basically charge means

Electric charge is a property of charge let`s understand with a silly example Glass is brittle and metal is hard. Now here hardness of metal is a property of metal similarly charge is a property and not a thing Okay now many crazy people before many centuries tried to rub amber with wool or silk also glass rods with with silk and wool now the glass rods repel but get attracted to wool due to this many scientists started scratching their heads and after a Carefull study they came to know there are two different charges They are given +ve and -ve signs just as it was seen they cancelled each other or neutralized or something like that but it`s just a sign denoted so we learn it like that There is no scientific cause to give only -ve to electron and +ve charge to proton it`s just a sign denoted for better understanding Hope it helps