Town Hall Meeting

 Greetings, my brothers and sisters in Christ, my name is Richard Allen. Formerly known as "Negro Richard," which should tell you all you need to know about my past. I owe the simple fact that I am standing before you here today to our all-powerful and loving Father up above. 20 long years I spent subjugated by the detestable institution of slavery, an institution that does nothing but callously tear the humanity away from both the slave and the slaveholder. I was born into bondage, already "owned" by a Quaker lawyer, a man who claimed to believe in the same loving God that I serve, yet subjected his fellow man to evils that no one deserves. While I was still a child(what age I do not know), I was sold to Mr. Stokely Sturgis, a plantation owner in Deleware. I had a mother and five siblings, however I don't have much recollection of them, as Mr. Sturgis had some financial problems and sold my mother and two of my siblings away when I was still young. I only had an older brother and sister left, which I thank the Lord for everyday for not leaving me completely alone. I can't help but consider myself more fortunate than my fellow brothers and sisters in bondage. 

Mr. Sturgis, though unconverted, encouraged us to attend the church service meetings of the local Methodist Society, one of the few that welcomed my people, enslaved or free. For this decision, I am eternally grateful! I was able to find the joy of the Lord for the first time! My brother, sister, and I sought the Lord and ensured we diligently completed our work as well; for there were rumors surrounding Mr. Sturgis that allowing us to attend those services would be the end of him. Though I had what the world would consider a good and humane master, I couldn't help but see slavery as a bitter pill I was forced to swallow every morning. The Lord graciously answered my prayers following the start of war, when Reverend Freeborn Garrettson visited our plantation and convinced Mr. Sturgis that our enslavement was sinful and immoral. I then convinced him to allow us to buy our freedom and he obliged, leading to me being a free man five years later, at the ripe age of twenty. 

I moved to Philadelphia six years later and began preaching. Once I saw my African brethren who though desperately in need of hope and spiritual fulfillment, didn't attend public service I was ignited with the Spirit of our Father in Heaven. I preached wherever there was room, preaching up to five times a day! I cultivated a small community of approximately 40 colored men and women and decided to build a house of worship for us with the help of my great brothers Rev. Absalom Jones, Dorus Ginnings, and William White. Our forced removal from St. George's Church, which mind you we had been attending for far longer and more often than some of those white folks, inspired our decision to construct the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as establishing the Free African Society. 

Slavery brings damage to even the free man. Your horrible excuse for the enslavement of my brother's and sisters has caused you who would oppose slavery to still see us as your lesser, rather than fellow sons and daughters of the great Lord up above. The book you read and preach from every Sunday, that you claim to believe, tells you the same yet you deny it in reality. We do not. I pray the Lord may open your eyes before you stand before him! At the Free African Society we put the words of James, brother of Christ Jesus, into practice. Not only did I assist my recently freed brethren and my brethren in the pursuit of freedom via the Underground Railroad, but during the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia Brother Jones and I with the FAS served and nursed our white counterparts who fell ill with Yellow Fever. Just for the despicable and slanderous Matthew Carey to lie on our good names and convince the public that we were actually taking advantage of them during their plight, as if we weren't susceptible to the disease as well! We put our own health at risk to help those who wouldn't do the same for us. Why, you ask? It's the same reason we must abolish slavery.The love of Christ. For it is the only reason and only power that can overcome the barrier of hatred between the white man and colored man.