More of this Feature • Part 2

Related Resources • 19th Century Lives • Midwives

Books Reviewed • Thatcher, Laurel Ulrich. A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812. (compare prices) • Dudden, Faye. Serving Women: Household Service in Nineteenth Century America. Out of Print.

Elsewhere on the Web • Beecher: Treatise

The nineteenth century was a time of huge change for the United States. The Civil War, immigration, innovations in technology and business, are just a few of the complex events and issues that contributed to rapid transformations of society. One societal relationship that changed during this period is that of the female head of a household and the women that assisted her in daily chores. This two-part article will provide an introduction of household service in nineteenth century America by examining two groundbreaking books - A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Ulrich Thatcher and Serving Women by Faye Dudden.

In, A Midwife's Tale, historian Laurel Ulrich masterfully brings to life midwife Martha Ballard. Ulrich gives Ballard's rather ordinary diary, which covered 30 years of her adulthood, a deep reading and provides insight to different aspects of a typical, early nineteenth century, New England town. In this essay, will take a look at just one aspect -- how Martha Ballard ran her household.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, America was rural and had a pre-industrial economy. It was in this world that Martha Ballard lived and worked. Ballard was the town's well-respected and extremely busy midwife. Nevertheless, she was still expected to maintain her household up to the standards of the day. There were numerous, never-ending tasks to be completed - weaving, spinning, cleaning, cooking, churning butter, the list goes on. However, Martha was not expected to take care of the entire household on her own. She had daughters, nieces, and female neighbors to help her.

"Help" is an appropriate word, as women were not hired to independently complete a task, rather they shared the work as part of a team, which included their "employer," the head of the household. They were not servants nor paid workers. The help ate with the family and was often taken in by the family. This is not surprising because often the help was a family relation or neighbor. Martha welcomed her nieces into her home and taught them how to run a household at the same time they helped her with daily chores and large-scale projects. It was common for a young woman to earn her education in the domestic duties this way - a kind of "on-the-job-training" program. Also, the young women might have had opportunities to make items for the household they themselves would have one day. For example, if they helped with weaving, they could have done a bit of personal weaving to build up a hope chest.

This "help" system survived in rural communities throughout the nineteenth century. However, for the most part, it fell by the wayside with a more urban and industrial America. Even in Martha Ballard's lifetime, domestic servants were hired to serve the needs of the higher echelons of a new industrial order. This transformation is the subject of Faye Dudden's, Serving Women, which will be reviewed in Part 2.

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