Denied access to white society, blacks found it
necessary to form various kinds of organizations for their
own welfare.
Even within the church which supposedly stressed brotherhood,
separate African organizations were emerging. During the
revolution, George Liele founded a black Baptist church in
Savannah, Georgia. Although similar churches sprang up throughout the
South, the independent church movement progressed more
rapidly in the Northern states. In 1786 Richard Allen, who had
previously purchased his freedom from his Delaware master, began
similar meetings among his own people in Philadelphia. He
wanted to found a separate black church, but he was opposed by
Blacks and whites alike. However, when the officials of St.
George's Methodist Church proposed segregating the congregation,
events came to a head. Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others
went to the gallery as directed, but the ushers even objected to
their sitting in the front seats of the gallery. When they were
pulled from their knees during prayer, Allen and his friends left the
church, never to return.
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