Good Wives: Image
and Reality in the lives of Women in
by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
A Book
Review by Deborah L. Wascher
March
2009
In the book Good
Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750,
Laurel Ulrich speaks of the experiences of women in colonial America. Ulrich speaks up for the women from 1650-1750
who have been left out of history. It is
as though they do not exist or contribute to our history. She tells how these
women’s lives are far from routine or submissive. They worked hard in the home as well as being
a part of the community around them.
Women relied on each other as well as their family to get through the
every day as well as the struggles that came along.
Ulrich tells of the lives of women around three
Biblical models: Bathsheba, the dutiful and capable wife; Eve, the husband’s
helper and mother; and Jael, the dutiful and heroic. She tells of the wife’s role in the home, as
well as the community.
Ulrich coins the phrase “deputy husbands” in her book. Ulrich feels that the women served as a
replacement for their husbands in typically male responsibilities in order to
help their household. This could be from
running a business to planting a field.
Ulrich’s research was different since she did not have
many primary or secondary sources available.
Records for women were not kept before 1750. Ulrich uses court records, household
inventories after the death of husbands, probate records, grave stones,
samplers, diaries, letters, church records, and artifacts. She also researched men’s diaries and
writings of men for her sources to find what they told about women. Very few women were visible in history
records as far as documentations. In
public histories and records from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
women are either not mentioned or linked to their husband’s business
dealings. There are few records about
women. Ulrich’s book is unique in that
she found diaries of two women from this time period. One diary was hardly legible but the one of
Martha Ballard, Ulrich transcribed. It
was a very valuable resource to the author. Abbreviations, notes, a bibliographical essay and
illustrations qualify Ulrich’s findings. One flaw may be that the research is
only from northern
Good Wives was eye-opening for me as far as the work that was
expected from women. Women were expected
to do it all. They were to take care of
children, cook, clean and sew, raise gardens and livestock, step in when their
husbands were absent to run businesses, to name only a few. Planning of
pregnancy and lactation and weaning journey were something I had never heard
of. I found the charting and planning to
be fascinating. These ladies were as Eve; mothers of a new country. With high numbers of birth also came the mourning
of many babies and young infants. If a woman could see her grandchildren and
great-grandchildren, she had accomplished a lot and was honored for it.
It was also interesting to read about the women, men
and children who were taken captive by Indians.
In order to survive a trip to
I truly enjoyed reading Good Wives. Ulrich tells with such detail the dealings of women
that you feel you are there. She organizes
her book around the three biblical women and tells how the lives of
1650’s-1750’s women fit in these categories.
She gives examples of daily living of the people in
Good Wives is a book I would recommend to others. I would also recommend other Ulrich books as
well and plan to read others by this author.
Good Wives gives a picture of
life for these pioneer