![]() His worldview was an astonishing combination of Quakerism, vegetarianism, animal rights, opposition to the death penalty, and abolitionism.While in Abington, Philadelphia, Lay lived in a cave-like dwelling surrounded by a library of two hundred books, and it was in this unconventional abode where he penned a fiery and controversial book against bondage, which Benjamin Franklin published in 1738. He worked as a shepherd, glove maker, sailor, and bookseller. His philosophies, employments, and places of residence?spanning England, Barbados, Philadelphia, and the open seas?were markedly diverse over the course of his life. He drew on his ideals to create a revolutionary way of life, one that embodied the proclamation ?no justice, no peace.?Lay was born in 1682 in Essex, England. ![]() Mocked and scorned by his contemporaries, Lay was unflinching in his opposition to slavery, often performing colorful guerrilla theater to shame slave masters, insisting that human bondage violated the fundamental principles of Christianity. ![]() The little-known story of an eighteenth-century Quaker dwarf who fiercely attacked slavery and imagined a new, more humane way of lifeIn 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. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |