Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s fascinating treatment of the diary of an American midwife, Martha Moore Ballard, is rich with “teachable” moments. The PBS-produced video from the American Experience series has taken the diary and created a docudrama that is rich with detail and compelling insights. However, the video’s story is also bleak and frank in its portrayal of life on the Maine frontier in the years immediately after the Revolution and in the early years of the republic. Teachers can use the diary and the video in the classroom with great effect, but they must proceed cautiously.

In a junior high setting the video can, by itself, be an excellent learning tool for helping students understand the harshness of life in eighteenth-century America. Beginning at the twenty-sixth minute of the video, students will see scenes of everyday life, coupled with opportunities for insights into family relationships and roles, the daily routine of each family member, the social interactions and expectations of life in rural communities of that time, and the ways in which communities and families dealt with the universal issues of aging parents, adult children, unwed mothers, illness, and death.

Through discussion of Martha Moore Ballard’s life as portrayed in the video, students can get, within one viewing, a very good overview of life in the eighteenth century. Instructors can then use the video to stimulate students to do further research on such topics as medicine, midwifery, the treatment of “witches,” debtor laws, and the role of women. The video and the diary also provide a wonderful introduction to oral and personal history and the ways in which individual stories can reveal the history of a family or a community.

In the high school setting, the video can be used in the same way, or coupled with the Ulrich article (see Materials Needed) it can foster a more in-depth discussion of social history and the experience of the underclass in post-revolutionary America. It is best for students to read the article before watching the video, so that they can more readily understand the powerful visual images. For an A.P. class, instructors might use Ulrich’s book, A Midwife’s Tale.

Objectives

Materials Needed

A Midwife’s Tale, the American Experience series, produced by Blueberry Hill Productions, directed by Laurie Kahn-Leavitt and Richard P. Rogers, 88 min., PBS Video, 1997, videocassette.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Moore Ballard, 1785-1812,” in Portrait of America, ed. Stephen B. Oates, vol. 1 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973).

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (New York: Knopf, 1990).

Suggested Age Group

This lesson is intended for students in grades 8-12. For grades 8-9, I would suggest the video only, and then only after preview and with careful editing. The Ulrich book can provide background for teachers and help them focus on important information in the video.

Time Frame

This lesson requires one to three class periods.

Procedure

Day One: Grades 8-9

1. Ask students for their perception of life on the frontier at the time George Washington was president.
2. Introduce A Midwife’s Tale video with a brief discussion of midwifery and background on rural Maine (the setting for the video) using information from the Ulrich book and from the early, introductory portion of the video.
3. Watch the video, stopping at predetermined points to answer questions, point out specific information, and clarify points.

Day One: Grades 10-12

1. Assign Ulrich’s article. Ask students to respond in writing to the questions at the end of the text, especially Question 2, which asks students to discuss the role women played in the community’s economic life beyond the home, and Question 5, which asks students to analyze and evaluate the role of midwives in the eighteenth century.
2. Have students discuss the role of women in the economic life of the era and the role of the midwife in the community.

Day Two: Grades 8-9

1. Finish the video and debrief by comparing students’ perceptions from the video with the list generated from the brainstorming session of the previous day.

Day Two: Grades 10-12

1. Watch A Midwife’s Tale video. Ask students to compare the ideas generated by the class discussion on women and midwifery with the images in the video.

Day Three: Grades 10-12

1. Divide students into small groups and ask them to complete the following tasks:
   1. create a list of the ways in which women contributed to the economic, social, and family life of a community;
   2. generate a list of the kinds of assistance a midwife might be asked to give within a community;
   3. develop a thesis statement that could serve as the basis for an essay discussing the role of women in the frontier areas of the United States after the Revolution, or that discusses the structure of community life on the frontier in the post-revolutionary United States.

Sandranel Bahan is currently an Advanced Placement government teacher in Norman, Oklahoma. She previously taught A.P. European history, and advanced courses in United States history and world history. She is a certified trainer in the IPLE-Model Congress program and the Electronic Model Congress and conducts workshops throughout Oklahoma and the Plains region.