Martha Ballard's journals show that she served in numerous roles that might have conferred more political power were it not for her gender. Ballard was "simultaneously a midwife, nurse, physician, mortician, pharmacist, and attentive wife," (p. 40). She also kept meticulous records, which can be used to complete a picture of Revolutionary America. Midwifes were not just underappreciated; they were also feared if not outright disdained. Ballard tread the difficult territory between serving the community and seeming a witch. She walked the thin line, the razor's edge between what were acceptable roles for a female in eighteenth-century America and what were not. Ballard also played the role of healer: which in her lifetime meant coming dangerously close to being labeled a witch. Her herbal remedies were derived from age-old European traditions but also from the botanical pharmacopeias of the New World's indigenous people (p. 52). However, as a female her work was under-respected and underpaid, as female work continues to be centuries later. Her role can be compared easily to that of a modern nurse vs. The paternalistic doctor.

Studying Martha Ballard and women like her round out the historical canon by offering insight into what the other fifty percent of the population experienced. Too often, women's stories are untold because illiteracy, social stigma, or sheer work burdens prevented them from being able to write down what they saw, and how they perceived the world. Women rarely served in any position of appreciable social or political power except for their being valued as procreators. Incorporating female voices into historiography is incredibly important for historical accuracy. History has been a male narrative and females are secondary: they are sidebars or trite tales that soften the bellicose sting of human progress. Female narratives also encourage critical thought, helping students of history to question the roles of women and the social norms and institutions that create them.

Works Cited

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. "A Midwife's Tale." New York: Alfred a. Knopf, 1990.