Midwifery in the 1890s - CHARITY'S BURDEN #bookgiveaway

HALLIE EPHRON:  Today we're welcoming back one of our favorite authors along with the great news that she's out with her newest Quaker Midwife Mystery. She's an Amazon bestselling and Agatha Award nominated author with FIVE(!) series under notched on her belt. She writes pitch-perfect historical with strong, complex female characters. Today she's here to talk about what lit a fire under her to write Charity's Burden.

 

EDITH MAXWELL: Thank you for having me back on Jungle Reds! It’s always a delight to be on the front side of the blog. I will happily send a signed copy of Charity’s Burden, my newest Quaker Midwife Mystery, to one commenter here today.

It was pure chance that I picked 1888 to set a series in. I read a newspaper article about the Great Fire of 1888 in my town of Amesbury, Massachusetts, and a story popped into my head about the Quaker mill girl who solves the mystery of the arson. I wrote that short story, and “Breaking the Silence” was published in Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold (Level Best Books, November 2013).

As happens with writers, the setting and characters refused to go away, so I invented the girl’s midwife aunt Rose Carroll, wrote Delivering the Truth, and sold the series to Midnight Ink! The first three books have been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel, including Turning the Tide this year. I’m honored to be again sharing the slate with Rhys.

The last decade of the nineteenth century turns out to be a fascinating era to write about. So many cultural changes were going on. The germ theory of infection is known, so Rose washes her hands and keeps her instruments clean, but there are no lung surfactants for premature babies or antibiotics, and Cesarean section births are quite dangerous. Most babies are still delivered at home by midwives even though lying-in hospitals are starting to spring up. Electricity and telephones are starting to be used but aren’t widespread. Some well-off folks have running water and indoor toilets, although not modest homes like the one Rose lives in. The police don’t yet have fingerprinting or blood typing at their disposal. Train tracks have connected coast to coast and the women’s suffrage movement is gaining momentum. Women’s hems are starting to come up, because it was theorized they were sweeping tuberculosis germs indoors with their long skirts.

Charity’s Burden treats the topic of birth control, which was hugely controversial at the time. Midwife Rose Carroll’s clients come to her with pregnancies, but they also seek her help when they don’t want to have another baby – whether before or after they have conceived yet again.

The highly restrictive Comstock Laws were passed in the 1870s, which made even speaking about preventing pregnancy a crime. Herbalists and others turned to evasive wording in the advertisements for their products, calling them products to regularize women’s cycles and improve their health. Certain practitioners also offered abortions, which of course were life-threatening at the time. I wanted to explore these issues – in the context of a murder mystery, of course. Here’s the book blurb:

The winter of 1889 is harsh in Amesbury, Massachusetts, but it doesn’t stop Quaker midwife Rose Carroll from making her rounds of her pregnant and postpartum mothers. But when Charity Skells dies from an apparent early miscarriage, Rose wonders about the copious amount of blood. She learns that Charity’s husband appears to be up to no good with a young woman. The woman’s mother, who goes by the mysterious name of Madame Restante, appears to offer illegal abortions and herbal birth control. A disgraced physician in town does the same. Charity’s cousin mistakenly thinks he will take control of his father’s estate, part of which was to go to Charity. Rose, who suspects Charity’s death was from an abortion either incompetently or maliciously performed, once again works with police detective Kevin Donovan to solve the case before another life is taken.

I love writing about Rose Carroll, a Quaker in her mid-twenties. She’s an independent business owner and a good listener. She cares very much for her women, and lives out the Quaker values of non-violence, equality, simplicity, and integrity. Her ability to go places the detectives can’t – women’s bedchambers – lets her hear secrets that help her solve crimes.

I’m excited Quaker Midwife Mystery #4 is out, and I am happy to announce the series is moving over to Beyond the Page Publishing with book five. Look for Judge Thee Not to release this fall! There will be at least two more in the series after that. My next Country Store mystery, Strangled Eggs and Ham (written as Maddie Day) comes out June 25.

Readers: What’s your favorite tidbit of history from the second half of the nineteenth century? Favorite historical character, fictional or real? I’m happy to answer questions, too, and I’ll give away a signed copy of Charity’s Burden to one lucky reader.

Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries, the Local Foods Mysteries, and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell, with seventeen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and two elderly cats, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, and at the Wicked Authors blog.