Susan Collins: “I would love to share that information with the Senator from Alaska. It is just fascinating to hear the many firsts that…”

“I would love to share that information with the Senator from Alaska. It is just fascinating to hear the many firsts that women from her State have established. The Senator from Alaska obviously has a great deal of pride in the history of women in her State. In Maine, too, we have women who have played influential roles throughout history, but especially in the field of literature. I am sure all of my colleagues know well the story of Harriet Beecher. She wrote ``Uncle Tom's Cabin'' in 1850 while pregnant with her seventh child. She began writing the book while residing in Brunswick, ME. Her deep religious faith and dedication to bringing to light the problems with slavery encouraged ``Hattie'' to write with such passion that she quickly finished and continued to write an average of a book a year to support her family. Another famous Mainer, Martha Ballard, also made important contributions. She lived in Hallowell, ME, and was a midwife and a healer. She faithfully maintained a diary from 1785 to 1812, and her meticulous records have provided us with a rare glimpse into the daily life in Maine in the late 1700s and the early 1800s. Her contributions and life were only recently highlighted when Laurel Ulrich documented her work in a Pulitzer Prize winning book ``The Midwife's Tale.'' America's first female novelist, Sally Sayward Barrell, also known as Madam Wood, was born in York, ME, in the southern tip of our State.”