STRONG WOMEN IN 1888
by Edith Maxwell
I think a lot about strong women in 1888. Rose Carroll, the fictional
midwife in my Quaker Midwife Mysteries, certainly qualifies in many ways, but
so did most other women of the era.
Rose is an unmarried independent
businesswoman. She traverses the busy mill town of Amesbury, Massachusetts on
her bicycle, attending births and providing follow-up care to mothers and
babies. Her office is also her bedroom, the parlor of her brother-in-law’s
home. Frederick offered it to her after the death of Rose’s sister a year
earlier, and she’s happy both to live with her five nieces and nephews and to
have a consultation room in which to examine her pregnant clients.
Rose is also a Quaker. Her faith is justice-minded and tolerant in many
areas: believing in the equality of all races, and of men and women; advocating
peace, not violence; expecting that others will tell the truth. But it can be
rigid in assuming its members will dress plainly, not marry outside the church,
and abstain from intoxication and frivolity such as dancing. Rose struggles
with these strictures, particularly as her romance with the non-Quaker
physician David Dodge develops. She has to be brave to stand up to the elders
at her Friends Meeting.
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| Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse. Picture by Kathleen Wooten, used with permission. |
Most women outside the very rich elite were strong, even in the city.
Wood stoves had to be stoked. Laundry scrubbed by hand. Chickens plucked and
cleaned before cooking. Water boiled for cleaning. Chamberpots emptied and
scrubbed every morning. Not to mention tending the family horse or walking
everywhere in your one pair of shoes on uneven cobblestones. There were no
elevators, escalators, or electric irons. Even gas stoves were new, and most
homes had no flush toilets, electric lights, or telephones. Everyday life was
hard.
Rose’s friend Bertie Winslow is a tough cookie, too. She’s over forty and
is the postmistress of the bustling town. She rides a horse irreverently named
Grover – after the President – and lives unconventionally with another woman in
what some whisper is a Boston marriage: not just two spinsters sharing a
household but in a romantic relationship. Bertie doesn’t care what people think
of her. Rose doesn’t either, and they’ve already worked together to solve
several crimes the police weren’t making progress on.
And then there’s Orpha Perkins, the old midwife Rose apprenticed with.
She’s birthed over a thousand babies at home in her career. Rose has taken over
her business, but Orpha is happy to provide consultation on tough cases – of
both pregnancy and crime – whenever Rose needs her.
Finally, nearly every woman still birthed her babies at home in those
days. The idea of doctors handling births, at home or in hospitals, was just
beginning. Women had to be strong, as they still are, to go down into death and
bring forth life. And they relied heavily on the age-old honorable profession
of midwifery.
I’m delighted to be immersed in life in my town almost a century and a
half ago. I feel like some of those women’s strength has already rubbed off on
me.
Bio:
Agatha-nominated and Amazon best-selling author Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and the Local Foods Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries (as Maddie Day), and the Lauren Rousseau Mysteries (as Tace Baker), as well as award-winning short crime fiction. Her story, “A Questionable Death,” which features the same 1888 setting and characters as Delivering the Truth, is nominated for a 2016 Agatha Award for Best Short Story.
Edith is Vice-President of Sisters in Crime New England and Clerk of Amesbury Friends Meeting. She lives north of Boston with her beau and three cats, and blogs with the other Wicked Cozy Authors. You can find her on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, and at her web site, edithmaxwell.com.
Book blurb:
In Delivering
the Truth, midwife Rose Carroll becomes a suspect
when a difficult carriage factory manager is killed after the factory itself is
hit by an arsonist. Struggling with being less than a perfect Friend, Rose
delivers the baby of the factory owner’s mistress even while the owner’s wife
is also seven months pregnant. The mistress is killed a week later. Can Rose’s
strengths as a counselor and problem solver help bring the murderers to justice
before they destroy the town’s carriage industry and the people who run it?
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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here.
If you have something to say about the topic of
strong women, contact me on Twitter:
@conniehambley.
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