Benjamin Lay (1681–1760) was a Quaker philanthropist and abolitionist.

Life and beliefs

Lay was born in Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. In 1710, he moved to Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

 as a merchant, but his abolition principles, fueled by his Quaker radicalism, became obnoxious to the people who lived there so he moved to Abington, Pennsylvania

Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

Abington Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 55,310 in as of the 2010 census.Abington Township is one of Montgomery County's oldest communities dating back to before 1700 and being incorporated in 1704. It is home to some of the county's...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In Abington, he was one of the earliest and most zealous opponents of slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

.

Lay was barely over four feet tall and wore clothes that he made himself. He was a hunchback

Hunchback

Hunchback may refer to one of the following.*A derogatory term for a person who has severe kyphosis*The Hunchback of Notre Dame*Hunchback , an arcade and computer game from the 1980s*The Hunchback, a 1914 film featuring Lillian Gish...

 with a projecting chest, and his arms were almost longer than his legs. He was a vegetarian, and drank only milk and water. He would wear nothing, nor eat anything made from the loss of animal life or provided by any degree by slave labor. He was distinguished less for his eccentricities than for his philanthropy. He published over 200 pamphlets, most of which were impassioned polemics against various social institutions of the time, particularly slavery, capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

, the prison system, the moneyed Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 Quaker elite, etc. Refusing to participate in what he described in his tracts as a degraded, hypocritical, tyrannical, and even demonic society, Lay was committed to a lifestyle of almost complete self-sustenance. Dwelling in a cottage in the Pennsylvania countryside, Lay grew his own food and made his own clothes.

Actions

His passionate enmity of slavery fueled by his Quaker beliefs, Lay made the lives of his slave-owning Colonial co-religionists a living nightmare with a constant stream of tracts, rants and stunts. He burst into one meeting of Philadelphia's Quaker leaders and plunged a sword into a hollowed out Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 filled with blood-red pokeberry juice, which he then sprayed in the shocked faces of the slave-owners.

In another event, he dressed up as a Black Man. When he entered the Quaker Meeting, he began to whip the Quaker Leaders to show how the slaves felt. Although he was quickly banished from the meeting, the commotion he greatly offended the Quaker Leaders.

Death and legacy

Benjamin Lay died in Abington, Pennsylvania, in 1760. His legacy continued to inspire the abolitionist movement for generations; throughout the early and mid 19th century, it was common for abolitionist Quakers to keep pictures of Lay in their homes. Benjamin Lay was buried in the Abington Friends Meeting graveyard located at Abington Friends School

Abington Friends School

Abington Friends School, founded in 1697, is a K-12 private Quaker secondary school in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania . It is the oldest primary and secondary educational institution in the United States to operate continuously at the same location under the same management...

 in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania

Jenkintown, Pennsylvania

Jenkintown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles north of downtown Philadelphia. "Jenkintown" is also used to describe a number of neighborhoods surrounding the borough, which also are known by names such as Rydal, Jenkintown Manor and Noble...

.

Sources

• American National Biography, sub nomine
• Benjamin Bush: Biographical Anecdotes of Benjamin Lay. In: The Annual Monitor, or, New Letter-Case and Memorandum Book. Bd. I. York 1815
• Richard Vaux: Memoirs of the lives of Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandiford, two of the earliest public advocates for the emancipation of the enslaved Africans. Philadelphia 1815. London 1816.
• William Allan: An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary, containing an Account of the Lives, Characters, and Writings of the most eminent Persons in North America from its first settlement, and a summary of the History of the several colonies and of the United States Boston 1832
• John Hunt: Notices of Benjamin Lay. In: John und Isaac Comly (Hrsg.): Friends Miscellany. Being a Collection of Essays and Fragments, Biographical Religious Epistolary, Narrative and Historical. Designed for the Promotion of Piety and Virtue to Preserve in Remembrance the Characters and Views of Exemplary Individuals, and to Rescue from Oblivion those Manuscripts, Left by them which may be useful to Survivors. Bd. IV,6. Philadelphia 1833, 274-276
• Lydia Maria Francis Child: Memoir of Benjamin Lay, Compiled from Various Sources. New York 1842
• Account of the life of Benjamin Lay, one of the early antislavery advocates. In: The Friend. A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, Bd. XXIX, 1856, 180f.
• Sarah Lay: Account of the life of Sarah Lay, given in connection with the biographical sketch of her husband, Benjamin Lay. In: The Friend. A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, Bd. XXIX, 1856, 180f.
• Biographical Anecdote of Benjamin Lay. In: Evert Augustus Duyckinck, George Long Duyckinck, Michael Laird Simons (Hrsg.): Cyclopaedia of American literature embracing personal and critical notices of authors, and selections from their writings, from the earliest period to the present day, with portraits, autographs, and other illustrations. Bd. I. Philadelphia 1856, 279-280
• Certificate for Benjamin Lay from Colchester Monthly Meeting, dated 12mo. 4, 1731, and addressed to Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. In: The Friend. A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, Bd. LIII, 1879, 135
• Benjamin Lay. Born 1677 - died 1759 - aged eighty-two years. In: W. Beck, W. F. Wells, H. G. Chalkley, H. G.: Biographical Catalogue, being an Account of the Lives of Friends and others whose Portraits are in the London Friends' Institute. Also descriptive Notices of Friends' Schools and Institutions of which the Gallery contains Illustrations. London 1888, 418-422
• John Hunt: Anecdotes of Benjamin Lay. In: Journal of Friends' Historical Society, Bd. XXII, 1925, 72f (zgl.: The Friend. A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, Bd. C, 1926, 18-19)
• Benjamin Lay. In: The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, Bd. XXIII, 1/2, 1926, 59f.
• Brightwen Rowntree: Benjamin Lay (1681-1759) at Colchester, London, Barbados, Philadelphia. In: The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, Bd. XXXIII, 1936, 3-19
• Stevenson, Janet Marshall: Pioneers in freedom. Adventures in courage. Chicago 1969
• William Kashatus III: Abington's Fierly Little Abolitionist. In: Old York Road Historical Society Bulletin, Bd. XLV, 1985, 35-39
• Marvin Perry: Benjamin Lay. In: Alden Whitman (Hrsg.): American Reformers. An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York 1985, 514-515
• Lay, Benjamin (1677-1759). In: Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary. Bd. I. Wilmington 1998 (2), 31-33
• Paul Rosier: Benjamin Lay. In: John Garraty, Mark Carnes (Hrsg.): American National Biography. Bd. XIII. New York 1999, 305-307
• Gil Skidmore: Benjamin Lay. 1683-1759. In: Dear friends and bretheren. 25 short biographies of Quaker men. Reading 2000, 19-21.
• Joseph Smith: A descriptive catalogue of friends' books, or books written by members of the society of friends, commonly called quakers, from their first rise to the present time, interspersed with critical remarks, and occasional biographical notices, and including all writings by authors before joining, and those after having left the society, whether adverse or not, as far as known. Bd. I. London 1867, 92-93.

External links

• Bob Bankard: The Story of Benjamin Lay (includes physical description)
• Wilford P. Cole: Henry Dawkins and the Quaker Comet, 1968 Text on Lay (13 pages)
• Benjamin Lay, famousamericans.net