Richard Allen and His Effect on African-American Lives

Richard Allen: A Biography and Historical Context

African-American minister and agitator against colonialism

The life and struggles of Richard Allen provide contemporary historians of African-American history with one of the earliest narratives and examples of how Blacks resisted the institutions of American and world slavery, colonialism, and oppression. Allen's life, as noted by the entry on his life in the encyclopedia of African-American Lives, serves as a unique and profound window for readers as to what life was like for colonial-era slaves and how, while America resisted the tyranny of Britan, African-Americans similarly resisted the tyranny of slavery upon their lives, bodies, and livelihoods. (Gates, pp. 20-21)

Richard Allen was born a slave on February 14, 1760, in Philadelphia. The young Allen grew up on a plantation in Delaware. From the very beginning of Allen's life, he strove to buy his freedom. Allen eventually succeeded in doing so as an adult. He moved to Philadelphia, one of the most tolerant of American cities at the time towards African-Americans, in 1786. Allen helped form the Free African Society, a service group for blacks, in 1787. (Toppin, 2004)

Allen always, in the verbal and written construction of his narrative of freedom, provided a template for American slaves as to how to tell their stories of enslavement and release from bondage in a theological and African-centric framework. He related his struggles to tales of the Bible and to the oppression of darker-skinned people across the world. Also, while not to detract from his considerable achievements, Allen makes it clear that it was far easier for Northern as opposed to Southern blacks to achieve freedom and access to education, and to agitate for the end to slavery as an institution. (Gates 20-21)

The proximity of the earliest abolitionist communities in America, in the form of the Quakers of Philadelphia, were instrumental in helping this future minister find is start in life. "Richard Allen" was one of the first Black leaders to be on record to have "issued strong denunciations of slavery before 1800," and to have created "organizations like the Free African Society of Philadelphia." Although Allen stressed the presence of Blacks in the Black antislavery movement he also, it should be noted, did not actively exclude Whites from these societies. (Franklin, p. 199)

However, while his attempts to end slavery were inclusive, Allen stressed an African-American centric religious focus in his ministry. Allen always provided a religious framework for his tale of release from bondage. He soon came to believe that blacks should have their own churches, and founded the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794. (Gates 836) The AEC church still stands today. Allen was ordained a minister in 1799. In 1816, Bethel ended its link with the Methodist Church. That year, Allen helped establish the African Methodist Episcopal Church, uniting Bethel with other A.M.E. churches. He became bishop of the new church, a place devoted to promulgating Black spirituality and providing a source of religious community and connection. (Toppin, 2004)

Allen's considerable industry and creativity is reflected in John Hope Franklin's statement in From Slavery to Freedom that, while in all "Northern communities that blacks went farthest in establishing independent churches," he feels, "the best example of this trend was the work of Richard Allen and his followers in Philadelphia. This prospective leader demonstrated his industry and determination" by saving enough money with which to establish the AME on his own. (Franklin, p.114) In other words, the success was financial as well, as Blacks had little economic resources at the time, and would for many years to come.

Allen was also influential in agitating against early colonialism. While all Northern Blacks showed almost universal opposition to colonization, particularly colonization in Africa, Allen helped give this opposition an organizational focus and channel. In Philadelphia 3,000 blacks, led by Richard Allen and James Forten, met in 1817 and registered their objections to colonization, urging the "Humane and Benevolent Inhabitants of Philadelphia" that had helped him, such as the Quakers to join them in uniting against this practice of enslaving Black nations abroad, as well as Black Americans at home. (Franklin, p.190)