No. 32

The Elders in 1822—Rebecca Turner Pratt

Dear Stewart,

This story is about your grandmother, Mary Ann Pratt and her mother, Rebecca. When she was age fourteen in 1822, she came into womanhood the same week that her mother gave birth to son Ira Rice.

With the help of their slave girl Anna, the two young girls rushed to aid, clean, and wrap the baby and deal with its crying because Rebecca was passing out, losing more blood.

It was in the middle of the night that Mary Ann, with blood about her own nightgown, reached for the baby, who was whaling and shaking. Mary Ann knew how to act motherly and keep him close but knew not how to be. When she looked at the ceiling for an angel, Mrs. Metcalf came to the door, falling in.

“Where is Anna?” Mrs. Metcalf asked, unwrapping her scarf, and rolling up her sleeves.

“She went to get you,” Mary Ann whispered.

“Find her. She must get the doctor.”

But Mary Ann could not budge. Mrs. Metcalf quickly took the baby and applied him to her own breast and things began to get quiet. Too quiet, and Mary Ann lost her strength. Her father in prison, her mother dying, her own blood about her feet.

Switching breasts, now, to free her dominant hand, Mrs. Metcalf reached for Rebecca's neck, then took Rebecca's sagging head and tilted it more center on the pillow, with feathers falling to the floor. She covered Rebecca's face with the sheet, where upon she wiped her hands of it.

Mrs. Metcalf turned to Mary Ann. She took the candle out of her hand and blew it out, for the sun was coming in.

The Metcalf Family managed to keep the house for Mary Ann and her infant brother. Soon they used their influence to arrange for her father’s early release, striking a deal to trade Anna, who slaved for the Metcalf Tavern, keeping her close.

—Miss Minnie

2025 Copyright Christine Friesel