Richard Allen (1760 - 1831)

Born 14 Feb 1760 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [uncertain]

Husband of Sarah (Bass) Allen — married 13 Aug 1801 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died 26 Mar 1831 at age 71 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Richard Allen is Notable.

Richard Allen was a part of the Abolitionists Movement.

Bishop Richard Allen was a minister, educator, and writer and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.^[1]

Richard Allen was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or more likely Delaware, the slave of Benjamin Chew, a prominent lawyer and Chief Justice of the Commonwealth from 1774-1779.^[2] As a child, Richard and his family were sold to Stokeley Sturgis of Delaware.^[2][3] Although the family was treated well, Sturgis fell upon financial hardship and sold most of Richard's family except for Richard, an older brother, and a sister. The three began attending meetings at the local Methodist Society which welcomed free blacks as well as slaves to its meetings.^[3] Methodism was beginning to spread throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Methodists emphasized a simple set of virtues including honesty, modesty, and sobriety.^[4] Richard attended weekly classes and evangelized his friends and neighbors.^[2] Sturgis was supportive and other slave owners complained that such indulgences of his slave would ruin Sturgis.^[3] Richard and his brother decided to work harder that "they would attend more faithfully to our master's business, so that it should not be said that religion made us worse servants."^[5] Sturgis was able to boast "that religion made slaves better and not worse," and allowed Richard to ask preachers to come and preach at his house.^[5] Sturgis soon came to see that perhaps owning slaves was wrong and offered Richard to buy his freedom.^[3] This took him five years of working extra jobs and saving $2,000 for his freedom.^{[6] [4]} He took the surname "Allen."

Richard Allen grew up during the American Revolution. It was a time characterized by the advocacy of individual rights, the growth of denominational Christianity, and the inception of the antislavery movement. ^[4] Allen became the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States. ^{[3] [4]} He mainly preached about abolition, colonization, education, and temperance using a persuasive, evangelical style. He sought to upgrade the social status of the black community. He also organized Sabbath schools to teach literacy and to promote organization and develop political strategy. ^[3] Early in his career, his services were limited to early morning hours and attended by mostly freed blacks and slaves. ^{[3] [6]} In 1787, he and another black preacher, Absalom Jones, grew weary of the segregation in the church and left to form the Free African Society. ^{[3] [4]} This was a non-denominational mutual aid society that assisted fugitive slaves and new migrants to the Philadelphia area.

This same year, 1787, Allen and Jones, along with William Gray and William Wilcher purchased a lot on Sixth Street near Lombard to build a church. ^[7] It took many years to build but on this lot stands the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is the oldest parcel of land in the United States continuously owned by African Americans. At first, their congregation had to rely on visiting ministers to administer the communion, but in 1799, Allen was ordained a minister by Bishop Francis Asbury. He was the first black Methodist minister. By 1813, he had 1272 congregants, but they were still under white oversight. In 1816, Allen united four congregations: Philadelphia; Salem, New Jersey; Delaware; and Maryland to found the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. This would be the first fully independent black denomination where free blacks and slaves could worship with dignity and without racial oppression. ^[3]

Birth

14 February 1760, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ^[2] Other sources state he was born on a Delaware property of Mr. Chew.^[3]

Death

26 March 1831 (aged 71), Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania,^[3][6] and is buried in Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Plot: Tomb Located on the Church's Lower Level.^[8]

Marriage

• 19 October 1790, Flora.^[3] No record of any children.
• 13 Aug 1801, Old St George Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sarah Bass^{[3] [9]}

Children:

1. Richard Allen, Jr., born about 1803^[10]
2. James Allen, born about 1805^[10]
3. John Allen, born about 1807^[10]
4. Mary Allen, born 1808
5. Peter Allen, born about 1809^[10]
6. Sara Allen, born about 1811^[10]
7. Ann Allen, born about 1813^[10]

Slave Owner

1. Benjamin Chew
2. Stokeley Sturgis purchased from Ben Chew around 1768.

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia: Richard Allen (bishop)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Africans in America PBS Series
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12} Richard Allen on Wikipedia
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4} African American Registry
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Richard Allen. The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen. To Which is Annexed the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Containing a Narrative of the Yellow Fever in the Year of Our Lord 1793: With an Address to the People of Colour in the United States., Electronic Edition, Philadelphia: Martin & Boden, Printers, 1833.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} The Black Past: Remembered an Reclaimed
7. ↑ Black Founders: The Free Black Community In The Early Republic" (http://librarycompany.org/paah/blackfounders.pdf
8. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23/richard-allen : accessed 18 March 2022), memorial page for Richard Allen (14 Feb 1760–26 Mar 1831), Find A Grave: Memorial #23, citing Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA ; Maintained by Find a Grave.
9. ↑ Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Ancestry.com. (Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011). Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Collection Name: Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 387.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5} Notable Biographies

See also:

• Marvin Andrew McMickle. An Encyclopedia of African American Christian Heritage, Judson Press, 2002 [ISBN 0-817014-02-0]
• "Pennsylvania Cemetery Records, ca. 1700-ca. 1950", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZNZ3-24W2 : 25 May 2020), Bishop Richard Allen, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America, Death 26 March 1831.
• "Pennsylvania Deaths and Burials, 1720-1999", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H57R-1KT2 : 9 July 2020), Richard Allen, 1831.
• Wikidata: Item Q2567590, en:Wikipedia