Richard Allen (Bishop)

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Richard Allen

Richard Allen (born February 14, 1760 in Philadelphia County , Pennsylvania Province ; † March 26, 1831 there ) was an African-American religious leader and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church).

Allen was born into slavery and around 1768 sold as a child with his parents and three siblings by the lawyer and later Chief Justice of Philadelphia Benjamin Chew to the farmer Stokeley Sturgis in Delaware . To pay off debts, Sturgis later sold Allen's mother and three of his siblings. In 1777, Allen first came into contact with the revival movement within the Anglican Church when, with the permission of Sturgis, he witnessed a corresponding Methodist sermon in a clearing near his estate. Soon after, he introduced his slave ownerone of the clergymen. In the same year he joined Methodism, learned to read and write in the congregation, and began to preach himself at member meetings. In 1780 Sturgis also became a Methodist and declared his opposition to slavery, so that Allen and his brother were able to buy their way out for 2,000 US dollars by doing various jobs until 1785 . During this time Allen attended Methodist congregations in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, despite his lack of training as a traveling preacher .

During the Christmas 1784 conference in Baltimore that established the Methodist Episcopal Church , Allen was the only African-American participant besides Harry Hosier . However , he was denied ordination because of the color of his skin. After Allen had raised the money for Sturgis through his wandering work, he moved back to Philadelphia , where he met and married his wife, the native slave girl Sarah Bass. With her he began to operate a station on the Underground Railroad , which he continued until his death. From this marriage there were six children.

In 1786 he was invited to preach there by the white pastor of Saint George's Methodist Episcopal Church , a multiracial congregation in Philadelphia. This led to an increase in the proportion of African American people attending church services . The council of elders then decided to separate them spatially in the church and to limit the services they were allowed to attend. Allen's request to build a church for the black parishioners was rejected by the presbyters. During a service there was a scandal when Absalom Jones refused to take the separate seats on the balcony for the African American. After the elders expelled him, all the black parishioners left the church with him. Shortly thereafter, on April 12, 1787, Allen founded the Free African Society (FAS) with Jones and six other men , which supported escaped slaves in Philadelphia and combated racism. In addition, the members of a brotherhood helped each other similarly and used a common house to hold church services there.

The former Bethel African Church and now the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia

In 1794 the FAS finally founded the African Church of Philadelphia . Because of her experiences in the Methodist church, the latter joined the Episcopal Church of the United States of America , while Allen remained a Methodist. On July 29, 1794, he founded the Bethel African Church in a smithy that belonged to him, and he became its deacon . The church is now the oldest continuously African-American building in the United States. In the same year, Allen and Jones were commended by the Mayor of Philadelphia for their commitment to nursing and caring for the dying in the city during a major yellow fever epidemic the previous year . In 1799, Allen received official ordination as a deacon through Bishop Francis Asbury .

Allen subsequently successfully fended off attempts by white Methodist leaders to gain control of the Bethel African Church . A judgment in his favor, passed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1807, resulted in the formation of many black Methodist churches in the northeastern United States. The same court ruled on January 1, 1816, on the independence of the Bethel African Church . In the same year, 16 of these churches united at a convention in Philadelphia to form the denomination of the African Methodist Episcopal Church . On April 11, 1816, Allen was elected bishop of the AME Church .

In addition to his church activities, he founded the Society for Free People of Color for Promoting the Instruction and School Education of Children of African Descent in 1804 . The Free Produce Society of Philadelphia of December 20, 1830 goes back to his initiative. From September 20 to 24, 1830 he led the first National Negro Convention , which met in the Bethel African Church .

Allen died in Philadelphia and is buried in the cemetery of the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church , the former Bethel African Church . Several institutions bear his name in his honor, such as Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina , Allen Temple AME Church in Cincinnati, and the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art in Manhattan .

literature

  • Frederick V. Mills: Allen, Richard . In: Henry Louis Gates, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (eds.): African American Lives . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-19-988286-1 , pp. 20, 21
  • Richard S. Newman: Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers . New York University Press , New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-8147-5852-6
  • Anthony Todman: Richard Allen (1760-1831) . In: Junius P. Rodriguez (Ed.): Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1 . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2007, ISBN 978-1-85109-544-5 , pp. 158-160

Web links

Commons : Richard Allen (Bishop)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard S. Newman: Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers . P. 28
  2. ^ Richard S. Newman: Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers . P. 33
  3. ^ Richard S. Newman: Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers . P. 37
  4. ↑ Anthony Todman: Richard Allen (1760-1831) . P. 158
  5. ↑ a b c d Frederick V. Mills: Allen, Richard . P. 21
  6. ↑ William J. Switala: Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania . Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg 2001, ISBN 978-0-8117-1629-1 , p. 166
  7. ↑ Christopher J. Anderson: Allen, Sarah Bass (1764-1849) . In Susan Hill Lindley, Eleanor J. Stebner (Eds.): The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History . Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville 2008, ISBN 978-0-664-22454-7 , p. 4
  8. ^ Richard S. Newman: Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers . P. 60
  9. ↑ Anthony Todman: Richard Allen (1760-1831) . Pp. 158, 159
  10. ^ Henry H. Mitchell: Black Church Beginnings: The Long-hidden Realities of the First Years . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids 2004, ISBN 978-0-8028-2785-2 , p. 68
  11. ↑ a b Anthony Todman: Richard Allen (1760-1831) . P. 159
  12. ^ Henry H. Mitchell: Black Church Beginnings: The Long-hidden Realities of the First Years . Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids 2004, ISBN 978-0-8028-2785-2 , p. 105
personal data
SURNAME Allen, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Methodist Bishop
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia County
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1831
Place of death Philadelphia County