Born at the Wittenbergen mission station near Basutoland in the Cape Colony of South Africa, Olive Schreiner was the ninth of twelve children of Gottlob and Rebecca Schreiner, a missionary couple. Gottlob had a simple Christianity but limited skills at converting, and after he was eventually let go as a missionary, he became an unsuccessful storekeeper. He was an unusually kind and sympathetic man, and his sympathy for black Africans influenced Schreiner and her siblings.

Schreiner's mother was noted for her quick wit and intelligence, and she fiercely defended British culture in the wilderness. When Schreiner used a Dutch word after her mother had forbidden the children to use it, the young girl received one of the two whippings of her life. She said that this experience convinced her of the horror of whipping anyone, especially the Bantu, and her broken friendship with Cecil Rhodes was exacerbated by...