Richard Allen (1760–1831) was the founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen was born a slave. He converted to Methodism as a teenager and began preaching in his early twenties. He bought his freedom in 1786 and moved from Delaware to Philadelphia. There, he joined St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church and held prayer meetings for African Americans. In 1787, frustrated by the church’s restrictions on its black congregants, Allen withdrew and in 1794 established Bethel, an independent congregation for African...