What Impact Did Richard Allen Have On African-American Society

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In early America, freedom came with a price. This price was especially unfair and targeted the African American community specifically. To help relieve those that had been treated unfairly because of their race, those like Richard Allen stood up to fight for justice and equality so that freedom could be enjoyed by all, no matter the color of a person’s skin. A young African American man named Richard Allen was born on February 14, 1760 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was born into slavery, which made his life far more difficult than one could ever imagine. Richard and his family were forced to travel from home to home until they were placed in Delaware where they had to work under their slave master, Stokeley Sturgis in 1968. It has been …show more content…

Even when he proposed this idea to the most educated and well known African-Americans, they still declined his proposition – except for three men: William White, Dorus Ginnings, and Rev. Absalom Jones. They all worked together just hoping that their dream would come true, no matter how many times they had been discriminated against. In 1787, Rev. Jones and Richard Allen began a non-denominational religious society for the African-American community, known as the Free African Society. This organization later transformed into the African Church of Philadelphia. Richard continued his ministry and founded Bethel Church in 1794, which was a stop for the Underground Railroad. In the year 1799, Allen became the first African-American to be ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Along with his other accomplishments, Richard developed the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, which was the first national black church in America. To this day, the A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church has a whopping 2.5 million members in their congregation. By 1830, Richard Allen had created something called the Free Produce Society, which was an organization where the members could purchase products that were produced by non-slave