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Midwife's TALE Chapter Summary

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A MIDWIFE’S TALE, A HISTORY OF JONATHAN ALDER, and VOICES FROM SLAVERY all give insight into the past. Specifically the past of different groups of people, these include, Native Americans, African Americans, women, rich, middle class, and working white men. While they all give insight into the past of these groups they all have their similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses. After analyzing what each book says about these groups the conclusion of which book is most trustworthy will be made. The first book is A MIDWIFE’S TALE written by: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. This book gives insight into Martha Ballard’s life as a midwife through her many diary entries, in doing so it gives lots of information on women and white men specifically …show more content…

Yetman gives a great amount of information on African Americans and a little on whites specifically rich and middle class though the information given on them is told through slave’s stories so it is more so indirect insight. That being said the information presented on African Americans includes how they were viewed, treated, and what they believed. So how were they viewed? Well obviously as property less than human and so on, however there were slave owners that view them almost like family an example is “Marster and Missus…looked up all the Negros they heard of whoever belonged to them…when Marster and Missus found any of theirs they would say ‘well, come on back home.’... Some were so glad to get back…” (Yetman 32). This shows how some slaves were viewed as family because after being freed their former owners came looking for them telling them to come back home and live with them and some were very happy to go back. This also gives insight on how whites treated their slaves and how African Americans viewed their owners. Though this shows a more or less “bright” outcome there are many dark outcomes as to be expected from slavery. Overall VOICES FROM SLAVERY shows how not all African Americans hated slavery but they greatly depended on the owner. While showing that is also shows how not all owners were terrible. This book not only gives information about white men slave owners it also gives information on women. The information given on women suggest that women were allowed to own slaves and discipline them and that they could be just as nice or as cruel as men “owned by an old maid named Miss Kitty Digs” (Yetman 38). This shows how women were able to own slaves. This book does not seem to give much insight on Native Americans or social levels of whites as it showed well off whites could be nice or horrible to slaves as the same for average or less than well off whites it just depended on the person. Overall it gives a

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Laurel Ulrich’s A Midwifes Tale is a book over Marth Ballard who was a New England women living in America. Ulrich uses Marth Ballard diary entries along with other historical documents from the eighteenth century to show her audience the life of women specifically a midwife in the American society, and the sexual standards that were present during the eighteenth century. Martha Ballard the wife of Ephraim Ballard was midwife during the eighteenth century in Hallowell, who not only played the role of a midwife in the society, but also the role of a wife and a mother. Ulrich starts to book by talking about scarlet fever epidemic that had taken places in Hallowell during the summer of 1787. During the time of the fever and after the epidemic had ended, Martha played the role of an important member in the community, even though the social structure in Hallowell was giving more importance to male doctors.

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In many occasions, the woman house slaves were treated more cruelty than any other slaves the master owned. Reading four different stories from four different people

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The Farmer’s Register Letters in 1837 contain primary sources on white perceptions of enslaved African Americans .The letters also offer information about master-slave relationship between whites and African Americans. The Farmer’s Register Letters also informs the reader about how the slaves were treated by means of material as well as working conditions . In the reading of Farmer’s Register Letters, each author perceived the character of African Americans to be underestimated because Africans are "like plastic clay, which , may be molded into agreeable or disagreeable figures, according to the skill of the molder .

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992 Words | 4 Pages

After the first slaves were brought in by the British more and more Africans were sought out. They became like a commodity for those that could afford to purchase them. Regardless, of their sex in the eyes of the law they were viewed and treated as property. Unfortunately, all black men, women and children equally shared devastating experiences during their time as a slave. On one side they were all separated form both their families and their homeland.

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517 Words | 3 Pages

The process of black slavery taking route in colonial Virginia was slow. Black slavery mostly became dominant in the 1680s. Slaves became the main labor system on plantations. The amount of white indentured servants declined so the demand for black slaves became necessary in the mid-1660s. The number of white indentured servants that Virginia had up until the mid 1660s, was enough to meet white peoples labor needs.

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The author also made it known that many plantation owners were accepting positions to claim that "to the Negroes, slavery seemed natural; knowing no other life, they accepted it without giving the matter much thought” (429). Which seems odd because blacks were transported to America and sold to the highest bidder. Their lifestyle prior did not resemble what they had endured in America. When arriving to America they had the impression they were here to help the white man not be inferior to

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First Generations: Women of Colonial America, written by Carol Berkin, is a novel that took ten years to make. Carol Berkin received her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. She has worked as a consultant on PBS and History Channel documentaries. Berkin has written several books on the topic of women in America. Some of her publications include: Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence (2004) and Civil War Wives: The Life and Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant (2009).

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The Impact of Frederick Douglass on American Culture. “Though slavery was abolished, the wrongs of my people were not ended. Though they were not slaves, they were not yet quite free. No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling, and action of others, and who has no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defending, and maintaining his liberty”. In Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” Douglass explores his past as being a slave, telling how he overcame being enslaved and escaped to the north.

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Group Essay on Frederick Douglass “That this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system”, and that Frederick Douglass does in his eponymous autobiography. Douglass throws light by dispelling the myths of the slave system, which received support from all parts of society. To dispel these myths Douglass begins to construct an argument composed around a series of rhetorical appeals and devices. Douglass illustrates that slavery is dehumanizing, corrupting, and promotes Christian hypocrisy. Using telling details, Douglass describes the dehumanizing effects of the slave system which condones the treatment of human beings as property.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

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753 Words | 4 Pages

Through deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion, Frederick Douglass shows the readers what negative effects slavery has on the slaveholders themselves. Douglass successfully shows that slavery makes the slaveholder bitter and brings ultimate sadness into their lives. In addressing the harmful effects of slavery on the slaveholders, he makes one reconsider their moral righteousness and better comprehend the difference between humanity and atrocity. Though there are many other ways that slavery could have been harmful to the slaveholder, Frederick Douglass has shown that these ways given were true and has proven that they were indeed negative effects on the

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831 Words | 4 Pages

According to Slavery and Public History by James Olivier Horton, the collective memory of slavery in the United States has often neglected in creating a full narrative of the past. The painful and unflattering practice of slavery has been thoroughly neglected and misrepresented. Consequently, there is a divided collective memory of slavery amongst Whites and Blacks in the United States. While Black Americans remember the event with great pain, Whites do not acknowledge the harmful of effects of slavery. The effects of slavery have had a significant effects on Blacks which have translated in political, economic and social barriers.

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911 Words | 4 Pages

In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave and the valuable lessons he learned from his experience. Douglass wants the truth about slavery to be revealed and wants to eliminate the lies that portray slavery as beneficial. Douglass exposes the reality of slavery by criticizing the “romantic image” of slavery, showing the intellectual capabilities slaves had, and revealing the reasons why slaves were disloyal to each other. Douglass criticizes the southern, romantic image of slavery by exposing the harsh treatment and sadness that slaves endured. It was southerners who thought slavery as beneficial, because it benefited themselves and white society.

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3503 Words | 15 Pages

Introduction: American Literary stage has an array of expression. It is rightly asserted by Bhongle “Almost every literary genre is rich with new notions, and new ideologies. Women’s writings in America, Afro-American Literature, and Literature of the Immigrants Experience, and of the other ethnic groups- and the actively operating small but significant factors within these broad movements - make the contemporary American Literary scenario highly appealing” Representing principally, feminist cultural theory and ideology, this paper explores the relationship among the chief components— race and religion within the fictional narratives of Afro-American women writers; with reference to the first novel of Toni Morrison.

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2180 Words | 9 Pages

Midwifery In The Middle Ages One of the most important jobs to the women of the Middle Ages is often left forgotten and unmentioned. Without these people, there would not have been enough people to populate the villages and castles of Medieval times, or even enough to build such structures. Without someone ensuring that most births are successful, the population would not have been big enough for society to develop manorialism, or enough citizens become knights, or to fight in the Crusades, or to form guilds and towns, or even enough people to consider the Middle Ages a significant part of history, Midwives were an essential part of Medieval society, in many ways. A midwife is a person who assists a woman in childbirth, who, in the

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