Uplift in Schools and the Church: Abolitionist Approaches to Free Black Education in Early National Philadelphia

This contribution provides a case study of how Richard Allen's Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church strove to become an autonomous provider of education to the free black community in the late 1790s and early 1800s as a way to avoid the direct influence of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS) and provide an education tailored to the needs of Philadelphia's black population. By takin…