The Curious Life of Benjamin Lay - The Quaker Comet [SSL 287]
The first Radical Abolitionist Protester of Colonial America born in 1682...that you've never heard of
Tomorrow is the Contemplative Summit!
15 presenters / teachers and the event is FREE, if you save a spot, and for a limited time. So, jump on it now!
Register here: https://school.spiritualwanderlust.org/a/2147715173/PsNS5Csp
Born in 1682, Benjamin Lay was an English-born man who stood at just over four feet tall. Small but mighty!
He was most widely known for his provocative, performative protests he accomplished during Quaker religious and business meetings.
⬇️Here⬇️ is the audio episode—BUCKLE UP!
https://lisadelay.com/blog/the-curious-life-of-benjamin-lay-the-quaker-comet-ssl-287/
Tell me something.
Is this the first time you’ve heard of Benjamin Lay?
Such displays and imputations I mention in the audio made by Mr. Lay were designed to prick the hearts of his fellow Quakers who enslaved people.
He wanted to coax them to repentance, to stop enslavement completely, and get the practice abolished everywhere.
He soon developed a reputation as a disruptive troublemaker and this got him disavowed from the Society of Friends.
His unconventional efforts were not in vein.
He helped give others the moral courage to buck the cultural norm that created untold suffering and made many Pennsylvanians wealthy off the exploitation of others.
Benjamin witnessed—within his lifetime—crucial changes that drew down and phased out institutionalized chattel slavery within the Quaker community.
In turn, this gave traction for larger abolitionist movements in the northern colonies generally, both prior to American Independence from England and continuing on for more than 100 years before the American Civil War ensued to force an end to enslavement practices common and thoroughly institutionalized in the Southern States. These States succeeded from the Northern States to keep this—their way of life—in tact.
In colonial times more than 300 years ago no one dared directly confront the wealthy and powerful religious and political leaders of the largest city in North American (Philadelphia) about their “heinous sin” of enslaving others and exploiting their lives and labor as Benjamin told them to their faces.
At the time, one in every ten people in Philadelphia were enslaved and enslavers would become wealthy, fat, lazy, and pass along the people they owned as possessions to their spoiled and tyrannical children, he said.
Of Benjamin Lay, Harriet Tubman said that he did more for Black people than Abraham Lincoln. Quite a sentiment in her time!
This important person of conscience shouldn’t be lost to our abolitionist history any longer. Will you please widely share this post?
A bulk of what I shared came as excerpts from this
Smithsonian Magazine article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/quaker-comet-greatest-abolitionist-never-heard-180964401/
BUT WAIT!
The most outlandish story I’ve saved for my paying subscribers as a way to say, “thank you!” ❤️ ⬇️
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Little Spark Stack to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.