Month: October 1996

Bringing Life into the World

By Karen L. Hayden The arduous life of a midwife in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is portrayed in the Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Midwife’s Tale. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich hits a home run with her work based upon the diary of Martha Ballard: 1785-1812. Though her diary starts after the Revolution, there is still much…

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The Diary of Job Whitall

By Sue Huesken Diaries are a wonderful source of primary information on all aspects of 18th century life. They are also great fun to read. Job Whitall’s diary written during the American Revolutionary War gives a unique picture of life by the writer. Job Whitall was a Quaker living in Gloucester County, New Jersey. He…

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Philip Morin Frenea

Contributed by Jack Gardner Philip Morin Freneau was a patriot as well as one of America’s first romantic poets. Here are two pieces of his work: “To the Memory of the brave Americans, under General Greene, in South Carolina, who fell in the action of September 8, 1781”Inspired by the Maryland Line At Eutaw springs…

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