After the first African servants arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in the early 1600’s, and after indentured servanthood morphed into full-blown chattel slavery, Christians played an indispensable role in the centuries-long struggle to end American slavery.
The African-American Church was instrumental, especially a self-freed slave who blessedly rose to power and became the first bishop of the African American Methodist Episcopal Church.
Richard Allen.
Bishop Allen was a pioneer in American Christianity and one of the widely unknown and unheralded founding fathers of America. He was at the forefront of those who helped to establish the Free African Society in 1787 which grew into the A.M.E. Church that branched out from mainstream European Methodist Church, soon after the American Revolutionary War.
The first truly independent Christian denomination operated wholly by descendants of America’s African slaves, the A.M.E.'s Bethel church located at 6th and Lombard Streets was officially dedicated in 1794.
This prominent location is located near Independence Hall - the Founding Fathers' headquarters in Philly at 520 Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets.
above: Independence Hall in autumn Philadelphia from Independence Mall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , USA
Born Into American Colonial Slavery
On February 14, 1760, Allen was born into slavery in Delaware on the “Whitehall” commodity crop plantation owned by a Philadelphia lawyer and judge named Benjamin Chew who was a wealthy fifth-generation colonist, the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and a Quaker who legally represented the Penn family - the state’s recognized founding family - for about 60 years.
Chew was allegedly a very close friend of George Washington’s and also advised elite colonists on forming the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
When Allen was 8-years-old, Chew sold the Allen family to a plantation near Dover, Delaware owned by Stokley Sturgis who later sold Richard Allen’s mother and three of her kids - keeping Richard, his father and two other siblings.
1775-1783: The American Revolutionary War and Richard Allen’s Freedom
When the American Revolutionary War started on April 19, 1775 in Lexington, Massachusetts, Richard Allen was 14 or 15 and still a plantation slave in Delaware.
America’s colonial leaders declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776 and on September 9 renamed the 13 British-American colonies the “United States of America” - but maintained slavery.
During the American Revolutionary War, at age 19 or 20, Allen started his journey of becoming the first former slave to become a Christian bishop. He began by evangelizing in Philadelphia during the American Revolution.
On March 1, 1780, Pennsylvania passed the “Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery.” Also in 1780, Allen and his brother bought their own freedom, and Richard legally changed his name from “Negro Richard” to Richard Allen.
During the last three years of the American Revolutionary War, Allen drove a traveling salt wagon and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially in Philadelphia where a growing freed African-American population was forming.
When the war ended on September 3, 1783, some 5,000 Black Patriots had fought for the American Colonies against the British forces. And Allen was by then a young, yet seasoned preacher.
1787: The Free African Society is Founded
Allen began ministering at Philadelphia’s St. George’s Methodist Episcopal church in 1786. But he became frustrated with the open bigotry displayed at St. George’s - himself being restricted to early morning services and Black Christians being segregated in the church.
So, Allen and a few followers formed the Free African Society. They purchased a lot on 6th and Lombard not far from Independence Hall - the famous hall being recognized as the birthplace of America, where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and adopted.
The presidential resident where George Washington and James Madison resided in Philadelphia was bounded by Market, 5th and 6th Streets.
The FAS's headquarters was set up in a blacksmith shop. Hence, the familiar A.M.E. blacksmith anvil used as the denomination’s logo and symbol.
1794: Mother Bethel A.M.E. is Established
ABOVE: Statue of Bishop Richard Allen, courtesy of the A.M.E. Church's web site
On July 29, 1794, the converted blacksmith shop opened its doors as Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church - evidently one of the oldest real estate parcels in the U.S. to be owned continuously by African slave descendants.
Bethel A.M.E. eventually became a safe-station on the famous fugitive slave network called the Underground Railroad. Over the years, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass and William Still spoke there.
In 1799, Methodist bishop Francis Asbury officially ordained Richard Allen into the Methodist ministry. Thus making Allen the first ordain African-American in the Methodist denomination.
1816: The A.M.E. Church Denomination Comes to Order
In 1816, Allen led the formal organization of the independently owned and operated A.M.E. Church denomination by merging five congregations into one, consisting of members from Philadelphia, Attleborough, Pennsylvania, Salem, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
This is very likely the first fully independent African-American Christian denomination in the U.S.
On April 10, 1816 at the General Conference in Philadelphia, ministers elected Allen as the A.M.E. Church’s first bishop. And the General Conferences have continued on since then.
1830: The “Negro” or African American Convention Movement
In 1830, Allen presided as Mother Bethel hosted the then-largest gathering of slave descendants in American history - known as the First Negro Convention. Unfortunately, Allen died on March 26, 1831. But the convention he chaired the previous year paved the way for all other annual African-American conventions and organizations.
Conclusion
Bishop Richard Allen is one of the forerunners for all African-American clergy.
He played a huge part in organizing both America’s first “Negro Convention” and the U.S.’s first society and Christian denomination independently operated by former slaves.
Not only was he a founder of the A.M.E. Church, a minister, traveling preacher, evangelist, bishop, abolitionist, educator and writer, he was also one of America's most active and influential leaders during his era, and could some day be recognized as one of America’s Founding Fathers.
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