but it was done in support of an old
theory, long since exploded, that the Negro has no capacity for the
solution of mathematical problems. We know this to be the case. But
the charming nature and natural pluck of young Greener brought him out
at last without a blemish in any of his studies.

[128] Biography is quite a different thing from history; and the
Colored men who may imagine themselves neglected ought to remember
that this is a _History of the Negro Race_. We have mentioned these
men as representative of several classes.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH, ORGANIZATION, AND EXCELLENT INFLUENCE.--ITS
PUBLISHING HOUSE, PERIODICALS, AND PAPERS.--ITS NUMERICAL AND
FINANCIAL STRENGTH.--ITS MISSIONARY AND EDUCATIONAL
SPIRIT.--WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church of America has exerted a wider
and better influence upon the Negro race than any other organization
created and managed by Negroes. The hateful and hurtful spirit of
caste and race prejudice in the Protestant Church during and after the
American Revolution drove the Negroes out. The Rev. Richard Allen, of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the founder of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. He gathered a few Christians in his private
dwelling, during the year 1816, and organized a church and named it
"_Bethel_." Its first General Conference was held in Philadelphia
during the same year with the following representation:

Rev. Richard Allen, Jacob Tapsico, Clayton Durham, James Champion, and
Thomas Webster, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Daniel Coker, Richard
Williams, Henry Harden, Stephen Hill, Edward Williamson, and Nicholas
Gailliard, of Baltimore, Maryland; Peter Spencer, of Wilmington,
Delaware; Jacob Marsh, Edward Jackson, and William Andrew, of
Attleborough, Pennsylvania; Peter Cuff, of Salem, New Jersey.

The minutes of the Conference of 1817 were lost, but in 1818 there
were seven itinerants: Baltimore Conference--Rev. Daniel Coker,
Richard Williams, and Rev. Charles Pierce; Philadelphia
Conference--Bishop Allen, Rev. William Paul Quinn, Jacob Tapsico, and
Rev. Clayton Durham.

The Church grew mightily, increasing in favor with God and man. The
zeal of its ministers was wonderful, and the spirit of missions and
consecration to the work wrought miracles for the cause. In 1826 the
strength of the Church was as follows:

Bishops