Question

What is Richard Allen is known for? (select all that apply)

Answer 1

Answer:

Richard Allen is known for founding the African Methodist Episcopal Church  , opening a school for black children in Philadelphia and, with his friend Absalom Jones, founding the Free African Society.

Explanation:

Richard Allen was an African American religious leader. He was born a slave, in 1760, in a family belonging to a successful Pennsylvania lawyer, Benkamin Chew, being sold with his family to a Delawer farmer in 1768. In 1777, after most of his family had been resold, he converted to methodism. Around the age of twenty, he managed to buy his freedom, becoming a Methodist preacher, even among whites, something infrequent in the United States at the time. At twenty-seven he was one of the founders of the Free African Society of Philadelphia, perhaps the first independent organization of free blacks in the USA. At thirty-five, he was the spiritual leader of Philadelphia's largest black congregation, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1817 he was forced to break with the white leadership of the Methodist church that controlled and limited the activity of black religious congregations. Self-taught, he was the author of many sermons and texts related to his activism. He also worked on establishing schools for blacks and creating mutual aid societies to free free blacks from dependence on whites.

Answer 2

- Founding the African Methodist Episcopal Church

- Earning an honorary degree

- Founded the Free African Society