Martha Ballard: Where Have All The Godly Gone?
Term Paper for LIT3010 with Dr. Lisa M Logan
20 December 2004
Martha Ballard writes in a concise, no nonsense sort of way in her various diary entries. The entries that are written in her diary have very few details, only really including the people that she comes in contact with, the day’s weather, and births and deaths that occurred that day. Ballard refrains from writing down any sort of emotional response to the issues she faces daily. This seems vaguely surprising to those of us that are used to a highly emotional diary or daily journal written by most diarists today. Ballard also does not include as many allusions to God or religion as one might expect from the time period. It is obvious that Ballard is a God fearing woman from the type of language she chooses to write in, i.e. April 24, 1798, “Wonder full is the Goodness of providence.” or “Great and marvelous are thy sparing mercies O God.” (Martha) But these types of comments are few and far between. Even when dealing with her own children, Ballard does not seem to invoke the blessing of God or view their actions with any sort of religious tint. In the case of her son Jonathan impregnating Sally Pierce while the two were unwed, Ballard does not make any sort of hint that she is disappointed in her child, from either a maternal or religious standpoint. It seems almost that while God is overly involved in miraculous situations, i.e. April 24, 1798, he doesn’t really have any formal role in Ballard’s day-to-day job as wife, midwife and mother.
Returning specifically to the mentions of premarital pregnancy and intercourse, Ballard does not pen anything specifically gossipy about the situations, only that they did occur and the results of them. For example, in the situation involving Jonathan and Sally Pierce, Ballard writes, July 19, 1791, “…Sally Pierce Swore a Child on my son Jon a & he was taken with a warrant” (Martha). Nothing follows this one sentence about Ballard’s opinion on the situation or what became of this arrest since Sally is not mentioned again until late October. It is not possible to infer whether this silence is because of disappointment in her son or whether Ballard was just busy with her own life at this point. In the entire series of events involving Sally and Jonathan, Ballard never mentions God, religious obligations, or her own personal opinion about the situation, again leading me to believe that God does not overtly exist in Ballard’s day to day life. Only well after Jonathan and Sally have married does Ballard make any mentions towards her feelings about Sally. After a conflict with Sally on August 27, 1804, Ballard writes, “Jonathans wife Calld me a liar &c May God forgiv her. I would make a heathen Blussh to read the whole she said if I should write it.” (Ulrich 284) The fact that God and beliefs are mentioned so casually in this and the other passages from the time period leads to the idea that Ballard’s belief is so strongly rooted that it is not necessary to mention it all that often. Family conflicts seemed to be common for those few days, but Ballard displays the same lack of a gossipy mentality as through out the rest of her diary.
Few mentions of public worship are mentioned in the diary itself, however Ulrich mentions that “[f]or Martha, attending church was a pleasant duty, especially if the sermon was well delivered”(108). Ballard attended public worship only three times in 1789, eight in 1790 and eight in 1971, and not until 1794 when the parishes were officially divided did she regularly attend public meetings (Ulrich 127). Her husband Ephraim was more regular in his attendance to church. It is not mentioned if this is because of his need to stay relevant in the public sphere or if he genuinely enjoyed worship as Ballard did. Ballard does imply and in some cases outright state that religion is important to her (September 22, 1804, “God is able to teach the heart. I pray he might,”) however, it is also impossible to determine if she did not attend public worship for dislike of the pastor or if it was as simple as her work taking away from her public (religious) life (Ulrich 284). For Ballard not to regularly attend meeting would have been considered incredibly unnatural in her time period. That Ballard was not blackballed for this is impressive. Also, the fact that her job or duty to the community was more important that worship shows just how devoted to the community she was and vice versa. August 1787 shows two specific accounts of helping the sick on the Sabbath day, but this is not an uncommon occurrence (Martha).
The writings that include and alliterate to Ballard’s beliefs make it that much more impressive and surprising that she did not refer to God or religious beliefs when dealing with the premarital pregnancies that happened during her tenure as a midwife, especially the one dealing with her own son. As previously stated in the Ballard Module, the only chastisement for the event was the warrant that Jonathan was brought in on. There are no mentions of Ballard’s personal disapproval of the knowledge of her son having premarital sex (although this is definitely considered a sin by the Christian community in this and our current time period) or fathering a child out of wedlock. In fact, no emotion seems to be involved in the entire discourse. When the child is born, Ballard only states that the child will make “a fine son” (October 24, 1791) but shows no sense of the pride a Grandmother normally shows (Martha). Ballard seems to take premarital sex as a fact of life, offering no personal opinions on it. Twenty out of wedlock births are recorded in Ballard’s writings with no personal or spiritual opinion on them. Ballard seems to be what we in current times would consider a liberal woman, at least in this specific situation. It almost seems that Ballard is secure enough in her beliefs to not attempt to force them upon other people.
Jonathan and Sally are never shunned from the community as far as one can infer from Ballard’s writing. They are also invited into the Ballards’ home until their own home can be constructed. There seems to be no form disappointment in Jonathan’s actions and no disapproval of Sally as well, until the August 1804 comments. The idea that premarital sex was commonplace challenges commonly held beliefs about the time period. In fact, it appears that as long as the father takes care of the mother and child financially and emotionally, premarital sex is accepted by the community as a natural and common occurrence. Premarital pregnancy was sometimes used to force parents to accept a marriage that they normally would oppose. Though it does not appear that Ballard would have been opposed to her son marrying Sally Pierce, as she makes no comments about disliking or really liking anyone, the situation is accepted in the same casual manner, as it would have been in rural medieval England. The allowance of premarital sex as long as the child is taken care of seems to be a rather community oriented view rather than a religious one. It could be inferred that the community is simple concerned about their own welfare, i.e. not having to take care of two extraneous beings in addition to their own family and other poor folk they generally support.
Ballard’s lack of commenting on her son’s or any of her “patients” out of wedlock births follow with Ballard’s lack of detail on nearly every situation that she is involved with. Ballard appears to do all that is in her power to avoid falling victim to the stereotype of a gossipy midwife that is prevalent during the time period. The characteristic short choppy sentences allow no room for gossip, emotion or disapproval. The focus on the generalities of daily activities as opposed to detailed accounts of each and every action also do not allow for specific opinion. Ballard seemed more interested in crafting a work that would allow her to piece together enough specific events to recall the actions of the complete day. The style of the journal is easily compared to the way that a farmer’s almanac is written, detailing the weather and planting and harvesting of crops. Ballard’s diary works in the same way, allowing her to leaf back through pages to discover what the weather was like during a certain time period in the previous year as well as the dates of certain harvests. This would allow her to plan according and find what information that she was looking for easily and quickly, rather than sloughing through an incredibly detailed, convoluted personal account of daily life and goings on. Where detail seems necessary to Ballard, she allows for it, as evidenced by the July 9, 1806 entry completely detailing the Purrington murders, “he and I went on to the hous, there to behold ye most Shocking Scein thal was Ever Seen in this part of ye world. may an infinitely good God grant that we may all take a sutable notis of this horrid deed, tearn wisdom there from” (Martha)
Ballard knew when detail and emotion were necessary. In the situations that she dealt with on a daily basis, life, death, premarital sex and religious belief, no detail was necessary as her life was completely entrenched in these events. It is only when the extremely bizarre or completely out of the ordinary events happen, does Ballard feel it necessary to commit her shock, emotions and detail on the page.
Works Cited
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, based on her diary. New York: Knopf, 1990.
Martha Ballard’s Diary Online. 2000. Harvard University and George Mason University.
October 9, 2004 < http://dohistory.org/diary/index.html >.
D’Emilio, John and Estelle B. Freedman. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998
All contents copyright Elizabeth Tibbert 2005.