Free African Society 3250917 224790773 2008-07-10T12:48:22Z Sardanaphalus 427947 updating link using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]] <nowiki>joh nowiki[www.m.wayne.k12.ut.us ]</nowiki>{{African American topics (sidebar)|right}}The '''Free African Society''' (FAS) was a non-denominational community formed in 1787 in [[Philadelphia]] by [[Richard Allen (reverend)|Richard Allen]], [[Absalom Jones]] and many others for the benefit of [[African-American]]s released from [[slavery]]. The FAS operated as a combined church, local government and charity, providing aid to those who couldn't get any, teaching morality, regulating marriages and tried to reduce [[alcoholism]]. The Society was funded by a fee-paying membership. A major role in the early days of the FAS was in helping the victims of the well-known [[yellow fever]] epidemic of Philadelphia in [[1793]]. The Free African society is also featured in the book [[Fever 1793]] in which the society assists Yellow Fever victims. The Free African Society was the only organization to volunteer in the yellow fever epidemic of Philadelphia in 1793. Its black nurses helped the infected for free and were often bought over to the highest bidder who needed help. Later, a law was made that only $1 could be paid maximum to each nurse. For a while, the volunteers did not get infected and were thought to be immune(most thought that african americans were immune)to the disease until they started to catch yellow fever as well. Richard Allen would later form the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]]. [[Category:African Methodist Episcopal Church]] [[Category:African American history]] [[Category:Slavery in the United States]] {{US-hist-stub}}