“We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground. We stopped and united in prayer to the Lord; we asked God the Eternal Father to heal our feet and our prayers were answered and our feet were healed forthwith.” — Jane Manning¹

In the winter of 1842–43, Jane and some of her family members were baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jane and her family wanted to join the rest of the Saints in Nauvoo, so they left Connecticut for New York, planning to travel on steamboats and canal boats for easier passage.² Unfortunately, the Mannings were denied boat passage because they were black, so they decided to walk the remaining 800 miles to Nauvoo, Illinois.² On their journey, authorities in Peoria, Illinois threatened to put Jane and her family in jail if they did not have their “free papers” to prove they were not fugitive slaves, but eventually let the Mannings go.^1,2 Jane had paid a man to take all of her clothes to Nauvoo in a trunk, but the trunk was lost on the trip.¹ The Mannings’ shoes wore out during their walk from New York to Nauvoo, but their cracked and bleeding feet were healed according to their prayers.¹ Despite the setbacks on their journey, the family eventually reached Nauvoo.²

1. ”The Autobiography of Jane Manning James,” history.churchofjesuschrist.org

2. ”Jane Elizabeth Manning James,” churchofjesuschrist.org