Richard Allen’s Money Box

1800

Formerly enslaved, Bishop Richard Allen was a leader in the early free Black community and an outspoken advocate for abolition. He founded the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denomination and established Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. In 1787, Bishop Allen and Reverend Absalom Jones founded the Free African Society, a benevolent organization that provided mutual aid for free Black people in Philadelphia. The society pooled money to serve the spiritual, financial, and practical needs of community members.