
00:04:42Got some cold water root.
00:04:44Before she was a voice, she was a mark on a page.
00:04:52And I really began to learn about Martha Ballard through her marks, her scratching of a quill
00:05:03pan, day after day after day for 27 years.
00:05:10My connection to the past, like any historian's, is through the stuff that's left behind.
00:05:19It's not an imaginative connection, although imagination is part of it.
00:05:25It's about documents.
00:05:28It's about sources.
00:05:29It's about clues.
00:05:30It's about the leavings, the shards, the remnants of people who once lived and don't live anymore.
00:05:43Without documents, there's no history.
00:05:46And women left very few documents behind.
00:06:10Reading the diary let me see a world that I hadn't seen before, but it was very difficult
00:06:20to work with.
00:06:22My first task was to try to find some way to create order out of just a succession of facts.
00:06:33Oh, Clarissa there, so she had company.
00:06:37Mr. Ballard has gone east side of the river to collect taxes.
00:06:41I'm informed that John Brown is in jail for committing a rape on his own dafter of 11 years
00:06:47of age.
00:06:54July 4, Claire, Independence of America observed in this town.
00:07:01We baked a quarter of veil and began to spin our cotton.
00:07:06At home, delivery, medical visit overnight, church, baked, brewed, cleaned, garden, men sewed, spun,
00:07:16woe.
00:07:16Some other historians who had looked at this diary said, well, there were interesting parts,
00:07:23but it was filled with trivia.
00:07:25That's what I loved about it.
00:07:27But the story was in the details.
00:07:37July 23, 1787, Claire, the girls washed.
00:07:44Mrs. Ellis and Bolton here gave me some coffee, tea and sugar.
00:07:48They dined.
00:07:50I made a syrup for Mrs. Savage.
00:07:52I made a syrup for Mrs. Savage.
00:07:57She was a headache.
00:07:57Mr. Ashley, even if you answered a drink at home, I'm sorry.
00:08:02I don't know.
00:08:05I don't know how long it went back.
00:08:07It's very old.
00:08:10Oh, tell me, I'm sorry.
00:08:13How long?
00:08:13She's so tired.
00:08:18Who laid down?
00:08:26It's the dailiness of Martha's diary that helps us to understand the really important
00:08:33differences between the 18th century world and our own world, and what it means to be
00:08:39a woman in that world.
00:08:43July 25. A shower this morn. Isaac Harden came for me to go and see his oldest son, sick
00:08:51with the rash. It has swilled on the neck. Mrs. Harris, Savage, and Foster there.
00:09:02And Pauly Savage, Pauly Hamlin here. Oh, half the half-savages are there. Isaac. Little
00:09:12Isaac. Road Horse.
00:09:19A diary like this is just filled with names. Mrs. Bisbee and Lydia.
00:09:26It's kind of like walking into a room and just seeing a bunch of strangers. You don't
00:09:31know who they are. And not sure if you care. So he's next door.
00:09:42I had to get to know the people whose names were in the diary. I needed to know where they
00:09:51lived. I also needed to think about where they were economically.
00:09:58Two oxen, one cow three years old, and two swine.
00:10:03Claire, I lived Mrs. Harden infant cleverly at nine hour in the morn. Called it Mr. Whistons,
00:10:10Pollard's, Mr. Foster, and Mr. Savage's. Medical, medical, medical, medical, medical, and overnight.
00:10:21When I finally was able to connect Martha's work to her world, I could begin to create stories.
00:10:28And the first story had to do with her work as a healer.
00:10:35Overnight. Obviously, this is an epidemic.
00:10:43Mr. Sargent.
00:10:47Mr. Sargent.
00:10:56Martha called it canker rash, which in more modern terms is scarlet fever. And it was life-threatening,
00:11:05and people were dying.
00:11:08July 27th.
00:11:09Isaac Harden came for me.
00:11:12Says his child has the sore on its throat.
00:11:15Gave him some root, and gargled his throat, which gave him great A's.
00:11:23Claire and very pleasant.
00:11:25We killed a swine which weighed 174 pounds.
00:11:29I sorted it yesterday evening.
00:11:31I was called to see Mr. Savage's dofter.
00:11:35Find her very low.
00:11:37Sit up with her all night.
00:11:39She puked up a considerable quantity of phlegm.
00:11:42And same, some revived.
00:11:46There were doctors in Martha's town, but she was usually the first one called.
00:11:52In 20th century terms, she was a physician, pharmacist, a nurse, as well as a midwife.
00:11:59Her pain is irregular now, Mrs. Mallard.
00:12:01Every ten minutes.
00:12:04Yes, ma'am.
00:12:19She was also a good neighbor.
00:12:22You are never alone in time of illness.
00:12:25And that's a fundamental difference between her world and ours.
00:12:43Okay, so we've got Martha going.
00:12:47For the Foster's to see Lydia.
00:12:51As I began to map Martha's movements through the town, I found I could actually map the spread of the
00:12:58disease.
00:13:08July 28th.
00:13:09Call to Reverend Mr. Foster to see him.
00:13:13Find him very sick with the rash.
00:13:16Good.
00:13:17The rash is moving down.
00:13:21Open.
00:13:22Ah.
00:13:24Ah.
00:13:24Ah.
00:13:25Your throat is red.
00:13:26Ah.
00:13:27I must pray to tomorrow.
00:13:29Drink your tea, Mr. Foster.
00:13:40Have you soon paid call today?
00:13:43She's near expiring.
00:13:46Returned home to find Mr. Ballard and Dolly unwell.
00:14:01I bathed her feet and gave them some herb tea.
00:14:05I feel much fatigue in myself.
00:14:23July 30th.
00:14:25Mr. Williams has bled again and is very poorly.
00:14:32Mrs. Ballard.
00:14:34Thank you for coming to us.
00:14:36August 5th.
00:14:37He's barred.
00:14:37Clare moan.
00:14:38I was called at 7 o'clock to Mrs. Howard's to see James, he being very sick with the canker
00:14:44rash.
00:14:45Tarried all night, Colonel Howard made me a present of one gallon rum and two pounds sugar
00:14:51on account of my attendance of his family and sickness.
00:14:55Ah.
00:14:56Ah.
00:14:57Ah.
00:14:57Ah.
00:15:03August 6th.
00:15:05I am at Mrs. Howard's, watching with her son.
00:15:12A very severe shower of hail with thunder and lightning began at half after one, continued near one hour.
00:15:27A very severe shower of hail.
00:15:37A very severe shower of hail with thunder and lightning began at half after one shot.
00:15:57I tarry till evening, left James exceedingly dangerously ill.
00:16:03My daughter Hannah is 18 years old this day.
00:16:06Martha is in the middle of an epidemic.
00:16:08She's exhausted.
00:16:10And then she sees the sawmill in flames.
00:16:13And this is her husband's mill.
00:16:17And then she adds,
00:16:19My daughter Hannah is 18 years old this day.
00:16:24It seemed out of place.
00:16:27To me.
00:16:29Until I began to put together the rest of her experience of that week.
00:16:36She's nursing a small child, William McMaster, and he dies.
00:16:47August 11, Claire called from Mrs. Howard's to Mr. McMaster's
00:16:53to see their son William, who is very low.
00:16:55My kitten, my dearie.
00:17:04Such a sweet as this
00:17:08was neither far
00:17:12nor near me.
00:17:16Here we go
00:17:18up, up, up
00:17:20and here we go
00:17:22down, down, downing.
00:17:26Here we go
00:17:31Backward and forward.
00:17:57Backward and forward.
00:17:59Mm-hmm.
00:18:00Mm-hmm.
00:18:03Good.
00:18:09Good.
00:18:10Good.
00:18:29Good.
00:18:45August 13.
00:18:48William McMaster's expired at 3 o'clock this morning.
00:18:53Mrs. Patton and I laid out the child.
00:18:57Poor mother, how distress in her case.
00:19:00Near the hour of labor and three children more, very sick.
00:19:07I read this entry and I was very moved by it.
00:19:11But I was also puzzled.
00:19:13It's uncharacteristically emotional.
00:19:17And then I began to do more research into Martha's life
00:19:24and into the incidence of epidemics in the 18th century.
00:19:28And suddenly it just all fell together in one place.
00:19:33It was really, almost gave me chills when I thought about it.
00:19:37Because in 1769, one of the worst epidemics in New England hit Massachusetts.
00:19:45And in Martha's hometown of Oxford, Massachusetts, diphtheria ran through the community.
00:19:53And Martha lost three daughters within a few weeks.
00:20:00Three little girls.
00:20:01And she was pregnant that summer.
00:20:05And Hannah was the child that was born in the summer of the epidemic.
00:20:14And, you know, that entry, that planned entry, Hannah's 18 years old this day,
00:20:19that meant absolutely nothing to me before, suddenly told me that,
00:20:24as Martha nursed other women's children, she was recalling her own experience.
00:20:37How are you doing?
00:20:39How are you doing?
00:20:40How are you doing?
00:20:52Working cases of disabilities are better than her.
00:20:54How are you doing?
00:20:54How are you doing?
00:20:56How are you doing?
00:21:00When you're doing the same things to her?
00:21:00I'm a dream called寿司 who's living near you.
00:21:22Clare and warm, I've been at home, worked in my garden some, spent some time seeking
00:21:29my turkeys and nipped some.
00:21:46Martha and Ephraim Ballard moved from Massachusetts to the frontier of Maine during the American
00:21:52Revolution.
00:21:55When the diary opens, Martha is 50 years old and has five children still living at home,
00:22:03ranging in ages from 7 to 31.
00:22:09Cyrus carried one bushel of wheat and one Indian meal to Mr. Carr.
00:22:13I've been doubling and twisting thread and the girls washed.
00:22:18Claren Hutt, I was at home all day collecting herbs.
00:22:22Hannah ironed and Parthenia spun cotton.
00:22:26Parthenia is Martha's niece, Parthenia Barton, who lives with the family for a number of
00:22:32years and becomes almost a daughter.
00:22:38Jonathan out looked for logs.
00:22:46Son Ephraim cut his finger.
00:22:50Planted garlic seeds.
00:22:52Dolly sowed some peas.
00:22:59Mr. Barlet had gone to settle with Mr. Gardner, Perkins and Moore for building the mill.
00:23:05A cow was loose in town.
00:23:10I attended worship.
00:23:12I attended worship.
00:23:12Dolly was frightened by a bear between her and neighbor's salvages.
00:23:20We know especially the kind of work that each member of the family did.
00:23:24What we don't know are some of the things we'd really like to know.
00:23:28That is, who slept where?
00:23:34And was this a playful household?
00:23:38Or was it a house where father ruled?
00:23:44Is this a harmonious family?
00:23:54Martha says very little in the diary about her relationship with her husband.
00:24:00But I don't think we can jump to the conclusion that it was a cold and formal relationship
00:24:05because she addresses him as Mr. Ballard.
00:24:19What about privacy?
00:24:21How did they behave with one another?
00:24:23These are questions that the diary can't answer.
00:25:00And the subject of this...
00:25:01We know about privacy.
00:25:01We know something you may not remember, but you may know.
00:25:01There we are.
00:25:02There we are.
00:25:05There we go.
00:25:05There we go.
00:25:05There we go.
00:25:07There we go.
00:25:09We know what to do.
00:25:10We know what to do.
00:25:10Clare.
00:25:11Your oars are still on the street.
00:25:11Sally Pearce had a spin shoe through it.
00:25:14Drank tea.
00:25:15The girls washed.
00:25:36I remember when I started to do women's history that the response I would get from nearly
00:25:41everyone when I would go into an archive or library and tell them that I was interested
00:25:47in women in the 18th century. The answer would be, you won't find much. And it's really true.
00:25:54There's almost nothing in surviving sources about Martha Ballard, except of course for the diary.
00:26:03It's easy to find evidence of her husband, Ephraim. He was a surveyor and his maps are all over the
00:26:10archives. As a surveyor, he was caught in the middle of the conflicts over land that exploded
00:26:19in Maine in the years after the American Revolution. The Ballards moved to the Maine frontier as part of
00:26:31a larger migration. It was a time of geographic mobility and political upheaval, a time of great
00:26:39uncertainty. No one knew what kind of a world would be born out of revolution. No one knew who owned
00:26:48the land.
00:26:52April 21, Claire. Mr. Ballard surveying for Judge North. I've been at home. The Mrs. Pages and Mrs. Cummins called
00:27:01here.
00:27:09Ephraim had a rough start in Maine. Some of his neighbors called him a rank Tory.
00:27:17I think he had moved on to find new opportunities for his sons, more land.
00:27:31Trees are obstacles to farming, but they're also very rich and important resources. And the idea
00:27:37is to cut down trees, turn them into lumber, ship them out.
00:27:59For a very long period in the diary, Martha and Ephraim are renters. Ephraim's renting a mill,
00:28:06and they're living in a rented house. They own land, but the land isn't cleared.
00:28:23June 11, clear and warm. I've been at home and worked in my garden some.
00:28:29June 11, clear and warm. Hannah washed. Mr. Ballard went to Mr. Craig's.
00:28:49Mr. Savage made the irons for our loom. I paid him four shillings cash. Mrs. Ballard here to warp a
00:28:58piece.
00:29:01In the early part of the diary, Martha and her daughters carded and spun and prepared yarn and
00:29:09thread which they took to neighbors to weave. But as the girls grew into their teens, they began to weave.
00:29:23And that's an advantage for Martha. Because if they're there doing the milking and the washing,
00:29:30she can go out and deliver babies. And midwifery is the best paid of the female occupations.
00:29:46In over a thousand births, she doesn't lose a single mother at delivery and very few babies.
00:29:56October 10, at Mr. Sewell's.
00:29:59Oh!
00:30:02It's early.
00:30:03Oh, no.
00:30:03Let's get up in the morning.
00:30:04No, no.
00:30:06I can't do it. I can't bear it.
00:30:10Go for the new doctor.
00:30:14They were intimidated and called Dr. Page, who gave my patient 20 drops of laudanum,
00:30:20which put her into such a stupor, her pains which were regular and promising in a manner
00:30:26stopped till near night.
00:30:29The new physician in town was Dr. Benjamin Page, and he seemed determined to engage in
00:30:38the practice of obstetrics. Not to come in in an emergency, as an older physician might have done,
00:30:44but really to be part of normal deliveries.
00:30:49From Martha's point of view, Page was not only an upstart, he was a bungler.
00:30:57Eventually, the doctor left, the opium wore off, and Martha delivered the baby.
00:31:06Good.
00:31:10She was safe delivered. It's seven hour in the evening of a son, her firstborn.
00:31:16I lifted cleverly a tin and walked home.
00:31:20I received 12 shillings as a reward.
00:31:28April 17, Mr. Livermore's swine in our field a number of times.
00:31:33I went to my sylph and informed him.
00:31:38September 2, Claire unpleasant. The girls moved bids.
00:31:44There was a thief whipped at the post for stalin cloth from Mr. Ebenezer Farwell.
00:31:52February 2, snowed. I was called to see Black Kitty.
00:31:57She was delivered of her son before I arrived.
00:32:01Sally Cox gave me a snuff box.
00:32:04August 25, 1789. Claire, I went to see Mrs. Foster.
00:32:12I didn't pay any attention to this diary entry. It was just another one of those visits.
00:32:19That was not the worst that has come to me since Mr. Foster's absence.
00:32:26But later, I discovered it was really one of the most important entries in the diary.
00:32:33It was connected to a very complex story.
00:32:38Mrs. Foster was Rebecca Foster, the wife of the young minister, Isaac Foster, who had been settled a few years
00:32:47before in the town.
00:32:51Martha was very fond of Mr. Foster.
00:32:55But not everyone in the town liked him.
00:32:58The plain truth is...
00:32:59He was perhaps a little bit of a prickly character himself.
00:33:04There was lots of trouble. And eventually, he stepped down and went off to try to find another job.
00:33:13And when he was away, a really terrible thing happened to his wife.
00:33:20This can be gained in no way.
00:33:21They could do nothing worse than they have unless they killed me.
00:33:27North has abused me worse than any other person in the world.
00:33:32Judge North was a very powerful man in the county.
00:33:37He also happened to be one of Ephraim Ballard's employers.
00:33:41We need to know the names of every squatter and the date of settlement for each.
00:33:47They were associated in business and in town government.
00:33:55I believe it is best that I...
00:33:57But she believed it was best for her to keep her troubles to herself as much as she could
00:34:02until her husband returned, which she hoped would be soon.
00:34:06I won't mention it to any other person.
00:34:09You will expose yourself and cause yourself harm.
00:34:15Rebecca Foster discovered she was pregnant.
00:34:18And that forced her to break the silence.
00:34:23October 1st.
00:34:25Mr. Savage here informs that Mrs. Foster has sworn a rape on a number of men,
00:34:32among whom is Judge North.
00:34:34Shocking and date.
00:34:36Shocking and date.
00:34:37But when the story came out and Martha was called to testify,
00:34:41she went back to her diary and wrote down everything she could remember.
00:34:48Today I called to mind Mrs. Foster saying,
00:34:51Colonel North had positively had unlawful concourse with a woman which was not his wife.
00:35:01I know it was North.
00:35:05He is guilty.
00:35:08Despite North's power, the case went to trial.
00:35:12Judges came from Boston.
00:35:14Martha was called to testify.
00:35:17A verdict was rendered.
00:35:31But how comparatively small is the number of those who were solicitous to acquire the cause?
00:35:36Cloudy and a sprinkling of rain.
00:35:38Mr. Parker preached in this town.
00:35:41I did not attend myself.
00:35:44I've been at home.
00:35:45The seeds begin to come up in the garden.
00:35:51Sunday, August 2nd.
00:35:53I had string badens, the fast we had from our garden.
00:35:58She virtually stopped going to church for almost four years.
00:36:08The Rebecca Foster story led me to think about the entire
00:36:12diary differently.
00:36:15How many other stories might there be hidden in those cryptic entries about visits?
00:36:27Buy those logs off the springer for a song and a dance and push them on down to Papa's mouth.
00:36:32Oh, Jonathan.
00:36:39Cloudy part of the day.
00:36:41The gentlemen who were chosen as referees in the cause between Peter Jones and my son Jonathan
00:36:46sit this day.
00:36:47They gave Jones eight pound damage and the cost of court was two pound five shillin.
00:36:54I would wish that my son might learn to govern his temper for the future.
00:37:09Claire, I hold my cabbages and went to the hook.
00:37:20For a point in her life, Martha Ballard had just a perfectly functioning domestic system.
00:37:26The girls busy at their work.
00:37:28She developing her own occupation.
00:37:33But the end of all this labor was to launch the girls in households of their own.
00:37:50The girls had some neighbors to help them quilt.
00:37:57They began to quilt at three in the afternoon, finished and took it out at seven in the evening.
00:38:04Mrs. Rockwood and Mrs. Pollard came to help.
00:38:06Mrs. Rockwood and Mrs. Pollard came to help with baked mince and pumpkin pies.
00:38:08Mrs. Rockwood and Mrs. Pollard came to help a good kidницы.
00:38:23Mrs. Ballard came to help.
00:38:31This is fair, McDonald's, Planetry.
00:38:32There were twelve gentlemen took pay.
00:38:34They danced a little while after supper.
00:38:40There seems to have been no real stigma against premarital pregnancy.
00:38:46The stigma is on the person who refuses to marry the woman.
00:38:52As long as they marry, everything's fine.
00:38:55And the watchful eye of the midwife and the other neighbors helps to assure that they do marry.
00:39:24The young folks behaved exceedingly cleverly, were all returned home before the eleventh hour.
00:39:34I don't think Jonathan wanted to marry Sally Pierce, or maybe he didn't like to be told what to do.
00:39:40I don't think Jonathan was the father of a child.
00:39:57I was called to see Sally Pierce at nine hour in the morn, the ridin' Varibad.
00:40:04Sally declared that my son Jonathan was the father of a child.
00:40:09I was called to see Sally Pierce at nine hour in the morn, the ridin' Varibad.
00:40:10I don't think so...
00:40:14I am.
00:40:20Dianeager...
00:40:39Dianeosaideris,
00:40:43Push. Push. Push.
00:40:47Push.
00:40:48Push.
00:40:49Sally, I have to ask you now.
00:40:52Who is the father of the child?
00:40:55Jan!
00:41:00Jonathan, who?
00:41:01Your son, Jonathan Ballard.
00:41:08Push.
00:41:09Push.
00:41:13January the 11th, 1792.
00:41:16Claire, in a very cold morn.
00:41:19Jonathan has not been at home since yesterday.
00:41:22I've been at home, mended a coverlet and knit some.
00:41:26Jonathan was married to Sally Pierce.
00:41:34It may seem cruel to be questioning a woman
00:41:37at the height of labor about the name of the father of her child.
00:41:43But in fact, this was part of the judicial system of the 18th century.
00:41:50Sally Pierce had gone to the justice of the peace and sworn a child on Jonathan.
00:41:55And the way that she assured that she could win the case was to affirm that testimony before the midwife
00:42:03at the height of labor.
00:42:11October 28th, the matrimonial rites were celebrated between Mr. Moses Pollard of this town and my doctor, Hannah, this evening.
00:42:21Isquire Coney performed the ceremony.
00:42:24Oh, so long as you both shall live, so long as you both shall live.
00:42:30Here we are.
00:42:32November 18, rainy.
00:42:35Mr. Pollard and Mr. Pitt dined here.
00:42:39The latter was joined in the bairns of wedlock with Parthenia Barton.
00:42:43A ceremony performed by Samuel Dutton Esquire.
00:42:47I've been at home.
00:42:49We had no company except our family attend.
00:43:03The wedding is almost a non-event.
00:43:09The girls stay at home after the wedding.
00:43:12They go back to work spinning and weaving,
00:43:15and for several weeks the men come and go.
00:43:18Sometimes they stay overnight, sometimes they don't.
00:43:24The real event is when all these household goods are gathered up
00:43:29and the girls go off to housekeeping.
00:43:40After Hannah and Parthenia married,
00:43:43Martha no longer used their first names in her diary.
00:43:46She called them Daughter Pollard and Mrs. Pitts.
00:44:03Clare, but very cold.
00:44:05Mr. Pollard came and conducted my dafter and his spouse home to housekeeping.
00:44:25I've been home, washed my kitchen.
00:44:28My family is reduced to four in number.
00:44:32Cyrus has been to the fort,
00:44:33Ephraim to work with his oxen for Mr. Livermore,
00:44:37and now this year is come to a close.
00:44:41May we begin a new year in the service of our great Master,
00:44:46who will reward his faithful servants.
00:44:55May 1, 1794.
00:44:57A frosty morn.
00:44:59I was informed that my niece, Mrs. Pitts,
00:45:02was unwell, and went to see her.
00:45:04I tarried all night.
00:45:06This is in the morning.
00:45:09A fist in the morning,
00:45:11Let me see her.
00:45:11Cette Dee CBDill mı
00:45:15I'll probably lows a little bit.
00:45:16All right.
00:45:18Her실 Sea Fnek
00:45:18is not going to be wet.
00:45:21It is not going to look.
00:45:27This is not going to be wet.
00:45:32I'll be into place in the face of the water.
00:45:34He also notices sheَ
00:45:35ne intentar beber
00:45:35couple skiesies.
00:45:40June 24. Claire. Mrs. Pitts came here. Had a fever fit.
00:45:57June 30. Claire. I was called at nine in the morn to my daft Apollo, who was in labor.
00:46:06Her women were called and she was safe delivered at one in the afternoon of a daftal, her firstborn.
00:46:13I tarried with her all night. She is cleverly.
00:46:28July 22. I was at Shubail Pitts's all day. She is very low, exercised with severe griping and loose stools.
00:46:39God only knows how it may terminate. I sent for my horse, but find her so ill I tarried through
00:46:46the night.
00:47:03July 23. Claire. Mrs. Pitts rose about an hour by sun in the morn.
00:47:09She went out and milked the last milk from the cow into her mouth and swallowed it.
00:47:15It is recommended as very beneficial by Mr. Amos Page.
00:47:31She's lusty.
00:47:35Don't think she favors our side of the family.
00:47:38She does favor her papa.
00:47:49Her pain still continues, and God only knows what will be the event.
00:47:54May she be prepared.
00:48:04September 1. She desired Mr. Pitts and I to move her and fix her bed.
00:48:09We did, and laid her in again.
00:48:11Day in.
00:48:12Day in.
00:48:14Day in.
00:48:34Day in.
00:48:52Oh, my God.
00:49:29I came home from Mr. Pitts after we had performed our last Office of Friendship.
00:49:36It is four months this day since I was called to see my dear niece, who was seized with
00:49:42this her last illness, which she has borne with Christian meekness and humility.
00:49:51We mourn the loss of her company, but have the greatest reason to hope that she has changed
00:49:57this for a world in which she will be free from pain and sorrow, joined with glorified saints
00:50:04to sing redeeming love.
00:50:33September 2.
00:50:37Cloudy forenoon, a very rainy afternoon.
00:50:42I walked to Mr. Pitts this morning, where I saw the dissection of his deceased wife.
00:50:49The operation was performed by Drs. Coleman, Coney and Page.
00:51:04Her lights were found to be very much ulcerated and scarus utera.
00:51:18Why do we mourn, departing friends, or shake at death our land?
00:51:36Tis but the voice that Jesus sends to both and to his heart.
00:51:56Martha's reference to lights suggests that Parthenia may have died of a lung disease.
00:52:03Maybe it was tuberculosis, which was a great killer of young people in this period.
00:52:09Maybe it was a little bit.
00:52:12Maybe it was a little bit.
00:52:36Maybe it was a little bit.
00:52:37Maybe it was a little bit.
00:53:05Maybe it would have been done long ago.
00:53:10in 1795 the last of martha's daughters married and she could no longer write in her diary
00:53:16girls washed she was dependent on hired helpers this thread is too weak
00:53:24mrs dudden thought my spinning was good enough i'm your mistress now i have no mistress
00:53:32do you live here i sleep here
00:53:44eleven chains in the prime
00:53:52extended north
00:53:54go north to long pond
00:53:57two
00:53:58three
00:54:00four
00:54:02for martha and ephraim the axis of the world was changing a new political order was creating
00:54:09a new social order less deference to authority more concern about rights and they experienced
00:54:18that as loss rather than gain
00:54:33i am determined not to pay girls anymore for ill manners
00:54:42in 1795 martha is 60 years old ephraim is 70 and yet they're still hard at work he's away 59
00:54:54nights that year surveying and she's away even more ephraim's work is risky he's employed by wealthy boston
00:55:06merchants who think they own the land he's surveying land that the backcountry settlers believe is theirs
00:55:14and they don't want him there may 5 1796 claire and windy mr ballard and p bullen set out to
00:55:25survey the
00:55:26but if you are starting to the backcountry the bank and i am a sharpest man and by the very
00:55:28good effort and they are this one the best of all of you are there the best of that you
00:55:44are here
00:55:46all night, have had but little sleep these three nights. Mr. Simeon Clark's wife watched. I could
00:55:54not sleep for flays. I found 80 flays on my clothes after I came home. Sally Fletcher took her duds
00:56:06and threatened to sue us in one wake from this time. If we did not pay her, what was her
00:56:13due?
00:56:14She looks thin-faced to what she did when she left us.
00:56:39November 15, Mr. Ballard and men,
00:56:43were assaulted when asleep last Thursday night in the wilderness by men they knew not,
00:56:48who robbed him of his papers and instruments.
00:56:56May we ever praise God for his goodness in preserving him and his assistance from hurt in person.
00:57:14This is the 600th birth at which I have attended since I came to this eastern climb.
00:57:22I received nine shillings, made a present of one shillin sixpence to the infant.
00:57:27I returned home and find my house up in arms.
00:57:43I don't know how much of Martha and Ephraim's troubles is just the natural evolution of the life cycle.
00:57:51They're getting older. They have a greater need for support.
00:57:55And how much of it is that the world, too, is changing.
00:58:15How long God will preserve my strength to perform as I have done of late, he only knows.
00:58:24Clear and cold.
00:58:27I've been doing my housework and nursing my cow.
00:58:30Her bag is amazingly swilled.
00:58:33A woman's work is never done, as the song says,
00:58:37and happy she whose strength holds out to the end of the race.
00:58:42It is now near the middle of the night and Mr. Dinsmore calls me to his house.
00:58:52In 1800, a few months after the death of George Washington, the town put on a parade.
00:59:00There was the usual assembly of public officials.
00:59:03And at the head of the parade, 16 young women,
00:59:07daughters of the town's merchants and judges and doctors,
00:59:11each to represent one of the 16 states of the Union.
00:59:15And they were all decked out with black cloaks and white banners,
00:59:20symbols of liberty and the new republic.
00:59:331800 was the year Napoleon's armies marched into Italy.
00:59:401800 was the year Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams in an election so bitter,
00:59:47it went to the 36th ballot in the House of Representatives.
00:59:54In 1800, the number of lawsuits in the county court began to expand almost exponentially.
01:00:19In 1800, the Reverend Mr. Isaac Foster died a penniless drunk in Rehoboth, Maryland.
01:00:29Not long afterward, according to rumor, his wife Rebecca headed off to Peru with her son,
01:00:36hunting for gold.
01:01:04If the
01:01:19Cyrus went and brought the team and carried one load of our things carried
01:01:24the ash box, a bed and bedstead in beets, town-ups and garden roots. I'm not sure how Martha
01:01:38felt about the transition of 1800. The family had in one sense achieved the dream that had
01:01:49brought them to Kennebec County in the first place. That is, they now had cleared enough
01:01:54land and were able to establish a farmstead. And as Martha put it in the diary, Mr. Ballard's
01:02:02house had now been constructed. And of course it was Mr. Ballard's house. The revolution
01:02:10hadn't changed the fact that married women couldn't own property. The house was constructed
01:02:17on land that was in Jonathan's name. So two things were happening. The old couple were
01:02:26moving into the house. But at the same time, there was a kind of shifting in family authority
01:02:35toward the sun and air. And this set up a very interesting kind of tension.
01:02:42To our contract, we're going to leave the house.
01:02:51To start a new garden.
01:03:04April 29, 1800. Claire for part of the day, cloudy at evening. I've been digging and moving
01:03:14dirt in the garden most of the day. I've made my hands very sore. I went to my son Jonathan's
01:03:21a little while before late. The family fortunes were rising, but Martha's were declining. The
01:03:32farm, unfortunately, was up on a ridge, high above the Kennebec River. And that seems to
01:03:38have made a real difference in her practice. It was harder for other people to come and find
01:03:42her in a more out of the way place. She recorded 51 deliveries in 1799, which was the last year
01:03:51in the old house. In 1800, that declined to 26. And by 1802, it was down to 11.
01:04:17August 29, 1802. My lot is singular, but with patience, I wished to conform to it. My husband returned at
01:04:29evening from Ballston, much for
01:04:30time to take it with his journey. Had a fit to shake him. I heat a blanket and put it
01:04:36about him about three hour in the morn.
01:04:38He being relaxed, dirtied the bed. I rose, shirted him, and removed the dirty linen. Went to bed again. But
01:04:53was so cold that I could not sleep.
01:04:57I know from Ephraim's records, but not from Martha's diary, that he had been attacked again in the woods.
01:05:05He gave up surveying in the backcountry and took on the job of town tax collector.
01:05:28January 2, 1804.
01:05:33Claire.
01:05:35Claire.
01:05:36I feel very unwill.
01:05:38My husband came home at four this afternoon, took a little food,
01:05:43complains of feeling the pain in his stomach,
01:05:46but was called by John Sewell to answer an execution of $800,
01:05:51was by him, conducted to the jail in Augusta,
01:06:11He was in debtor's prison, but the nature of his debt was a little bit unusual.
01:06:18This wasn't a personal debt.
01:06:20He had failed to collect the town taxes.
01:06:25Instead of going after individual taxpayers, they just jailed the tax collector.
01:06:33It was really a kind of house arrest, or maybe even a bit less than that.
01:06:39He could go out and do some kind of work during the day.
01:06:42He could not go home because the Ballard Farm lay outside the bounds.
01:07:04March 12. Cloudy part of the day.
01:07:08I had been helping do housework, brood, and have soap in hand as hoops of the barrel sprung.
01:07:21It was not so when I had a husband with me.
01:07:43Clare part of the day.
01:07:46Son Jonathan came here this morning and treated me very unbecomingly indeed.
01:07:52Oh, that God would change his stubborn heart and cause him to behave in a Christian-like manner to parents
01:07:59and all others.
01:08:14match 17.
01:08:15Match 17.
01:08:16Jonathan came up on foot without his hat, took Lemuel from his supper and struck him.
01:08:24Jonathan!
01:08:25Jonathan!
01:08:25Jonathan!
01:08:25I waited!
01:08:26I waited!
01:08:27I waited!
01:08:29I waited!
01:08:32Jonathan!
01:08:34Goddamn you!
01:08:35Jonathan!
01:08:38Stop it!
01:08:38Where the hell do you think you're going?
01:08:39Jonathan!
01:08:40Stop it!
01:08:42Jonathan!
01:08:45Sean Burr went on after to prevent his being deprived of life.
01:08:50I followed on, fallen as I went.
01:08:52Mother, he was in drink.
01:08:54You cannot stop him.
01:08:56You hurt yourself chasing after him.
01:09:01March 18.
01:09:03Daft as Lambert and Pollard here.
01:09:05My comforters are much as Job's were.
01:09:12Oh, that my patience may hold out.
01:09:15It is very strange that men cannot behave as rational beings.
01:09:31December 17.
01:09:33Claire.
01:09:35Went to son Ephraim's, then met my husband in jail.
01:09:39He expressed a wish for me to keep position of this house at present.
01:09:46Somewhat discomposed in my mind.
01:09:49I wish to retain my raisin if it be the will of the great parent of the universe.
01:10:18Martha's despair is reflected even in her handwriting.
01:10:30to the president.
01:10:38To the Honourable Daniel Koenig, Daniel Koenig, to the day, the candor and the partiality of the judiciary, to the
01:10:50fair sex.
01:11:08We get this story from Martha's point of view, and it would be interesting if we had a diary from
01:11:14Jonathan or Sally.
01:11:15Here we have this old mother. She needs wood, she needs water, she needs help. Our well isn't any good.
01:11:23We've got all these kids and this old house. Why don't we just move in?
01:11:30She could be fine in one room. She doesn't need this whole house. There are glimmerings of this in the
01:11:36diary.
01:11:39I've been getting wood, broke the old log fence to paces and fatigued much to do it.
01:11:46Heard at evening that my son was determined to come into this house within a fortnight, and that I might
01:11:53tarry here or go and live in their house and see how good it was to bring water from his
01:11:59will.
01:12:01Oh, thou parent of the universe, cut short thine afflictions and suffer me, thine unworthy handmaid, to see some comfort
01:12:09before I go hence.
01:12:20December 19, clear and cold. This is 50 years since I became a housekeeper.
01:12:41December 23, son Cyrus came to St. Pollard's. We dined on a fine turkey, and he then conducted me home.
01:12:52I find son Jonathan's family had taken position of my house.
01:12:57You see that? You don't tumble him.
01:13:00Come on, son. Vinny, I mean, Eve, her... Jack!
01:13:03Stay still, you lazy drugs!
01:13:07No, God, you're not.
01:13:08You're taking stuff later.
01:13:09Get back.
01:13:10Give back.
01:13:11Give back the mic!
01:13:13Get back to me!
01:13:15Ah-ah!
01:13:16Come on, the love I am, not the good run.
01:13:18Come on.
01:13:21Come on.
01:13:22Come on.
01:13:26Come on.
01:13:26Come on, girl.
01:13:29Come on.
01:13:30Come on.
01:13:32Come on.
01:13:34Come on.
01:13:36I've felt unwell, but have had the knives of children to bear,
01:13:41some fighting, some playing,
01:13:44and not a little profanity has been performed.
01:14:15Clare and cold.
01:14:18This is one year since my husband was taken from me and carried to jail.
01:14:25A gloomy year it has been to me.
01:14:27I have suffered for fire, but must bear it.
01:14:33January 6th, 1805.
01:14:36Clare and cold.
01:14:39I am obliged to sleep in my clothes, a phrase.
01:14:43Unhappy mother I am.
01:14:47I brought you some gingerbread.
01:14:54You are rude.
01:14:55I'm tired of your complaints.
01:15:01She is an inconsiderate, a very impudent woman.
01:15:05I wish her to show more manners and discretion or hold her peace for the future.
01:15:12May 9, a rainy day.
01:15:15Cleared some of the manure from under the outhouse.
01:15:17I have been so much better this afternoon than I took some tea.
01:15:27Son Jonathan's dear little Samuel expired at five hour yesterday morning.
01:15:32Samuel was 19 months, eight days, and three hours old when he expired.
01:15:39May the God of mercy sanctify his chastisements for our everlasting good.
01:15:56Let me see, ladies.
01:15:58Oh, they're good.
01:16:13My husband has this day seen 80 revolutions of the sun.
01:16:18He has ended this and begins the 81st year of his age in Augusta jail.
01:16:28May 25, Claire, I've been at son Ephraim's, went to jail, and slept with my husband.
01:16:38In 17 months, Ephraim is finally released from jail.
01:16:47Jonathan and Sally immediately began to build a new house.
01:16:55It looks as though Martha is going to have some peace and security in her old age.
01:17:12December 19, 1807.
01:17:15This is the anniversary of my marriage, 53 years since.
01:17:21Oh, the sins which have passed since that time.
01:17:25I lay musem thereon, and slip but little.
01:17:31July 9, 1806.
01:17:33My husband and I were awake at three hour this morning by Mrs. Hartwell and Gilbert,
01:17:39who brought us the horrible titans that Captain Purrington had murdered all his family.
01:17:45Except his son James, who must have shared the same fate had he not fled in his shirt only and
01:17:52ran to son Jonathan's.
01:17:57They, too, went to the house where the horrid same was perpetrated.
01:18:02My son went in and found a candle which he lit.
01:18:06And to his great surprise, said Purrington, his wife, and six children, corpse.
01:18:28May an infinitely good God grant that we may all take suitable notice of this horrid day to learn wisdom
01:18:36therefrom.
01:18:40What are we coming to in this Eastern world?
01:19:07April 2nd, 1808.
01:19:09I have been to son Jonathan's to help her quilt her bed quilt.
01:19:14What else I have endured, I wish not to write.
01:19:21What else I have endured, I wish not to write.
01:19:25Well, that could almost be the theme of the last few years of the diary.
01:19:30But it doesn't become a kind of saccharine document.
01:19:35It becomes, again, very much what it was at the beginning of the diary.
01:19:40A record of work, a record of activity, rather than a record of feelings.
01:19:53March 17, 1809.
01:19:56Clear day, cloudy at evening.
01:20:01Elizabeth, the Indian here.
01:20:03Let her have potatoes.
01:20:06A son of John Babcock's here for a record of his birth,
01:20:10which was September 11, 1791.
01:20:18Cloudy.
01:20:19I worked in my garden,
01:20:21set parsley and three quince trees by the pigpen.
01:20:24Lit some.
01:20:26Mr. Ballard diggin' garden and settin' hot poles.
01:20:31Here, Mrs. Mojah is no better.
01:20:36June 29,
01:20:381811.
01:20:40Clear.
01:20:42I have done my housework
01:20:43and killed bugs on my vines.
01:20:47Son Jonathan was put in jail for dead,
01:20:50an unfortunate thing for him at this time,
01:20:53as the freshet is rising and is lumber upriver in a precarious situation.
01:21:00May all things work together for his good, here and hereafter.
01:21:05He's the wish of me, his affectionate mother.
01:21:19It hurts, yeah.
01:21:24Harder.
01:21:28Yes.
01:21:30That's better.
01:21:31It's coming.
01:21:35It's coming.
01:21:36It's a savage.
01:21:43Claire and warm.
01:21:45I was called at six hour this morn
01:21:47to see the wife of William Saunders,
01:21:49who was in labour.
01:21:51Yes, ma'am.
01:21:52Her illness came on at three hour in the afternoon
01:21:55and I took her into my care.
01:21:58She was safe, delivered about five of her first son
01:22:02and third child.
01:22:06Push, push.
01:22:10Heads out.
01:22:12Easy, easy.
01:22:17It's a boy.
01:22:20This is Sunday.
01:22:21This one's a boy.
01:22:36I left her an infant comfortable
01:22:38and reached home at dusk in the evening.
01:22:46Suddenly, her midwifery practice picks up again.
01:22:49She's back on her horse out in the middle of the night.
01:22:53In fact, in the last four months of the diary,
01:22:56she delivers almost as many babies
01:22:58as she did at the beginning.
01:23:01And then, at the end of April, 1812,
01:23:05she came home from a delivery exhausted and ill.
01:23:12She didn't want to get out of bed for several days.
01:23:17She just seemed to sink down.
01:23:42May 7, 1812.
01:23:46Clare, the most of the day,
01:23:48and very cold and windy.
01:23:51Dafty Ballard and a number of her children here.
01:23:55Mrs. Partridge and Smith also.
01:23:59Reverend Tappan came and conversed sweetly.
01:24:04Made a prayer adapted to my case.
01:24:09And then, the diary just stops.
01:24:28If I could confront Martha in some way
01:24:32and speak with her and speak with her,
01:24:34I think maybe the question I would ask her is,
01:24:39did you expect the diary to survive?
01:24:41Did you want it to survive?
01:24:44Did you expect your family to read it?
01:24:50I'm quite sure she never expected a world of 200 years later
01:24:56to read it and be interested in her life.
01:25:06May 7, 1812.
01:25:10Clare, the most of the day,
01:25:11and very cold and windy.
01:25:16La la, la la, la la la.
01:25:49CHOIR SINGS
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