Page:Daniel Minort Baxter - Bishop Richard Allen and His Spirit (1923).pdf/71

Rh the sea and he became the first pioneer governor of the Liberian Republic. I am sure we do not claim too much when we say that Allen’s spirit gave the impulse for the first Negro Republic on the face of the earth, and every other movement which smacks with self-reliance and independence for the Negro race. For the spirit of Allen fired the heart of Touissant L’Ouverture in Haiti (1791) and caused him to make the French recognize the Negro’s sword when he conquered them and drove them from the island and set his people free, and out of that Negro Republic in after years Allen’s spirit sent forth Bishop John Hurst, that untiring advocate of freedom of his race—soul, body and mind. That same Allen’s spirit sent Rev. Daniel Coker over the Atlantic in 1720, or 71 years before Haiti’s freedom, and made him the first governor of that Black Republic, Liberia. If Allen’s spirit had not been in Edward Waters when he was denied the right of holding annual conferences by his senior Bishops, Allen and Brown, who held them all themselves, he would have thought himself crowded out and instead of peacefully resigning and returning to the pastorate, and