Richard Allen

Richard Allen was born on 14 February 1760 in Philadelphia into slavery. He grew up during the American Revolution, around 1777 was converted to Methodism, and after his conversion in 1780 his enslaver, Stokeley Sturgis, allowed him to hire himself out to earn money to buy his freedom for $2,000. He became free in 1786.

Allen began preaching at Methodist churches in Delaware and neighbouring states, and in 1784 was one of only two African Americans, alongside Harry Hosier, to attend the Christmas Conference that established the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. In 1786 he settled in Philadelphia, preaching at St. George's Methodist Church and leading prayer meetings for Black congregants.

When the church's white leaders tried to restrict Black worshippers, Allen withdrew in 1787. That year he co-founded the Free African Society with Absalom Jones, a mutual aid organisation for Black Philadelphians, and in 1794 he opened Bethel Church, converting an old blacksmith shop into a place of worship. In 1799 Francis Asbury ordained him a deacon, making him the first Black man ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Allen then led a decades-long struggle with white Methodist authorities for control of Black religious life. On 7 April 1816 he presided over the convention at Bethel that created the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the first independent Black denomination in the United States, and was elected its first bishop. A year later he and Jacob Tapisco published The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Allen was also an educator, writer and tireless abolitionist, founding institutions including the Bethel Benevolent Society and the African Society for the Education of Youth, and in 1830 he became president of the American Society of Free Persons of Colour and founded the Free Produce Society. His wife Sarah Allen is celebrated as a founding mother of the AME Church. He died in Philadelphia on 26 March 1831.