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Most of us are familiar with a narrative of colonial America that focuses on the actions of our "Founding Fathers." But what of our "Founding Mothers"? This booklist compiles ten works that explore gender in colonial North America and provide an important lens through which we can view some of the formative events in our shared history. These books are listed in no particular order and explore topics from the daily and otherwise mundane like in Ulrich's ''A Midwive's Tale,'' to race and slavery in Brown's ''Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, & Anxious Patriarchs,'' and Morgan's ''Laboring Women''. These books explore concepts of citizenship as well as biological reproduction and power.
1. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679733760/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0679733760&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=a818f98524c020e5e923f1b310482750 A Midwive's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812],'' (Vintage Books, 1990). This book is a classic. In it, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich contextualizes the "exhaustive, repetitious dailiness" of Martha Ballard's life.<ref name=''A Midwive's Tale''>[Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, ''A Midwive's Tale''], p. 9.</ref> Ballard kept a diary for more than 27 years, and Ulrich was able to create a clear picture of what life was like for in New England. Through her analysis of Ballard's diary, Ulrich covers topics from abortion and childbirth to rape. Ulrich's work is a rich resource for those interested in what average life looked like in the late 18th century.
2. Carol F. Karlsen, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393317595/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393317595&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=cb791346d3eaa0606b6545685695445d The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England]'', (W.W. Norton & Co., 1998). The history of witchcraft in colonial America is both eerie and fascinating. Part of our fascination stems from how intellectually frustrating this phenomenon--the Salem Witch Trials, for example--was, but also how dramatic colonists' responses to these witches were. Karlsen explores the history of witchcraft in colonial America with clarity. Expressing that the history of witchcraft ''is'' women's history, and our analysis of can shift when we explore for an explicitly gendered lens.
