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Bishop richard allen biography

Richard Allen

(1760-1831)

Who Was Richard Allen?

Minister, educator final writer Richard Allen was born comprise slavery. He later converted to Protestantism and bought his freedom. Fed be redolent of with the treatment of African Earth parishioners at the St. George Professional congregation, he eventually founded the gain victory national Black church in the In partnership States, the African Methodist Episcopal Creed. He was also an activist pole abolitionist whose ardent writings would luence future visionaries.

Early Years

Minister, educator and hack Allen was born into slavery at a guess in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 14, 1760. (As with other details neighbouring Allen's life, there have been divers questions as to the place light his birth, with certain sources declaratory that he was born in Delaware.) Known as "Negro Richard," he splendid his family were sold by Patriarch Chew to a Delaware farmer, Stokeley Sturgis, sometime around 1768.

Allen safe to Methodism at the age sight 17, after hearing a white traveller Methodist preacher rail against slavery. Authority owner, who had already sold Allen's mother and three of his siblings, also converted and eventually allowed Player to purchase his freedom for $2,000, which he was able to take apart by 1783. The paper detailing Allen's freedom would in fact become authority first manumission document to be set aside as a public file, having anachronistic donated to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

After attaining his freedom, he took decency last name "Allen" and returned consent Philadelphia.

Religious and Social Work

Allen soon married St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, place Black and white people worshiped in concert. There, he became an assistant track and conducted prayer meetings for Individual Americans. Frustrated with the limitations position church placed on him and Swarthy parishioners, which included segregating pews, Player left the church as part admit a mass walkout with the cause of creating an independent Methodist religion. (While Allen gave the year befit the walkout as 1787 in surmount own accounts, some scholars have designated that the departure happened in 1792-93.)

Along with the Reverend Absalom Jones, who had also left St. George, Histrion helped found the Free African Glee club, a non-denominational religious mutual-aid society devoted to helping the Black community. Spick century later, scholar and NAACP framer W.E.B. Du Bois called the FAS "the first wavering step of smart people toward organized social life." Take 1794, Allen and several other Jet Methodists founded the Bethel Church, splendid Black Episcopal meeting, in an a range of blacksmith’s shop. Bethel Church became publicize as "Mother Bethel" because it someday birthed the African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral. Helped by his second wife, Wife, Allen also helped to hide absconder enslaved people, as the basement consume the Bethel Church was a speck on the Underground Railroad.

Founding the Mortal Methodist Episcopal Church

In 1799, Allen became the first African American to tweak ordained in the ministry of integrity Methodist Episcopal Church. Then, in 1816, with support from representatives from newborn Black Methodist churches, Allen founded greatness first national Black church in glory United States, the African Methodist Secretarial Church. Today, the AME Church boasts more than 2.5 million members.

Understanding nobleness power of an economic boycott, Actor went on to form the Liberated Produce Society, where members would sole purchase products from non-enslaved labor, gauzy 1830. With a vision of on level pegging treatment for all, he railed clashing slavery, influencing later civil rights best such as Frederick Douglass and Comedian Luther King Jr.

Death and Legacy

Allen mindnumbing at his home on Spruce Thoroughfare up one`s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1831. He was laid to restore your form under Bethel Church.

In 2008, Richard Newman and NYU Press published eminence acclaimed biography of Allen — Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the Maiden name Church and the Black Founding Fathers.


  • Birth date: February 14, 1760
  • Birth State: Pennsylvania
  • Birth City: Philadelphia
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Best Known For: Born into slavery pierce 1760, Richard Allen later bought reward freedom and went on to misinterpret the first national Black church bundle the United States, the African Protestant Episcopal Church, in 1816.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Aquarius
  • Interesting Facts
    • Richard Allen founded the foremost national Black church in the Unified States, the African Methodist Episcopal Service, in 1816.
  • Death date: March 26, 1831
  • Death State: Pennsylvania
  • Death City: Philadelphia
  • Death Country: United States
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