Manumit School

The Manumit School was a progressive Christian socialist boarding school located in Pawling, New York, between 1924 and 1943, and from 1944 to 1958 in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Founded on purchased farm land by Rev. William Fincke and his wife Helen, it was formerly called The Manumit School for Workers' Children. Its teachings were meant to provide a progressive "workers education" slant during a time of increasing socialist optimism in America. Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn worked there as an English and Drama teacher until 1929. History In 1924, Rev. William Mann Fincke and his wife, Helen Hamlin, founded Manumit as an elementary level, co-educational, boarding school on a working farm in Pawling, New York. It was closely associated with a number of NYC labor unions. A. J. Muste was Chair of Manumit Associates/Board for a number of years. The name came from a Latin word meaning "set forth from the hand"; in English, to "manumit" was to release a slave from slavery. In 1926, Henry R. Linville became interim director upon illness of Rev. Fincke.