Focus on the history of women in America
Martha Ballard’s Diary
This assignment addresses the following outcome:
Analyze a historian’s use and interpretation of a diary as a primary source
Women’s historians often have to piece together the stories of women’s lives from fragments of evidence and the occasional diarist. Martha Ballard’s diary, spanning the years from 1785 to 1812, is a treasure trove of information on women’s lives in the early republic. For this activity, you will analyze one event in the diary – the rape of a young woman – and evaluate historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s method of piecing together the event.
After watching the 5-minute video (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (written transcript of the film available here ) on the rape of Rebecca Foster [you will need to have QuickTime installed for the video], read historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s account of the rape (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. This is the historical analysis of the primary source, the finished product, if you will. For this exercise, you will take a look at the work and sources behind Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s analysis and evaluate the process.
After completing these activities, offer an analysis of the practice of history as seen in interpreting this one event.
• How does Martha Ballard’s account of the rape of Rebecca Foster alter the more standard, male-dominated history of this time period?
• What can Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s analysis of Ballard’s diary tell us about the use and interpretation of primary sources in women’s history?