“Many of the white people [who] have been instruments in the hands of God for our good, even such as have held us in captivity, are now pleading our cause with earnestness and zeal.”
Quote by Richard Allen
Work
The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen: To which is Annexed, the Rise and Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America : Containing a Narrative of the Yellow Fever in the Year of Our Lord 1793 : with an Address to the People of Color in the United States
This work combines several distinct elements into a single volume. The primary portion presents Richard Allen's personal narrative, tracing his path from enslavement in Delaware through his purchase of freedom, his establishment of independent Black religious congregations in Philadelphia, and his founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, the first independent Black denomination in the United States. The appended materials include a firsthand account of the devastating yellow fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia in 1793, during which Allen and other Black community members participated in relief efforts amid widespread accusations and social tensions. The volume concludes with an address directed specifically to people of color, reflecting on their condition and prospects in American society. The book serves as both spiritual testimony and historical documentation of early African American institutional life, offering insight into the religious, social, and political circumstances of the post-Revolutionary and early antebellum periods. Allen's narrative illustrates the strategies by which African Americans built autonomous organizations within a racially stratified society, while his epidemic account provides contemporaneous observation of a major public health crisis and its racial dimensions. more
Author
Richard Allen
Richard Allen (February 14, 1760 - March 26, 1831) was an American religious leader and minister. He was a prominent figure in the African American religious history, known for his significant contributions to the spiritual and religious support of the black community in the United States. more