In November, 1787, the colored people belonging to the Methodist Society of Philadelphia (St. George's) convened together, in order to take into consideration the evils under which they labored, growing out of the unkind treatment of their white brethren, who considered them a nuisance in the house of worship, and even pulled them off their knees while in the act of prayer and ordered them to the back seats.
THE BEGINNING OF AFRICAN METHODISM.
For these and various other acts of unchristian conduct, they considered it their duty to devise plans to build a house of their own, that they might worship God under their own vine and fig-tree unmolested.
The causes which produced Bethel were race prejudice on the one hand and an innate desire of the heart for religious liberty and determination on the other to be content with nothing less than an opportunity for the exercise of the fullest Christian manhood in the house of God.
Hence the organization in 1787 (November) of Bethel Society, the oldest colored church organization in America. In 1793, Richard Allen, a preacher and leading spirit among his brethren, proposed the erection of a house of worship on his own ground, at his own expense, which being acceded to by his brethren, the first church edifice was erected on the present site of Bethel, Sixth street below Pine, Philadelphia, Pa., which house of worship was duly consecrated and opened for divine service by Francis Asbury, the then Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the invitation of Richard Allen. And the house was named Bethel notwithstanding the severest persecutions at the hands of their white brethren for a number of years. Bethel continued to grow in usefulness and influence, both locally and generally. So that in the year 1816 the spirit of Allen and his coadjutors had become so powerful that the hour was ripe for the organization of a connection to carry on the work everywhere so well begun by Bethel in Philadelphia.
Rev. Richard Allen now became to the connection what he had been for twenty-five years to Bethel—the acknowledged and honored leader, as the first Bishop of the connection, Bethel remaining the pivotal centre, around which the spirit of religious liberty and Christian manhood revolved; ever extending its influence until, like in the family, all over the connection it came to be known and called by the endearing name of "Mother Bethel."
RICHARD ALLEN.
This first Bethel served to meet the demands of the growing congregation up to 1841, when it was found expedient to rebuild, and June 2, 1841, the corner-stone of the Second Bethel Church was formally laid with appropriate ceremonies by Rt. Rev. Morris Brown, the acting Bishop, Bishop Allen having died in 1831. This church was completed in the following year at a cost of $14,000, the first church having been valued at about $10,000.