Bishop Richard Allen (1760–1831) was a former slave who became a Methodist preacher, abolitionist, and the founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, one of the oldest and largest independent Black denominations in the United States. He co-founded the Free African Society, a benevolent organization, and established the first independent Black church in Philadelphia, Bethel AME Church, before the formation of the AME Church itself.