Richard Allen was the first African American to be ordained (made an official minister) in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He went on to found a new Methodist denomination: the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Richard was born on February 14, 1760, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He, his parents, and his siblings were slaves. When Richard was a child, his family was sold to Stokeley Sturgis, a farmer in Delaware. As a teenager, Richard converted to the branch of Christianity called Methodism. He soon became a preacher.
Richard’s religious activities convinced Sturgis that slavery was wrong. Sturgis agreed to let Richard buy his freedom. For several years, Richard did extra work to earn enough money. When he finally purchased his freedom in the 1780s, he took the last name Allen.
Allen left Delaware and became a traveling preacher. In 1786 a white Methodist leader asked him to join a Methodist church in Philadelphia. But when white members of the congregation discriminated against the black members, Allen and his followers left the church.
In 1787 Allen and another black clergyman, Absalom Jones, founded the Free African Society. The society was a religious organization that helped the African American community. However, Allen had another goal: to build an independent church for African Americans.
By 1794 Allen had raised enough money to found Bethel Church in Philadelphia. In 1799 Francis Asbury, the leader of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, ordained Allen as Bethel’s minister. But as Bethel grew, Allen had to fight to keep it separate from the white-led Methodist Episcopal organization.
In 1816 Bethel joined other black Methodist churches to create the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen served as the first bishop of the new denomination. He remained an important figure in Philadelphia until his death there on March 26, 1831.
In the early 2000s the African Methodist Episcopal Church had more than 2 million members.