Allen, Richard 301He and the other black members of the congregation ex-
perienced considerable discrimination until 1787, when
Allen, Absalom Jones, and William White were assaulted
by a church usher who attempted to force the three into
the balcony. Angered by such treatment, they withdrew
from the church. Th is moment, known subsequently as
“the gallery incident,” gained legendary acclaim within
African American histories as a critical act of early civil
disobedience. For several years, Allen conducted services
wherever he could, oft en under the auspices of the Free
African Society. Th e society was successful, and several
sister institutions were founded in other Northern cities.
From the outset, however, the group was splintered by de-
nominational diff erences. Convinced that blacks needed an
independent church of their own, Allen strove to impose
Methodist usages on the society; this antagonized some of
the Quaker members of the society, who saw its purpose
as strictly nonsectarian. Allen and Jones eventually left to
establish an exclusively religious body. First, they formed
St. Th omas Episcopal Church, the fi rst black Episcopal
congregation in America. However, when this congrega-
tion affi liated exclusively with the new Episcopal Church,in the United States. Over time, these visits with preach-
ers led Sturgis to believe that he could no longer in good
conscience own slaves; therefore, he allowed Allen and his
brother to buy their freedom. Over the next few years, Allen
labored at countless miscellaneous tasks, eventually gather-
ing the price named by Sturgis in 1783. Th is experience of
liberation had a lifelong impact on Allen; he believed that
his story demonstrated the unique abolitionist capacity of
Christianity. Although always an ardent antislavery activist,
his own biography convinced Allen that if slaves worked
very hard, they would be freed by the eventual conscience
of their masters; those who were not freed would have the
consolation of salvation.
Allen therefore quickly took to the Christian mes-
sage and began a preaching career while working to earn
his manumission. His reputation as a minister spread so
quickly that Asbury invited him on a Southern tour; Allen,
however, refused. Asbury required that Allen not mix with
slaves and expected Allen to sleep in his carriage. Allen
could not abide such limitations to his Christian dignity.
Despite his rebuffi ng of Asbury’s off er, Allen was accepted
as a “minister of promise” in 1784 at the fi rst General Con-
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United
States in Baltimore. Eventually, Allen wound up in Phila-
delphia, the center of free black life in the young repub-
lic. Although blacks made up over 10 percent of that city’s
population, the majority of them worked at menial jobs for
a limited wage. Th us, Allen entered the city in a moment
primed for his message of discipline and endurance. Th e
elder at St. George’s Methodist Church gave Allen access to
the pulpit at 5:00 a.m. each day, and he began to gather a
small following.
In 1787, he and another community leader, Absalom
Jones, established the Free African Society, one of black
America’s fi rst mutual aid society. Th rough the society, Jones
and Allen provided social services to the black community
of Philadelphia while preaching the virtues of frugality and
moral rectitude. Th roughout his life, Allen considered his
own life experiences the key exhibit in his spiritual mes-
sage. Although during the fi rst decades of his freedom, he
continued to work other odd jobs to support his family, he
always saw his evangelism as his life’s salvation. Th rough
Methodism, he believed he had found the discipline and
fortitude requisite to become an eff ective free citizen.
His own attitude notwithstanding, the white co-
religionists at St. George’s did not view Allen as an equal.
Richard Allen (1760–1831), founder and fi rst bishop of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church. (Payne, Daniel Alexander. History of
the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1891)