The Frozen River by Ariel Lawson

I am not familiar with this author, and I cannot remember where I read about this book, but I am so glad that I did. This is a work of historical fiction set in the late 18th century that features a Maine mid-wife, Martha Ballard, who worked for 30 years delivering babies and providing a host of other medical services to her community. Of note, no woman who she was present at the birth lost her life--this is a remarkable achievement and speaks to a number of things about medical providers and their patients--skill comes in many guises and she was exceptional. She kept a diary for her entire career, which is how we know about her, because she has otherwise been lost to history. It's 1789, and in the rural Maine community of Hallowell, a local man turns up dead--frozen face up in the Kennebec River. Many who knew him aren't sad to find that he is no longer a threat in town. He has a history of raping women, including one of Mary's friends, and while no one is sorry to see him die, it does appear that he was murdered. There is a lot of rape in this book--Martha herself was raped as a young woman, and there are two rapes in present day story--was this common in colonial America? The interesting history here about women and the shocking difference in their autonomy compared to men led me to think that it probably was an issue. In addition to the shame that rape still engenders, even with some #MeToo action trying to change that, woman could not testify in court without a male relative in court with her--so how can you accuse someone of rape if you don't have a man to stand by you? Women were not taught to read and write routinely, so they didn't have the ability to leave a paper trail--Martha herself was taught by her husband, but it was not the norm. And finally, I never thought about it, but men in positions of power, who could decide who got land and who lost it, had a lot of influence that might have made it difficult to prosecute them for sexual violence.