In The Fearless Benjamin Lay, renowned historian Marcus Rediker chronicles the transatlantic life and times of a singular man—a Quaker dwarf who demanded the total, unconditional emancipation of all enslaved Africans around the world. "The Story of Benjamin Lay (includes physical description)"British emigrants to the Thirteen ColoniesWikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiersFriends Committee on National LegislationFour Quaker meetings had disowned Lay for his inconvenient campaigning. Benjamin Lay: A Pioneer Quaker Antislavery Advocate & Activist Their influence can be traced to later, more celebrated (but less disruptive) antislavery Quaker figures like John Woolman. First, Rediker has brought the remarkable figure of Lay (1682-1759) out of the intentional obscurity in which he was consigned, even by his own people, beginning in his own lifetime. In his youth, Benjamin Lay (1681-1759), born in Colchester, England, was an unschooled shepherd and glover. As the congregation filed out of the church Benjamin stood at the door and asked person after person, "How can you, by such preaching as you have been hearing, distinguish the sheep from the goats?" By then the Quakers had evolved from a sprawling para-revolutionary upsurge into the prototype of the respectable, harmless British eccentric. Like the ancient philosopher Diogenes, who also walked barefoot in snow, he again sought to shock his contemporaries into sentience. Buy from QuakerBooks. • Claus Bernet (2001). His passionate enmity of slavery was partially fueled by his Quaker beliefs. All Rights Reserved. Although most remembered (when he is) for being a very early and assertive antislavery crusader, Lay was also a loud and persistent critic of greed, hungers for power, materialism, and luxury among the Quaker leadership of his day, which was only in its third generation. The Fearless Benjamin Lay The Quaker Dwarf Who Became The First Revolutionary Abolitionist Table of Contents. He sought to awaken his brothers and sisters to the politics of the smallest, seemingly most insignificant choices. In between, he worked as a common sailor, and then with his wife Sarah, spent two tumultuous years on the slavery-centered island of Barbados. 875–880. Order now and we'll deliver when available. Please Though a hunchback and not much … Nordhausen: Bautz. First, anyone without proper clothing in cold weather deserved compassion. The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist. Please try again. Benjamin carried his theater across the city, visiting a variety of churches and ranting at ministers he disliked, just as he had done in London and Colchester. Among those thus silenced, Rediker contends, were both Lay’s parents and grandparents who were loyal, but humble Friends. According to Roberts Vaux, he "attended all places of public worship, without regard to the religious professions of their congregations," sometimes in sack-cloth to emphasize his humility before God. He announced, "Then I will not partake with thee, of the fruits of thy unrighteousness." A gentleman grabbed Benjamin's bushy beard, gave it a hard tug, and said merrily, "by their beards, Benjamin, by their beards. He once stood outside a Quaker meeting in winter with no coat and at least one foot bare and in the snow. The nineteenth-century radical Quaker Isaac Hopper relayed the following story, which he had apparently heard as a child, to fellow abolitionist Lydia Maria Child: These rants did not always go well. He walked out.Mutiny and Maritime Radicalism in the Age of RevolutionNever afraid to point the finger of shame, Benjamin insisted that slave-holding and Quakerism were utterly incompatible. Benjamin turned somberly to his acquaintance and asked, "Dost thou keep any Negro slaves in thy family?" His worldview was an astonishing combination of Quakerism, vegetarianism, animal rights, opposition to the death penalty, and abolitionism. When he published The great British historian Christopher Hill put this more bluntly in Along the way, however, many now inconvenient features, such as previous writings that could be tarred as showing “leveling” tendencies, were suppressed or revised, and many early Quakers who retained such sympathies were dumped.Reading Religion welcomes comments from AAR members, and you may leave a comment below by logging in with your AAR Member ID and password. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. The others were Abington Monthly Meeting and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in the USA and North London Area Meeting in Britain.He was distinguished less for his eccentricities than for his philanthropy. Yet not all congregants took Benjamin's interventions so seriously. His philosophies, employments, and places of residence—spanning England, Barbados, Philadelphia, and the open seas—were markedly diverse over the course of his life. This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. Bringing Lay to a coveted slot on the pages of the Quakers appeared in Britain during the 17th century English Revolution, one of many “enthusiastic” sects that flourished in the wake of Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans and their New Model Army. In addition to the often ecstatic worship that produced the unofficial name “Quakers,” many of the sects’ leading lights advocated some of the more radical proposals stirring the revolutionary waters: a restoration of the commons, the breaking-up of large estates, an end to established churches, and even an end to the monarchy, along with other “leveling” notions.Marcus Rediker has performed several excellent services with this biography of © 2020 American Academy of Religion.

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