History of Science Junior Tutorial
Harvard University
Lara Freidenfelds
Science Center 234
Wenesdays 4-6 p.m.
email: freidenf@fas.harvard.edu

Private Stories in Public Places: Documents for Telling the History of Experiences of Sexuality and Childbirth

"John: come let us see if we be fit to marry together.
Mercy: noe, John, then I would be a whore.
J: you will not be except you be with child.
M: then I shalbe hanged.
J: I wonder you talk soe sillily you will neither be hanged nor whipt, what if we are whipt that is nothing.
M: It is a greivous sin.
J: noe, every one doth doe & must doe soe before they are married.
M: I will not beleeve it.
J: indeed they doe.
M: noe, its a greivous sin.
J: I will doe it.
M: What if any[one] sees us?
J: noe they will not.
M: one above will.
J: come let us. If any one sees us I will have them to the court & fined a great deale for I am of good esteem in the towne."

-- from 1662 testimony of Mercy Payne, tried in the New Haven Magistrates Court for fornication, quoted in Norton, Founding mothers & fathers: gendered power and the forming of American society, p. 339-40.

Since the 1970s, many historians have worked to write histories of ordinary people, everyday experiences and the texture of social life in specific communities. This is challenging work in general, and especially so for those who focused on subjects such as sexuality, contraception, abortion and childbirth, subjects which were often only reluctantly discussed in public settings. These historians have found clever ways to extract information about ordinary people's experiences from a variety of documents, including court and other legal records, diaries and letters, doctors' records, social workers and social scientists' writings, and oral histories. Some of the stories in these documents were told in public settings originally, while others became public and available to historians much later. This seminar will largely focus on the history of sexuality and childbirth in colonial America and the United States, and will be organized by the type of historical document primarily used by each author.

For each type of document, we will read several secondary sources, and examine at least one primary document together. Readings will not be lengthy, giving students the opportunity to read critically, examine footnotes, and think carefully about how each author used her or his sources. For each set of documents, we will ask questions such as, "What was the context for recording a particular story? Whose voices are represented? Who was the audience?" Comparing readings and documents over the course of the semester, we will also address such questions as, "what kinds of documents are available in various historical times and locations, and how does this shape our perceptions of differences among times and places? How do documents differ by class, race and gender, and how does this affect the creation of historical narratives which cross these boundaries? What are the different ways in which power differentials and power structures shape the telling of stories and the availability of stories to the historian?"

Students are not expected to have background in American history or the history of sexuality. Requirements will include participation in class discussion; two 5-7 page papers comparing the use of two different kinds of documents in selections from the course readings; and participation in a field trip to the Schlesinger library. The final project will focus on a primary source found at the Schlesinger or elsewhere, and will entail a close reading of the document(s), an analysis of the document(s) as representative of a particular kind of historical source, and secondary source research to contextualize the document(s). It is hoped that this project will provide a possible jumping-off point for a junior paper or senior thesis.

Note on the readings: primary documents will be discussed first in the week prior to the discussion of the secondary sources which draw upon them. Therefore, it's useful to bring the primary documents to class both for the week they are listed, and the following week.

September 20

introduction; discussion of colonial court records, provided in class

September 27

17th century colonial court records

Norton, Mary Beth. Founding mothers & fathers: gendered power and the forming of American society. New York: Vintage Books, 1997 (introduction, p. 3-24; "Searchers Againe Assembled," p. 183-202; "midwives, gossips, and women's communities," p. 222-239; "Sexual Gossip," p. 261-269; "Consensual Sexual Offences," p. 335-347; "'Forsement' and 'Devilish Milking'," p. 347-358; Appendix and Abbreviations, p. 409-412)

Brown, Kathleen M. ""Changed... into the fashion of man": The Politics of Sexual Difference in a Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Settlement." In The Devil's Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South, edited by Catherine Clinton and Michele Gillespie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

October 4

Colonial court records: more perspectives

Dayton, Cornelia Hughes. Women before the bar: gender, law, and society in Connecticut, 1639 -1789. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. (Introduction, p. 1-14; Chap. 5: Rape: The Problematics of Woman's Word, p. 231-284.)

Plane, Ann Marie. "'The Examination of Sarah Ahhatton’: The Politics of 'Adultery' in an Indian Town of Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts." Algonkians of New England: past and present. Ed. Conference Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, Peter Benes and Jane Montague Benes. Boston: Boston University, 1993.

Dayton, Cornelia Hughes. "Taking the trade: abortion and gender relations in an eighteenth-century New England village." The William and Mary Quarterly 48, no. 1 (1991): 19.

Landers, Jane. ""In Consideration of Her Enormous Crime": Rape and Infanticide in Spanish St. Augustine." In The Devil's Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South, edited by Catherine Clinton and Michele Gillespie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

October 11

Fieldtrip to Schlesinger (WE WILL MEET AT SCHLESINGER, IN RADCLIFFE YARD)

(Before class time, look at Schlesinger's on-line finding guide. Brainstorm a list of keywords to try, and print out your list. Then, try them, print out your results, and bring them with you to Schlesinger. We'll compare notes and documents on October 18. Choose your favorite document, and make 4 or so copies, enough for us all to look on while you tell us a little about it.)

October 18

Discussion of Schlesinger findings

19th and 20th century court records

Reagan, Leslie J. "When abortion was a crime : women, medicine, and law in the United States, 1867-1973.". Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. (Focus on intro and chaps. 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7, but try to read the whole thing.)

George Chauncey, Jr. "Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion? Homosexual Identities and the Construction of Sexual Boundaries in the Word War I Era." In Gender and American History Since 1890, edited by Barbara Melosh, 72-105. New York: Routledge, 1993.

October 25

Doctors' records

Document: psychiatric social worker case report (from Kingdom of Evil)

Document: psychiatric patient records

Duden, Barbara. The woman beneath the skin: a doctor's patients in eighteenth-century Germany. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991 (preface; beginning of introduction, p. 1-7; "The Protocols of the Town Physicus, p. 62-71; chap. 3, 4. Skimming chap. 2 will provide helpful background, if time allows. Chap. 1 is a great review of "body" literature across many fields.).

November 1

Doctors' and social workers' records

Lunbeck, Elizabeth. The psychiatric persuasion: knowledge, gender, and power in modern America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994 (Intro; skim chap. 1 and 2 for background; part of chap. 5 beginning with "Individuals and Cases," p. 130-151; chap. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

Monday, October 30 -- First paper due

November 8

Social workers' and social scientists' records

Market research

Document: entries from Ballard's diary

Gordon, Linda. Heroes of Their Own Lives. New York: Penguin Books, 1989 (Introduction and chap. 7).

Scott, Joan. "Heroes of Their Own Lives: The Politics and History of Family Violence (review)." Signs summer (1990): 848-853.

Bullough, Vern. "Merchandizing the Sanitary Napkin: Lillian Gilbreth's 1927 Survey." Signs 10, no. 3 (1985): 615-627.

Strasser, Susan. Waste and want : a social history of trash. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1999 (chapter on menstrual products)

November 15

Late 18th/early 19th century diary

Ulrich, Laurel. A midwife's tale: the life of Martha Ballard, based on her diary, 1785 -1812. 1st Vintage Books ed. ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1991 (introduction, chap. 3, 4, 5, epilogue).

November 22

No class -- Thanksgiving

November 29

19th and 20th century diaries and letters

Document: Mosher records

Leavitt, Judith Walzer. Brought to bed: childbearing in America, 1750 to 1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986 (introduction, chap. 1., p. 58-63, chap. 3, 4, 7, 8).

December 6

Social/psychological research

May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward bound: American families in the Cold War era. New York: BasicBooks, 1988 (introduction, " Explosive Issues: Sex, Women, and the Bomb," "Brinkmanship: Sexual Containment on the Home Front," "Baby Boom and Birth Control: The Reproductive Consensus").

Degler, Carl. "What Ought to Be and What Was: Women's Sexuality in the Nineteenth Century." American Historical Review 79 (1974): 1467-1490.

Seidman, Steven. "Sexual Attitudes of Victorian and Post-Victorian Women: Another Look at the Mosher Survey." Journal of American Studies 23, no. 1 (1989): 68-71.

Friday, December 8 -- Second paper due

December 13

Oral history

Document: menstruation history interview

Fraser, Gertrude Jacinta. African American midwifery in the South : dialogues of birth, race, and memory. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1998 (introduction, chap. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

O'Neil, John D., and Patricia Leyland Kaufert. "Irniltakpunga!: Sex Determination and the Inuit Struggle for Birthing Rights in Northern Canada." In Conceiving the new world order: the global politics of reproduction, edited by Faye D. Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, 59-74. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

Reading period -- meeting to present preliminary results of final project (time TBA)

Friday, January 12 -- final project due