Page:Daniel Minort Baxter - Bishop Richard Allen and His Spirit (1923).pdf/76

68 held as one of the plotters. Grandfather said as fast as would say so, some poor Negro was hung, or put in jail, or beaten; until a white gentleman, a Mr., went across the river (I think he said Cainhoy) and brought an innocent Negro from his plantation and asked “Was this one,?” and he said “Yes.” Mr. said, “You are a d liar I did this to convince the authorities that they have killed and punished some innocent Negroes.” This man was not only a Benedict Arnold to his race but he was an awful blood thirsty creature.

The A. M. E. Church was brought under the ban, because lots of free Negroes who could read and write, and some slaves made up the membership that had grown into a large church. Morris Brown was sent to the Philadelphia Conference (1817) by a congregation of Negroes, and was ordained deacon by Bishop Richard Allen, and upon his return to Charleston organized an A. M. E. Church, whose membership was 1500. The leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church there were Morris Brown, Henry Drayton, Charles Criuckshanks, Marcus Brown, Stewart Simpson, Harry Bull, John B. Matthews,