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Through the courage
of Richard Allen
The African Methodist Episcopal Church,
is a United States Methodist Church, not affiliated with the United Methodist Church governmentally, that was formally organized
in 1816.
It developed from a congregation formed by a group of Philadelphia-area slaves and former slaves who withdrew
in 1787 from St. Georges's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia because of discrimination
.
They built Bethel
African Methodist Church in Philadelphia, now fondly known as Mother Bethel. In 1799, Richard Allen was ordained minister
of the church by Bishop Francis Asbury of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1816, Ausbery consecrated Allen bishop
of the newly organized African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Confined to the Northern states before the Civil War, the
church spread rapidly in the South after the war.
The Church is Methodist in doctrine and church government, and it
holds a general conference every four years. It has about 1,200,000 members.
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Richard Allen
was born on February 14, 1760 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, a slave to a Quaker lawyer, the Honorable Benjamin Chew, Chief
Justice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1774 to 1777.
Richard Allen, his parents and three other children
were sold to a Mr. Stokeley in Delaware, near Dover. Allen recorded that Stokeley was a very tender and humane man who was
more like a father to his slaves than a master.
As Richard and his brother grew older, they were permitted to attend
meetings of the Methodist Society.
In 1777, at
the age of seventeen, Allen was converted by the preaching of free-born Garrettson and joined the Methodist Society
He
later bought his freedom for two thousand dollars in Continental money. He commenced traveling in 1783 and later returned
to Philadelphia and joined the white congregation at St. Georges's Methodist Episcopal Church. He was licensed to preach in
1784 and was permitted to hold services in the morning about 5 a.m.
As the attendence of colored people at St. George's
increased, the hostile attitudes of the officers and members also increased and on a Sabbath morning in 1787, the sexton met
them at the door of the church and sent them to the gallery.
The African Methodist
Episcopal Church Is Born
Oppression launches the new church
One morning, at St. George's, while prayer was going on Allen heard
considerable scuffling and low-talking. As he raised his head, he saw the trustees pulling Absalom Jones and William White
off their knees telling them that they could not kneel there. When the prayer was over, the black people, led by Richard Allen
and Absalom Jones, withdrew from the St. George's Church
Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, William Gray and William Wilcher
were appointed to find a lot to build a church where the worship of God could be carried on without interference.
A
lot was selected on Sixth Street near Lombard, in Philadelphia, and Richard Allen was authorized to negotiate for its purchase.
The lot belonged to Mark Wilcox.
This lot, purchased by Richard Allen in 1787, is the oldest parcel of real estate
owned continuously by black people in the United States. All church buildings of Mother Bethel have been erected on the same
ground.
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