RICHARD ALLEN'S FORMULA

Richard Allen’s Formula Still Works in America Correctly read, the history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was far more practical, intricate, sophisticated than the current version reflects—confined to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church itself grew out of the fact of the enslaved colonial roots of Richard Allen, whose mother and 3 siblings were sold away, whom he never saw again. Located in the Delaware-Maryland-Pennsylvania region, also made famous by Benjamin Banneker , his peer and contemporary, he heard an itinerant Methodist preacher tell a mixed audience of slaves and free persons, blacks and whites, that in Christ all were one, neither Greek nor Jew; nor free nor slave; nor male nor female. Instead, all people, slaves too, were God’s uniquely divine children. This revelation revolutionized his self-conceptions, lifted him up on high! As a consequence of hearing, of learning these basic facts , Allen weaponized religion as a tool in his personal war chest for freedom. He bought his own personal and his brother’s freedom by chopping wood, selling salt, moving about in a wagon with his brother. Allen also converted his master to Jesus Christ by his faithful example, as he traveled about with the leading preachers up and down the eastern seaboard proclaiming the power of Jesus Christ to the slaves. This message gave the slaves hope and a sense of “somebodyness.” He sought the company of other leading blacks who were spirited in thought in Maryland, Daniel Coker; in Massachusetts , Prince Hall; in Philadelphia, Absalom Jones. With these, he helped to organize the Free African Society, the Prince Hall Masons, the African Methodist Episcopal church; the latter after a fierce legal battle lasting for years over who would have the right to proclaim what “thus sayeth the Lord” to people of African descent? Those who arose from their status or those from white establishment that consisted of white supremacy? Battling white supremacy was the main reason for being of the African Methodist Episcopal church. They were a station on the Underground Railroad. They were involved in civic affairs, like abating “Yellow Fever” in 1793. They also had guns in the basement to protect themselves from enslavers. They taught school in church and church in school; they made use of young people—Bishop Allen’s son was secretary at conferences—they made use of women: Jarena Lee was one of the earliest black women preachers. They did for themselves on their own land “under their own vine and fig tree,” confidently, faithfully. Having myself been an African Methodist Episcopal church pastor in Butler, Bates County, Missouri , from 1995-2004, at Brooks Chapel, I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ when combined with true black history can defeat white supremacists minds, hearts, in the black and white peoples of rural, formerly slaveholding, Missouri! We erected a statue on the court house square in 2008, of a black soldier! This was a tribute to the forgotten black soldiers of the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry who won the Battle of Island Mound in October, 1862. The State of Missouri in 2012, dedicated a 40-acre park at the site of the battle in 2012, about 8 miles from Butler. It must be borne in mind that The “Emancipation Proclamation” was not issued until January 1, 1863, so these brave men of First Kansas —who were organized by Kansas United States Senator, James Lane, (with President Abraham Lincoln’s tacit consent) defeated a group of mounted Confederate irregulars, before blacks could lawfully fight. Often times, one cannot wait on the law; instead one must wait upon the Lord (obey God), regardless of the law or consequences! Memory was lost of this ground-breaking 1862, battle in Butler, in Bates, County, in local history and lore, except for a few, me and Chris Tabor, an ex-Marine cartographer, who had published articles about it in the local newspaper . I discovered it adventitiously, myself, in a book store in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1999, when Noah Trudeau’s LIKE MEN OF WAR (1998) summoned me from across the room. I opened the book and was shocked to see Butler in print as the place of this epochal battle! The truth is the light indeed! Bishop Allen’s example worked in the 18th-19th centuries. It worked in Butler in the 20th century. Richard Allen’s formula can work into the 21st century to cure the abased minds, hearts , conditions of our amazing people, who do not know God, who pray the work is done to complete its mission of deliverance!