Martha Ballard's Diary Analysis

I think it is an amazing thing that Martha Ballard’s family kept her diaries for all those years and took care of them so well that we are able to read and learn from them now. The Behind the Scenes section gave a great history of where the diaries came from and what Martha Ballard was like. I was very impressed to find out how much responsibility and education she had for a woman of her time. Many people relied on Martha Ballard and her skills as a midwife among other things. I was surprised to find out the doctors in that time had very little to do with childbirth and in fact were only called if there was an emergency. It is very interesting that most doctors were only practicing medicine part time and most had little to no hands on training. …show more content…
Many towns had become conflicted in their religious beliefs and were creating many different churches. Hallowell, Maine was one of the few communities left that wanted a single church for their town. They, including Martha Ballard, felt it would help to unite the community’s members. It was very interesting to learn about someone who was so private about his or her religious feelings. It was very obvious while reading parts of Martha’s diary that she was a believer and practiced her religion on her own. This was unusual for that time so it was something that I have never read about before. I found the captivity narrative about Mary Jemison very interesting as it was unlike anything I have ever read before. The point of view of this story really shows what it would be like to be held captive by the Native Americans and to become a part of their society. I can only imagine how helpless and scared she felt while she was waiting to find out what her fate was. Luckily for Mary, the Native American family decided not to harm her but to take her in as one of their own and adopt …show more content…
All it did was cause problems for everyone. The British knew that she was a white woman so they wanted to rescue her. This created problems for the Native Americans because they had to hurry and flee the area with Mary. Seeing the white people made Mary Jemison realize how much she missed her family, home, and civilization. It was like being captured all over again for her. Things got better for Mary after the Native Americans moved to Wiishto. Not long after moving there, Mary found out that she had to marry one of the Delawares. She was very lucky that she ended up with the man that they picked for her. He treated her very well and truly made her happy. I was heartbroken when I read about Mary losing her first child to the sickness that they both had. She had to be very strong to get through a tragedy like that. Thankfully her second child was born healthy and she was able to name him Thomas Jemison after her own