Sarah Allen (missionary)
Sarah Allen | |
|---|---|
 Sarah Bass Allen | |
| Born | 1764 |
| Died | July 16, 1849 (aged 84–85) |
| Other names | Sara Allen and Mother Allen |
| Occupation | Abolitionist |
Sarah Allen (also known as Sara Allen[1] and Mother Allen;[2] née Bass; 1764 – July 16, 1849) was an American abolitionist and missionary for the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is known within the AME Church as The Founding Mother.[2]
Early life
[edit]| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler on Sarah Bass' Sense of Human Rights, 1:43, Philadelphia:The Great Experiment[3] |
Sarah Bass was born in 1764 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, as a slave.[1][2] When she was eight she was sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[why?] She was no longer enslaved as of 1800.[citation needed] That year she met Richard Allen, and they married by 1802.[citation needed] They had six children: Richard Jr., James, John, Peter, Sara, and Ann.[1] Allen maintained the family finances and general homemaking tasks.[2]
Life in Philadelphia and founding of the AME Church
[edit]The family purchased property for $35 in Philadelphia that housed a blacksmith shop. The shop was planning to relocate following the purchase and the Allens used their team of horses to transport the shop to its new location.[citation needed] The property was eventually renovated and made into a church, which would become the founding African Methodist Episcopal Church.[4]
Allen was highly involved in the AME Church, which her husband Richard founded.[1] The family hid and cared for runaway slaves and their home was a part of the Underground Railroad.[2] The couple used their home and the church to house enslaved people.[4] By 1827, she had founded the Daughters of the Conference. The Daughters supported the male ministers of the AME Church. The women fed and cared for the generally poor and untidy ministers.[1] The women also had a sewing circle to help mend and make clothes for the ministers.[2]
Later life
[edit]Allen died on July 16, 1849, at the house of her younger sister in Philadelphia.[4] She is buried alongside her husband at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church.[1] The Daughters of the Conference was renamed Sarah Allen Women's Missionary Society.[4]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Sara Allen". People & Events. PBS. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nancy I. Sanders (January 1, 2010). America's Black Founders: Revolutionary Heroes and Early Leaders with 21 Activities. Chicago Review Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-61374-121-4. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
- ↑ "Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler on Sarah Bass' Sense of Human Rights". The Women of Philadelphia. Philadelphia:The Great Experiment. April 3, 2012. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 "Sarah Allen". World Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
Further reading
[edit]- Encyclopedia of World Biography: Supplement #27 (Thomson-Gale, 2007) pp. 12–13
- Smith, Jessie Carney. "Allen, Sarah (1764–1849)". Freedom Facts & Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil. 2009, p. 237.
- 1764 births
- 1849 deaths
- African-American abolitionists
- American abolitionists
- American women abolitionists
- American Methodist missionaries
- Methodist missionaries in the United States
- Female Christian missionaries
- African-American people with free status before 1865
- People from Isle of Wight County, Virginia
- Activists from Philadelphia
- People of the African Methodist Episcopal church
- African-American Methodists
- Underground Railroad people
- African-American missionaries
- 18th-century African-American women
- 18th-century African-American people
- 19th-century African-American women
- Methodist abolitionists
- 19th-century African-American people