Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750

by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

A Book Review by Leslie Leman
March 2009

What is a good wife? There have been many different types of wives through out history. The types of wives were: Rich, merchant, farm and servant. You had the rich wife who didn’t have to do the menial house work. They had their servants do those types of jobs. A rich wife was more of a business than a home. She had to organize the servants and the children and her social duties. A merchant’s wife also had to organize her household. She had to help in the store and do the things that had to be done in her house. She had to feed and take care of her family and also had to help with the selling the goods in their store. A farm wife would be the one to do all the work around the house. That included the work inside and out. She would cook and clean the house. She would also have to take care of the animals and things outside her home. She would feed the animals’ and if need be slaughter them for food. She attended to her garden and then canned if needed to survive the winter. A Servant wife would take care of her family and then need to go to someone else’s house and to the things that the wife of that house would have her do. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich the author of Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750 has written a book that gives us an intriguing look in to the lives and values of the women during the time period of 1650-1750 in the north east of the United States.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has made a great argument in her book Good Wives: Images and Reality in the Lives of women in Northern New England 1650-1750 in that she has woven in to her book so many lives of women in this time period. She divides her book in to three different areas that are named after different women in the bible. These women for whom she names the parts of her book are women that are very strong and women that people would know. The three that are named are Bathsheba, Eve, and Jael. Laurel also gives examples and intertwines them with the women that she has given as the three women part. Women in the Bathsheba part are very strong women who help their families and how they lived their lives during that time. They help their husband if so asked and talk to people on his behalf. They were also women who help their neighbors in times of need. Their neighbors could be as close as 30 feet away of miles away.

They would help them with things that were in need. Even though their households were different the women still and to do their everyday jobs.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has written her book as a social history of women’s lives. She writes about these women as for us to really know what their lives were like. She makes sure to give us details so that we would know these women. Not only does she give examples she tells us about many women who lived during this time. She backs up her examples with data from archives and documents that could be found to support her argument.

Laurel wrote an introduction and preface that made me want to read on and find out what her reasoning for writing her book. She kept me reading on because of all the historical facts and documents that she based the women on. To find out that there was documents left to tell what a woman’s house hold had and be able to deduce what a woman did with her day and what the family was like. Knowing that at that time women were only acknowledged and the wife of a man made me realize how far we have come in our own history.

In evaluating the sources that Laurel Thatcher Ulrich used in her book astounded me. Laurel seems to make sure that we had many sure to intertwine the resources through out her book. She would either Quote a source or give a footnote as to where she got her source from. I was awed by the detail in which she gives the source and how at length she made her footnotes and bibliography. In her attempt to give details I feel that she did a wonderful job to weave details and sources through out her book. The documentation really helped me to exactly know how she came up with the book and the women in it. I loved the fact that she also gave pictures, tables and maps of places that she was talking about. Laurel really utilized court documents, probate records, family papers, church records, and diaries of these women as her sources. Laurel used many primary resources and woven them throughout her book.

As I have stated before I believe that the way that Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has organized her book gave the reader a much enjoyable reading of history of women by more than just stating facts. I loved that women were made alive by using sources that the women had left behind. She wrote her book in a topical way but made it intriguing as so that we really didn’t quite know what she was writing until we read it. The use of women from the bible made me really think of those women and how important they were in the bible and how women in 1600- 1700’s really were like the women of the bible. With these women we know that they and to be strong and know how to do so many things.

In reading this book, I realized that Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is very knowledgeable of the topic. I was so intrigued by her that I even googled her name so that I would know more about her. She is an author of another book called A Midwife’s Tale. This book won her a Pulitzer Prize. To me she seems to be an historian because of the knowledge of the material. She really wants women to be remembered as a vital part of history and the making of history. I realized that this topic of women was important because there are other books on women at this time. Examples are: Revolutionary Mothers: Women in Struggle for Independence by Carol Berkin. There is also books written in times afterwards such as The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove by William Moran; and Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860 by Thomas Louis Dublin and also a biography Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War by Stephens B. Oates.

This book gave me background into what the Boston and Massachusetts area was like because as the title say Good Wives: Images and Reality in lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750. As woman in 2009 I really love to know what life was like in history and to put myself there. I go to places in history and look to see how much my life is different than women of the past. Here in our own state we have places in history like Springfield and all of he sites of Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd.

It is a great thing to knowing and seeing the places that these women lived and to imagine going back in that time in history. I can only imagine by reading this book and more what women went through to make their family work. Being that I work outside my home and also have take care of kids; getting them to all the places that they need to go, household; keeping my house going, cooking cleaning, bills, job; getting done what is expected of me in teaching, husband and all the things that he wants me to do, I can only imagine what I would have had to do to keep my family going in the 1600-1700’s. My life is faster now but there were not the distractions of today’s life.

I feel that this book would help my colleagues in their classroom instruction by giving them giving the knowledge of women in the time period of the 1600-1700’s. It also gives primary sources to use to evaluate and see what women were doing and going through. It shows them the struggles and everyday life. It gives incite from their diaries and court documents among others. They can find out about many different things that women did and owned as part of their husband property and what they might have brought to the family.

I would like to conclude that Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has given us a book with many intriguing ways to see women in the Northern New England during the 1600-1700’s. She wants to give the reader a way of seeing women in so many different roles. During this time period we women are to be strong. We are to be women who can do so many things to help the family. As a teacher I want my students to know that women have made a difference and can continue to make a difference. It was not only men that shaped history but it was women also. A woman by herself or helping a man ie; husband, father, brother or boss has made a difference. Women’s lives have not change as we still have to do so many things to keep our families functioning and doing our jobs. A woman can have a hard time either working outside the home or staying at home and taking care of the family. She is always doing for others. We are all GOOD WIVES.