Profiles in Africana Religion – Part 1: Richard Allen and the AME Church

Africana religious history is rich and dense with a long tradition of philosophical innovation and dynamic thought.  Since the first disembarkation of Africans in the Western Hemisphere there has been a concerted effort on the part of the enslaved and free to maintain a sense of humanity, understand the precarious nature of European oppression in light of the presence of the divine, and work towards a sense of physical and spiritual freedom.  As such, there are scores of movements and individuals who have taken upon themselves to be the caretakers of the souls of Black folk.  Accordingly, the following series of essays will center on the lives of Africana America’s most impactful religious and spiritual leaders, beginning with the one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: Richard Allen.

​The story of Richard Allen and the founding of the AME Church began in the late 1700s, however Allen’s personal history begins much earlier in the 18th century.  Allen was born on Valentine’s Day 1760 in Philadelphia.  He was born the property of Philadelphia lawyer, Benjamin Chew.[1]  His family and he were sold to a Delaware landowner named Stokley Sturgis in the late 1770s.  Though Methodism was prominent throughout Maryland, Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Sturgis was not a convert.  Nevertheless, Sturgis allowed Allen and his brother to attend church and was eventually allowed them to hold Methodists services and prayer meeting on his property.  The Methodist church attracted many African Americans into their fold throughout the latter part of the 1700s because of noted anti-slavery beliefs.[2]  Methodists believed that the soul as well as the body needed to be free to fully appreciate and fulfill the will of God.  Donald G. Mathews in the book Slavery and Methodism: A Chapter in American Morality, 1780-1845 argues that “when American Methodists preachers first formally denounced Negro servitude, it was well established by law and by custom in a majority of the rebellious English colonies.”[3]  This caused some difficulties for the Methodist church in the late 18th century, however most were uncompromising in this stance, which led to the Methodist Church’s involvement in the anti-slavery movement throughout the 19th century. 

Personally, Allen was attracted to Methodism due to the denomination’s attention to spiritual discipline, personal freedom and devotion.[4]  That is to say, Allen believed Methodism, which “provided a detailed prescription of how one should live, supplies communities to observe and encourage one’s moral progress and reinforced one’s commitment to a virtuous life by emotional praying, preaching and revival meetings”, was best suited for Black people in their pursuit for personal, spiritual and collective freedom.[5]  Moreover, the foundation of the AME church was birthed by Allen for three reasons: first, he felt Black people needed a religious community for mutual support and the personal direction of parishioners.[6]  Second, he felt Methodism was ideal for the largely uneducated, poor and transient Black population of the mid-Atlantic region.  And lastly, because Methodists were largely anti-slavery Allen felt the Methodist church provided the best opportunity to create a religious community for people of African descent. 

Allen was eventually freed from his bond to Sturgis, in part because of a newly acquired sense of Methodist piety on the part of his owner.  As such, Allen moved to Philadelphia and soon began preach at St. George’s Methodist Church in Philadelphia.  He attracted many African Americans to St. George’s services but he was relegated to preaching the early morning service and/or preaching outside or in the common area, away from the white faithful.  Further, as a method of out-reach Allen and fellow parishioner Absolom Jones organized the Free African Society.  This Society, as a mutual aid/out-reach organization, supported the widowed, infirmed, and orphaned[7] and served as pillar of the Philadelphia’s Black community by its members living “orderly and sober lives, distinguished by temperance propriety and martial fidelity.”[8]  At St. George’s, White church leaders continuously put their racist notions and postures above the Methodist requisite for equal representation before God.  Until 1792 when Allen and other members of the Society, perhaps struck by the fervor of self-determination of the Revolutionary Era, decided independence was the only path moving forward.[9]  Allen, Jones and other forward thinking Black members of St. George’s Church staged a walk-out that became the catalyst for the entire AME movement.[10] 

The Free African Society and the early stages of the AME church are connected in such a way that it is difficult to talk about one without the other; essentially, the AME church is an out-growth of the Society.  Allen was not always a member in part because of this Methodist fervor.  He seemed quite locked-in to the notion that the Society needed to have a religious foundation when others thought it best to remain neutral to attract members who perhaps were not Methodist.[11]  Nevertheless the Society was integral in providing the space and direction that would lead to the founding of the AME church.[12]  The AME church structure and approach towards worship offers a highly diverse but directed approach that is encapsulated in its name.  First, African is focused on the origins of the religious movement.  Meaning, because the church was founded and organized by people of African descent, its primary focus is on the African diasporic community.  This is not to suggest there are tenants of separatism within the movement, there is no evidence to support that notion.  Instead, the movement makes it clear that its founding was forced by church elders who refused to address the pressing needs of its Black members; therefore, the church remains centered on the needs of African people, while making it clear that all are welcome within in its walls.[13] 

Second, the AME church retains its Methodist worship style.  American Methodists were known for their dramatic and emotion worship styles which attracted people of African descent at the time of its founding.  This style of worship carried over to the AME church.  Allen and members of the Free African Society also wanted to retain Methodist doctrines and order of worship.  Meaning, the church focuses on preaching the gospel, in part, through community outreach and diverse forms of philanthropy.  From its founding the movement centered itself on out-reach, particular for the all-too-often marginalized African community in the US.  Lastly, the church functions under an Episcopal form of church governance which includes a Council of Bishops as its executive branch.    This Council meets annually to address the business of its twenty districts which span the globe.

Apart from the Hush Harbors and the institution of Voodoo in New Orleans, the AME Church represents the oldest Africana Church in the United States.  Further, the AME church set a tone for how Christianity would be practiced in Black people in the US, by serving as an example of spiritual autonomy within European American dominated Christianity.  The AME Church was not hidden or relegated to midnight meetings, nor was it to be dismissed as a primitive throw-back aboriginal cult of mysticism.  Instead, Allen and his cohort created institution within the dominant culture despite constant racist push-back.  As such the AME church stands critical institution that challenged American religious zeitgeist of the 18th and 19th centuries and laid the foundation for spiritual growth.



[1] Albert Raboteau.  “Richard Allen and the African Church Movement”, Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 2. 

[2] Ibid., 3.

[3] Donald G. Mathews. Slavery and Methodism: A Chapter in American Morality, 1780-1845. (Princeton University Press, 2015), 3.

[4] Albert Raboteau.  “Richard Allen and the African Church Movement”, Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 8.

[5] Ibid., 8.

[6] Ibid., 2.

[7] Ibid., 5.

[8] Ibid., 5.

[9] There is debate as to whether the walk out was in 1792 or 1793.

[10] Albert Raboteau.  “Richard Allen and the African Church Movement”, Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 4.

[11] William Douglass. "Annals of the First African Church in the United States of America, now styled The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas." (1862): 34.

[12] Albert Raboteau.  “Richard Allen and the African Church Movement”, Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier.  (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 5.

[13] Carolyn S. Beck (1988). "Our Own Vine and Fig Tree: The Authority of History and Kinship in Mother Bethel". Review of Religious Research. 29 (4): 369–84.