In 1791 in the state of New York was born Martha Ann Rogers, severely deformed. In the place of arms she had “two diminutive stumps projecting but a few inches from the shoulders.” She had “but one leg, which was also diminutive and ill formed, and on that leg was a stump similar to those which were substituted for arms.” What was to become of Martha Ann when she came of age?
We get the answer from the diary of Thomas P. Cope, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who met Martha Ann on March 29, 1807, when she was sixteen years old . Martha Ann could not stand, but she sat erect “with perfect grace & ease.” “Her features are regular & even handsome,” Cope reported. “Her complexion fair & blooming. Her countenance animated & captivating. Her limbs excepted, she is well formed & of the usual size of persons at her age.”
While Martha Ann “conversed very freely & cheerfully” with the visiting merchant, she worked away at her craft “without any apparent labour or perplexity.” Cope asked her to make a watch paper, an ornamental packing placed in a watch case. Martha “cut me a very neat watch paper in a few minutes, holding the paper between two of her toes, moving the scissors with her lips and steadying the motion with what should have been an arm.”
In addition to cutting watch papers, Martha was an accomplished, and self-taught, seamstress. Cope purchased ”a piece of her work, which for the rich variety & beauty of the flowers & the elegancy of the design is not frequently surpassed by young girls who possess all their limbs & have had much pains bestowed in their instruction.” How could a young woman without hands and feet manage to sew? “She embroiders with her toes & lips, the former officiating below & the latter above the frame. She threads her own needle, knots her thread & designs her own pieces. She writes tolerably well by holding the pen in her mouth. Marking & common needlework she executes correctly.” Cope reckoned that Martha Ann would be able to support herself by her trade.
Meditating on the meaning of Martha Ann, the merchant concluded that she should “stimulate us to persevere in habits of industry under the conviction that labour & ingenuity will be rewarded.” Sadly, that is exactly opposite to the ideology of the modern welfare state, which seeks constantly to aggrandize power by branding ever more citizens as hapless victims who need to be coddled and controlled by the government.
Source: Eliza Cope Harrison, ed., Philadelphia Merchant: The Diary of Thomas P. Cope, 1800 – 1851 (South Bend Indiana, 1978).
Copyright Thomas Doerflinger 2014. All Rights Reserved.
