Social Religion | Religion

African Methodist Episcopal Church

Credit: Library of Congress
The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) adopted the motto, "God Our Father, Christ Our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit Our Comforter, Humankind Our Family."
Tired of discrimination during religious services, Richard Allen created the first independent African American church in the United States.

During the late 1700s, the congregation at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia was growing. As numbers swelled, African American members faced discrimination. After being forced from their knees midprayer, African Americans left the congregation to seek something better. Richard Allen, a pastor among the group, created the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794. After successfully petitioning for the right of his congregation to exist independently from white Methodists, Allen called for a conference in 1816. Other African Americans who had seen discrimination in Baltimore, Maryland; Wilmington, Delaware; and Attleboro, Pennsylvania, joined Allen's congregation in Philadelphia, and a new church was born: the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Desiring to affiliate with existing denominations, the AMEC chose to remain Methodist, with Allen as its first bishop. The AMEC continued to grow as congregations formed in Boston, New York, and several other major cities.

Credit: Library of Congress
The AMEC was the first organized African American denomination in the United States.

 

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Richard Allen was converted at age 17 while still enslaved. He later bought his way to freedom.

 

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Sarah Allen, wife of Bishop Allen, was active in the AMEC. Together they operated a station for the Underground Railroad.

 

Credit: Library of Congress
Those newly freed from slavery were welcomed into the AMEC during the Civil War and Reconstruction. By 1880 membership had risen to 400,000.