Allen, Richard (14 February 1760–26 March 1831), American Methodist preacher and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal church, was born into slavery to parents who were the property of Benjamin Chew of Philadelphia. He and his parents and three additional children were sold in 1777 to Stokely Sturgis, who lived near Dover, Delaware. There he attended Methodist preaching and experienced a spiritual awakening. Allen, his older brother, and a sister were retained by Sturgis, but his parents and younger siblings were sold. Through the ministry of Freeborn Garretson, a Methodist itinerant, Sturgis was converted to Methodism and became convinced that slavery was wrong. Subsequently Allen and his brother were permitted to work to purchase their freedom, which they did in 1780. The next six years he worked as a wagon driver, woodcutter, and bricklayer while serving as a Methodist preacher to both blacks and whites in towns and rural areas in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. At one point Bishop ...
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Allen, Richard (1760-1831), American Methodist preacher and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal church
Frederick V. Mills
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Coppin, Fanny Jackson (1837-1913), educator, civic and religious leader, and feminist
Linda M. Perkins
Coppin, Fanny Jackson (1837–21 January 1913), educator, civic and religious leader, and feminist, was born a slave in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Lucy Jackson. Her father’s name and the details of her early childhood are unknown. However, by the time she was age ten, her aunt Sarah Orr Clark had purchased her freedom, and Jackson went to live with relatives in New Bedford, Massachusetts. By 1851 she and her relatives had moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where Jackson was employed as a domestic by ...
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Early, Jordan Winston (1814-1903), minister
Stephen W. Angell
Early, Jordan Winston (17 June 1814–1903), minister, was born a slave in Franklin County, Virginia. His mother died when he was three years old, and he was raised by an elderly woman known as Aunt Milly who cared for the plantation’s slave children while their mothers worked. She was a devout Christian, and Early later attributed the fact that he became a “useful and intelligent” man to her influence. Early attended many camp meetings in his boyhood, and he later recalled that he was religiously inclined from an early age. He loved nature and often hunted at night with a favorite uncle....
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Henson, Josiah (15 June 1789–05 May 1883), escaped slave and preacher
Elizabeth Zoe Vicary
Henson, Josiah (15 June 1789–05 May 1883), escaped slave and preacher, was born in Charles County, Maryland, on a farm owned by Francis Newman. As a child, Henson frequently saw his parents abused and severely beaten. On one occasion, as a punishment for defending his wife, Henson’s father was sentenced to a physical mutilation that left him permanently scarred. Although he was raised without religion, Henson was immediately converted to Christianity after his first exposure to it at a revivalist camp meeting. As a young boy, he was sold to Isaac Riley....
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Henson, Josiah (15 June 1789–05 May 1883)
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Holsey, Lucius Henry (1842-1920), minister and denominational leader
Gardiner H. Shattuck
Holsey, Lucius Henry (03 July 1842–03 August 1920), minister and denominational leader, was born near Columbus, Georgia, the son of James Holsey, a plantation owner, and Louisa, a slave. When his father died in 1848, Holsey was sold to his white cousin, T. L. Wynn, who lived in Hancock County, Georgia. After Wynn’s death in 1857, he became the slave of ...
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Thompson, Joseph Pascal (1818-1894), clergyman and physician
Kevin Barrett
Thompson, Joseph Pascal (20 December 1818–21 December 1894), clergyman and physician, was born in slavery in Winchester, Virginia. Although the scant records of his early life differ on the details, most sources indicate that while still a “youth” he ran away from his master and found refuge with a kindly family in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. This household provided the moral and religious influences that shaped his commitment to physical and spiritual healing. In the evenings and winter months he attended common school, where he proved studious and ambitious. For a time he worked with a physician at Middletown Point (later Matawan), New Jersey....
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Tindley, Charles Albert (1856-1933), Methodist minister
William H. Brackney
Tindley, Charles Albert (07 July 1856–26 July 1933), Methodist minister, was born at Berlin, Maryland, the son of Charles and Ester, both slaves. He was self-educated. In 1885 he was examined for ministerial orders by the Delaware Annual Conference, a black Methodist Episcopal Conference. He was admitted on probation and assigned to the Cape May, New Jersey, church where he served for two years. In 1887 he was ordained deacon and transferred to the South Wilmington, Delaware, church. Subsequently he served as statistical secretary to Rev. Joseph R. Waters. Ordained an elder in the Delaware Conference in 1889, he was again transferred, this time to the Odessa, Delaware, charge. Between 1890 and 1900 Tindley served pastorates at Pocomoke and Pocomoke Circuits in Maryland and at Fairmount and Wilmington in Delaware, where he served historic Ezion Methodist Church. In 1900 he was appointed presiding elder of the Wilmington District. Concurrent with his term of office as presiding elder, he became pastor at Bainbridge Street Methodist Church, Philadelphia, which he served for thirty-three years. He continued to obtain an education: he attended the Brandywine Institute Theological Course, and by correspondence he took the Greek course at Boston University School of Theology....
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Varick, James (1750-1827), Methodist leader, clergyperson, and race advocate
Sandy Dwayne Martin
Varick, James (1750–22 July 1827), Methodist leader, clergyperson, and race advocate, was born near Newburgh in Orange County, New York, the son of Richard Varick. The name of his mother, who was a slave, is unknown. The family later relocated to New York City. With few educational opportunities for African-American children growing up in New York City at the time, Varick by some means acquired very solid learning. Around 1790 Varick married Aurelia Jones; they had three girls and four boys. While he worked as a shoemaker and tobacco cutter and conducted school in his home and church, the ministry was clearly his first love. Having embraced Christianity in the historic John Street Methodist Church, Varick served as an exhorter and later received a preacher’s license. Racial proscription in the Methodist Episcopal church during the latter part of the 1700s and early 1800s prevented Varick, ordained a deacon in 1806, from receiving full elder’s orders until 1822....
