John Seys had just returned from Africa and, alive with the sense of the need of the mission to Liberia, he presented the claims of the work at a revival meeting at Sing Sing, New York,[8] to which followed up with a note to Nathan Bangs:— “A sister who has but little money at command gives that little cheerfully, and is willing to give her life as a female teacher if she is wanted.”[9][3] When the Charlotte Harper left Philadelphia, June 15, 1837,[2][6] she was among the passengers.
[9] Once arrived in Liberia on July 28, 1837,[4] her eagerness to do good and restlessness at any delay manifested itself in her beginning immediately to gather about her the people who were anxious to be taught.
But with restored health and increased strength, within a few months, she went back again, to assist the three women whom the Board was sending out to this field and to be with them in the beginning of their work.
Her constitution had, however, become so frail by exposure to an inhospitable climate that she remained but a year and a half, and then crossed the ocean the sixth and last time.
[4] The New York East Conference was in session at the time of her arrival, and her first appearance in public was at the ordination of ministers in Fleet Street Church, Brooklyn.
The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, learning this fact, passed a series of resolutions authorizing a committee to solicit funds to provide a suitable resting place and erect a simple monument.
Upon the monument erected is the following inscription:— "Here lies Ann Wilkins, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church to Liberia from 1836 to 1856.