Customer Reviews

Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers

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Who was Richard Allen? Among other things, he was the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, first black author to be granted federal copyright and spiritual leader of early black America.

Richard Newman has delivered a compelling account of Allen's ascension to leadership, his symbolic representation of black religion and his personal sacrifice to the cause of justice. Through humanizing anecdote, well crafted prose and lucid analysis, this book has succeeded in its goals:

1.) The story keeps coming back to the meaning of black leadership through the lens of Richard Allen's work. "Black prophetic leadership has historically critiqued American glorification in favor of a broader vision of national salvation." (Newman, 297) With this in mind, Newman observes that Allen uses his faith, the print press, and access to power in the nations capital to achieve his goals--or more specifically God's goals. Newman takes care to avoid reducing Allen's faith to ideology. The suggestion that Allen inaugurates a tradition of abolitionism in the media is quite powerful adding layers to Allen's image as a black founding father.

2.) Allen is something of an untarnished historical figure. Newman makes it clear that many found Allen to be overbearing, and annoyingly persistent as an individual. Not to mitigate his historical importance, but to shed light on personal characteristics.

3.) Newman's treatment of the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic with respect to Richard Allen's leadership is a brilliant description of an understudied and underappreciated, but defining moment in American history.

Surprisingly, despite Richard Allen's towering achievements, no modern biography of his life and work existed before Richard Newman's current work. Newman's detailed research and captivating style fills this void admirably. As suggested by the subtitle (Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers), Newman's biography of Allen is in many ways also a biography of a race as a lived experience in the early American republic. The engaging account of the establishment of the first black church and the first black denomination are worth the proverbial price of the book.

One caveat, the title of chapter six, A Liberating Theology, should not cause readers to assume that Rev. Richard Allen preached liberation theology. As evidenced by The Doctrines and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which mimicked the ideals of Wesley's Methodist Church, Allen's theology maintained the basic doctrinal principles of conservative Methodism. Allen's liberating theology highlighted the equality of all people as image bearers, the conversion experienced based upon faith in Christ alone, the importance of progressive sanctification, and the call to outreach--doing works of service.

For a lively portrayal of one of America's great founding fathers, of any race, Freedom's Prophet is the book of choice.

Reviewer: Robert W. Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

I truly love this book; not because I am a member of the AME Church but because this book offers the reader a sense of pride in who they are and perhaps who they would like to become. It recognizes that Richar Allen and Absalom Jones and many others were definitely businessmen of the highest degree. They knew how to start, conduct, and maintain their own endeavors. They also knew how to work with people of all cultures and suggested to others that this is what should be done. They stood up for what was right and did not mind writing rebuttals to articles and/or statements they felt were unfair. They encouraged others to disagree in writing. This is still a good philosophy today.

Freedom's Prophet is a 'must read' and should be part of any high school/college history or literature curriculum. The trials and tribulations that Bishop Allen overcame and his contributions to the cause of social justice at the beginnings of the United States are a truly good story. As a resident of Philly I associated the name 'Richard Allen' to the housing project and not the great man. After reading this book, I'll never again hear and think about that name in the same way.