Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers

Last Rights

Last Rights But oh! Dear Sinners, that’s not all that’s dreadful, You must before your God appear, To give an account of your transactions, And how you spent your time when here. —Richard Allen, Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours Richard Allen cherished the image of the journey. In both poetry and prose, he pictured his life as a great series of journeys converging at one transcendent point: eternal redemption. As a young free man of color, he had traveled hundreds of miles on the mid-Atlantic revival circuit saving souls for the Lord. As a spokesman for the black community in early national Philadelphia, he had read African American experience and identity through the prism of Exodus—perhaps the greatest journey in recorded history. As an elder statesman in an everchanging Atlantic world of reform, he supported black emigration as his chosen people’s next possible stride toward freedom. By the 1830s, Allen focused on the journey to the next world. A faithful Christian obsessed with “qualifying” for heaven—nothing was predestined to this generation of religious itinerants—he continually sought to do “good” work in the eyes of the Lord. Do good and ask for nothing in return, he was fond of saying.1 Allen was busy on some reform cause or another until the very day he died. Indeed, though seemingly frail, he remained a perfect example of Newton’s first law of physics : bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. Only death would slow the great preacher down. What did he do? After he turned seventy, Allen helped organize the first National Convention of Colored Persons to systematize the struggle for racial justice among black leaders. He also served as a key advocate of the Philadelphia Free Produce Society, which supported free over 10 264 slave labor. Finally, he began assembling his autobiography, which, as the first narrative of a black founder, instructed rising generations on the importance of moral and racial uplift. But the central tension in Allen’s later years—whether American society would become the black promised land—remained unresolved until the last months of his life. By the 1830s, both slavery and racial injustice had grown so considerably that Allen urged African Americans to consider the virtues of the newest emigration destination, Canada. Conversely, Allen’s autobiography once again emphasized the possibility of black redemption within the United States. Rather ironically, Allen passed away just as a more radical abolitionist movement emerged, declaring holy war on racial injustice and giving hope to a whole new generation of reformers. Not so ironically, Allen’s autobiography reminded rising reformers of the giant shoulders on which they stood: those of black founders. 1. A Birthday Moment: Allen as Black Celebrity On February 14, 1828, Richard Allen hosted an elegant but understated birthday party at his Spruce Street home. Now sixty-eight, Allen and a merry band of well-wishers rejoiced by singing the black bishop’s favorite hymns. Despite Allen’s desire to keep things quiet and dignified, the birthday party became national news. Freedom’s Journal let black communities from Boston to Virginia know the importance of February 14. In fact, partly because of such coverage, Allen’s birthday soon was celebrated as an African American festive day. But the Freedom’s Journal article offered more than birthday salutations . It highlighted Allen’s status as a touchstone of the black founding generation. “Bishop Allen was the first person that formed a religious society among the people of color in the United States of America,” the paper declared, while repeating what would become a familiar litany of Allen’s accomplishments. He founded the Free African Society, which became a model for “upwards of 40 African benevolent societies” in Philadelphia alone, not to mention the AME Church, “whereby we were enabled to worship Almighty God, under our own vine and fig tree, with none to harm, nor yet make us afraid.” “We are thankful that Almighty God still spares him for the good of the African race,” the paper cheered.2 Last Rights | 265 Hagiography of black founders fit perfectly with the spirit of the times. The United States had recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, causing a wave of nostalgia for the founders. The twin deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1826—half a century after they had collaborated on the Declaration of Independence—served as a...