Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Comet

Benjamin Lay wasn’t like his fellow Quakers. First, he was just a little more than four feet tall and had a very curved spine. But it wasn’t Lay’s appearance so much as his ideas that truly set him apart from his community. That’s because Lay was a white man who was an abolitionist, which means he believed in ending slavery.

Lay was born in England in 1682. From an early age, he didn’t take the easiest route. He was supposed to take over his family’s farm. Instead, he moved to London when he was 21 and got a job as a sailor. Working on ships was not easy for a person Lay’s size but he worked hard. While working as a sailor, Lay began to hear stories from fellow sailors about the horrors of slavery.

Years later, Lay traveled to the island of Barbados with his wife, Sarah. They were shocked by the treatment of the enslaved people there. They left Barbados and eventually moved to Pennsylvania.

Everywhere Lay lived he got into trouble with his fellow Quakers. The Quakers felt peace and unity were two of the most important ideas of their group. But Lay felt that fighting for the truth, that all humans were equal, was more important than getting along with others. He was not afraid to shout at people he believed were wrong. This included those white Quakers who were rich because of slavery.

Lay tried lots of different ideas to show his fellow Quakers how evil slavery was. He gave speeches and wrote essays. In 1737, he published an anti-slavery book with help from his friend Benjamin Franklin. Once, he stood outside a Quaker meeting house in winter without a coat and with one foot bare. People who saw Lay standing in the cold were worried, but he told them that people who were enslaved were forced to work outdoors dressed just as he was.

One day, he tried something truly outrageous. He brought a hollowed-out bible with him to the meeting house. The bible was filled with berry juice. Lay stood up and gave a speech against slavery. It was like many speeches he had shared before. But this time, when he finished, he pulled out a sword and stabbed it into the bible. The juice inside was supposed to look like blood, and it splattered everywhere. His fellow Quakers were stunned. Then they kicked Lay out of the meeting house.

Lay continued to fight against slavery for the rest of his life, no matter how much trouble he got in. After his wife died, Lay went to live in a cave. He wanted to live a simple life as free from wrongdoing as possible. He refused to eat meat. He even made his own clothes so that he did not have to wear clothes made from cotton that was picked by enslaved people.

In 1758, a friend of Lay’s came to the cave where he was living with good news. He told Lay that Quakers in Philadelphia were planning to kick out members of their group who were a part of the slave trade. When Lay heard this, he paused for a little while. Then he told his friend that he could finally die in peace. Lay died a year later, on February 3, 1759, at the age of 77. Almost 20 years after Lay died, Quakers in Philadelphia voted to ban its members from enslaving others.

After Lay died, a man named Robert Vaux wrote a biography of his life. He wrote that Lay was not like a calm, peaceful moon but more like a dangerous comet that threatened the planets it flew by. That’s because throughout his life Lay did a lot to shake up the world around him. His actions and words made many white people uncomfortable and upset. Lay knew that the world he threatened was a harmful and unequal one. He hoped his actions would help to build a new one where everyone was free.