Black Founder: Richard Allen, African Americans, and the Early American Republic

FAIN: FT-53576-05

Richard S. Newman
RIT (Rochester, NY 14623-5698)

Richard Allen (1760-1831) remains a pivotal figure in African-American history. Although born a slave in colonial Philadelphia, Allen secured his freedom during the American Revolutionary era and became one of the leading black activists before the Civil War. His achievements were many: He co-founded both the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Free African Society in Philadelphia, two of the earliest independent black organizations formed anywhere in America; he published a half-dozen major addresses on racial reform during his lifetime, including the first patented pamphlet by an African-American writer in 1794; he led several major protest actions against slavery and racial injustice, particularly the struggle against forced repatriation of free blacks to Africa; and he served as the president of the inaugural free black convention in Philadelphia in 1830.