Cover title: Martha Ballard, her diary

Includes bibliographical references (p. 364-411) and index

Introduction: a great sea A going -- August 1787: Exceeding dangeroulsly ill -- September 1799: warpt a piece -- October 1789: Mrs Foster has sworn a Rape on a number of men -- November 1792: Matrimonial writes -- December 1797: Birth 50. Birth 51 -- January 1796: find my house up in arms -- February 1801: A desection performed -- March 1804: what a scean had I to go at Evening -- April 1806: Polly Purington here -- May 1809: Workt in my gardin -- Epilogue -- Appendix: medicinal ingredients mentioned in Martha Ballard's diary

Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier