Description
Gold Winner of the 2008 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award Biography Category
Brings to life the inspiring story of one of Americas Black Founding Fathers featured in the documentary The Black Church This is Our Story This is Our Song
Freedoms Prophet is a longoverdue biography of Richard Allen founder of the first major African American church and the leading black activist of the early American republic A tireless minister abolitionist and reformer Allen inaugurated some of the most important institutions in African American history and influenced nearly every black leader of the nineteenth century from Douglass to Du Bois
Born a slave in colonial Philadelphia Allen secured his freedom during the American Revolution and became one of the nations leading black activists before the Civil War Among his many achievements Allen helped form the African Methodist Episcopal AME Church coauthored the first copyrighted pamphlet by an African American writer published the first African American eulogy of George Washington and convened the first national convention of Black reformers In a time when most Black men and women were categorized as slave property Allen was championed as a Black hero
In this thoroughly engaging and beautifully written book Newman describes Allens continually evolving life and thought setting both in the context of his times From Allens early antislavery struggles and belief in interracial harmony to his later reflections on Black democracy and Black emigration Newman traces Allens impact on American reform and reformers on racial attitudes during the years of the early republic and on the Black struggle for justice in the age of Adams Jefferson Madison and Washington Whether serving as Americas first Black bishop challenging slaveholding statesmen in a nation devoted to liberty or visiting the Presidents House the first Black activist to do so this important audiobook makes it clear that Allen belongs in the pantheon of Americas great founding figures Freedoms Prophet reintroduces Allen to todays listeners and restores him to his rightful place in our nations history
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