ALLEN, RICHARD

1760–1831, American clergyman, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born a slave in Philadelphia. He became pastor of a black group that had seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. When the African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized nationally (1816), Allen was consecrated its first bishop.

See biographies by M. M. Mathews (1963) and C. V. R. George (1973).

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Publication Information: Encyclopedia Article Title: Allen, Richard. Encyclopedia Title: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Publisher: Columbia University Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2004.