Born: 1764, United States
Died: 16 July 1849
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Sarah Bass
American abolitionist and African Methodist Episcopal Church missionary Sarah Allen is known within the church as the Founding Mother.
Born into slavery in Virginia in 1764, she was sent to Philadelphia at age 8. She was no longer enslaved as of 1800, the year she met her future husband, Richard Allen, with whom she would have six children. A property that the family owned in Philadelphia would eventually become the location for the first African Methodist Episcopal Church, which Richard Allen founded and Sarah Allen was very involved with. She formed the Daughters of the Conference, later renamed Sarah Allen Women’s Missionary Society.
The Allens were part of the Underground Railroad, hiding and caring for escaped formerly enslaved people whom they housed in their home and the church.