Ira Pratt-Henry Brother House, 22 Morris Street, Bath, NY (n.d.)
Mary Ann Pratt, now fourteen in 1822, came into womanhood the same week that her mother, Rebecca, gave birth to son Ira Rice. With the help of their slave girl Anna, the two young girls hustled about to care for the baby and deal with its crying because Rebecca was passing out, losing more blood.
In the middle of the night, with blood about her nightgown, Mary Ann reached for the baby, who was whaling, shaking, and red faced, and pulled him close. When she looked to the ceiling for an angel, Mrs. Metcalf came to the door.
“Where is Anna?” Mrs. Metcalf asked, unwrapping her scarf, and rolling up her sleeves. “We have to get the doctor.”
“She went to get you.”
Mrs. Metcalf quickly took the baby and applied him to her own breast and things began to get quiet. Too quiet. Her father in prison, her mother dying, her own blood about her feet, her slave Anna confused and probably waking up the entire Metcalf family and their guests at their tavern, getting boots thrown at her in the dark from the top of the stairs. What is to become of us?
Switching breasts, Mrs. Metcalf asked Mary Ann if she knew what to do about her own body and she nodded, but they both agreed that things would improve only once Anna returned. She always took action before anyone else. When Rebecca died, the Metcalfs managed to keep the house and arrange for her father’s early release, striking a deal to give Anna to the Metcalf’s, keeping her close.