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The 'Free African Society' (FAS) was a non-denominational community formed on April 2, 1787 in Philadelphia by Richard Allen, Absalom Jones and many others for the benefit of African-Americans 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.
Richard Allen would later form the African Methodist Episcopal Church.