OF THE  A. M. E. CHURCH.                       47

    In the afternoon my father's sister came to the door and called
out to this girl (to warn her.) I had the boys help her out of one of
the back windows. She was also punished severely but like the
Christians of old those girls kept coming. It would have made your
hearts ache to see their backs and to know that they were lashed
because their fathers want to sell them for so many head of cattle.
They say if they go to school they will not want to be sold to heathen
husbands. But praise His name, we have the victory, for those girls
are now attending probationer's class and are in the primary class.
    So many come to me and say, "Miss Manye, my father says I
may come to school. I have come to dress." Many of my boys
wear just the shirt to school. I have ripped a number of my light
dresses to make shirts for my boys. Winter is coming on and I will
need some flannelette to make more shirts for the boys. Perhaps the
ladies there can gather old clothes for my boys, old shirts and coats,
and please send them to Cape Town. Bishop Coppin will send them
to me. I am more than a thousand miles from Cape Town. I had
a nice lot of books, slates, two maps, and other things for my school
from Bishop Coppin and a dozen dresses for my little girls from the
Juniors in Philadelphia. I am writing now to thank them for what
they have done.
     My school house is small.  I have no desks.     Most of the boys
and girls sit on the floor and the floor is of mud and clay. As I said
when I was there, I need the aid of my mothers. Let each member
of the society, if possible, adopt a boy or girl to aid him or her with
things to put on.  With me it goes pretty hard to see the children on
the mud floor.  A few pounds will buy the wood and I can get some
one to make the benches, so please tell my mothers about this. I
also need to enlarge the school house. The boys will make the brick
but we need money to buy iron for roofing and flooring material--so
as to avoid the mud floor. Our missionary societies will some day
help us. They made good reports at the conference at Bloemfontein,
but they are just beginners and I can not expect them to build me a
 school house for some time. * * * * * * *
     I am way out forty miles from the nearest town. I used to sing
 over there, "Perhaps to-day there's a lonely spot in earth's harvest
 field so wide," and I think this is the spot.
     My father and little sister, my brothers Henry and Philip are all
 here and well, with the exception of my  father who suffers from
 asthma.  All these friends send love to you in far away America.
 Write to us soon. I have written many letters that were never
 answered.  Pray for us.  "God be with you till we meet again."
                                 Your loving sister,
                                         CHARLOTTE M. MANYE.




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

Woman's Mite Missionary Society, Minutes of the Seventh Annual Convention, Cincinnati, 1903

Date:  1903