Colonial Upheaval

Class Date: February 18th, 9:30am

Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!

Recommended Historical Fiction: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Building a Country

This week we are looking at the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife. Her diary tells us quite a bit about everyday life in the colonies and new country after the Revolution. Before we discuss village life, here are some events that impacted colonial life.

1675 - King Philip’s War

The conflict between the Wampanoag and the English has been called the most devastating conflict in America because 1 in 10 soldiers on both sides was killed, 1,200 colonial homes were burned, and many food stores were destroyed. The colonials suffered the effects for years, as did the natives who continued to have their lands encroached upon and their way of life disrupted. To read more about the conflict, click here:

https://connecticuthistory.org/americas-most-devastating-conflict-king-philips-war/

1680 - Pueblo Natives revolt

The Spanish had been making slow incursions north of the Mexican territory they occupied. Initially trading with Pueblo and other Natives, as Spanish fortunes began to wane, they increasingly demanded more from Natives. The Pueblo peoples revolted, capturing Spanish horses in the process. Though the Spanish had already traded horses, this revolt and capture helped spur horse culture among Southwest Natives. Eventually, horses would be traded up to the Great Plains, helping the Comanche people establish their dominance over the area as a horse riding people.

1716 - Midwife Licenses

New York City required licensing of midwives. These licenses to practice made midwives ‘servants of the state’, requiring them to be ‘keepers of social and civil order’.

1735 - Zenger Trial

The royal governor of New York, William Cosby, accused German printer and journalist John Peter Zenger of libel for his columns cirital of the governor and his leadership. Cosby had Zenger arrested and he was charged with libel. Andrew Hamilton and William Smith, Sr. argued that the truth is a defense against the charge of libel and Zenger was acquitted. The trial helped establish the idea of a free press in the colonies and often serves as the legal basis for the First Amendment.

1752 - First general hospital opened in American colonies

Benjamin Franklin helped raise money for a public hospital in Philadelphia to serve the sick in the city. The Pennsylvania Hospital became the first permanent general hospital in America. You can read more about their history and walking tour here: https://ushistory.org/tour/pennsylvania-hospital.htm

1754 - The Albany Congress meets

Representatives from 7 colonies and 150 Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) chiefs to discuss support from the Haudenosaunee in fighting the French and establishing a colonial alliance. Though the leaders embraced the idea of a common militia and coordinated taxation to pay for it, the colonial legislatures all rejected the plan.

1763 - Proclamation of 1763

After securing victory over the French, the British government recognized the increasing agitation of the Native populations of the Eastern seaboard.

The native tribes were concerned that continued westward expansion by the colonials would drive them from their lands. The British Proclamation declared a boundary line for colonial settlement, even ruling that settlements beyond the boundary must be abandoned. Many Native tribes had previously aligned with the French, but in an attempt to build peaceful relations, the British government inflamed the sentiments of the colonists.

1765 - British Acts

Great Britain passed the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act in March. The Stamp Act taxed all paper goods and legal documents, while the Quartering Act required colonists to provide food and housing for British troops. The Virginia House of Burgesses challenges the legality of the Stamp Act and the Stamp Act Congress meets in October to discuss the crisis in the colonies.

1766 - Declaratory Act

British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act but passes the Declaratory Act, which underscores the authority of Parliament over the British colonies.

1773 - The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party

Attempting to bolster the floundering East India Company, who were in possession of millions of pounds of unsold tea, the British government passed the Tea Act to ship and sell the tea cheaply in the colonies.

Colonials were furious at the move that would undercut local merchants. After the three ships carrying the tea entered Boston Harbor, angry colonists disguised themselves as Native Americans and tossed 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

July 4th, 1776 - The Declaration of Independence is adopted

56 men affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, moving towards a new nation. (They officially signed the version on parchment on August 2nd, but they officially adopted the document on July 4th).

1777 - The Articles of Confederation

Stemming from wartime urgency and a strong fear of a central authority, the Articles were written to provide a loose government structure for a fledgling nation. They were not ratified until 1781. Under the articles, the states remained sovereign, with a Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was able to make treated and alliances, maintain armed forces, and coin money on behalf of the “United States of America”. However, the Congress could not impose taxes or regulate commerce. Those issues would lead to the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

That is where our timeline leaves us for this week! Check below for additional reading resources and tune in this week to hear about colonial life!

Recommended Reading

To read more about this topic, here are some great books to get you started:

For kids:

Outrageous Women of Colonial America by Mary Rodd Furbee

Delightful and inspiring tales of some of the most fascinating and awesome women of colonial times

American history is rife with stories of our founding fathers, but what of the women who lived and worked alongside these men? This fun and exciting book whisks young readers back to early America, introducing them to a refreshing assortment of brave and unique American women of colonial times. Readers will be amazed by the stories of such remarkable colonial women as Mumbet, a slave who won her freedom in a Massachusetts courtroom in the 1780s; Mercy Warren, whose passionate plays about the Revolution thrust her on to the theater scene as America's first female playwright; and Peggy Arnold, the wife of Benedict Arnold, who was as formidable a spy as her notorious husband. With these enlightening profiles, Mary Rodd Furbee brings these strong and influential women to life to encourage, inspire, and delight young readers.

Meet Felicity: American Girl by Valerie Tripp

Felicity Merriman, a Colonial girl living in Virginia shortly before the American Revolution, is worried when she learns that Jiggy Nye has a new horse. Felicity loves horses. She is concerned because Nye is a cruel man and drinks a lot. She is afraid that he will abuse the horse.

When Felicity goes with Ben, her father’s apprentice, to deliver a new bit and bridle to Nye, she sees Nye struggling with the horse in his pasture. Nye refuses to buy the bit and bridle that he requested, saying the horse is too wild. Ben is convinced the horse will never trust anyone because of Nye, but Felicity doesn’t agree. She names the horse Penny because of its shiny copper coat. Mr. Merriman also fears for the horse’s safety in the hands of Nye, and Felicity decides she must help the animal.

For adults:

Class Book Recommendation:

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town's most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon's newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.

Inspired by the life of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into history.

A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, based on Her Diary 1785 - 1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • Drawing on the diaries of one woman in eighteenth-century Maine, "A truly talented historian unravels the fascinating life of a community that is so foreign, and yet so similar to our own" (The New York Times Book Review).

Between 1785 and 1812 a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife's Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale.

Works Cited

https://www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.html

https://www.ushistory.org/us/9f.asp

https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-declaration-of-independence/the-five-riders/

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/slavery-colonial-georgia

https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/stories-libertybell.htm

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