Benjamin Lay

Lay with writing African Emancipation in Memoirs of the lives of Benjamin Lay and Ralph Sandiford , Philadelphia 1815

Portrait of Lay

His indictment against slaveholders

Benjamin Lay (born January 26, 1682 in Colchester , England , † February 3, 1759 in Abington , Pennsylvania ) was a British philanthropist , writer and Quaker . Marked by physical disabilities, he stood up as an abolitionist against slavery . He is considered to be an early pioneer of both the ecology and animal rights movement and the boycott form of action .

Life

His parents, William and Mary Lay, were Quakers and raised their son in that community. After a short school visit, Lay was supposed to become a glove maker . He was hired by the London shipping companies and lived in the West Indies , later also in Syria . Approx. In 1710 he was a traveling salesman in Barbados . In 1710 he returned to London and married Sarah Smith of Deptford . The marriage remained childless. The Devonshire House Monthly Meeting sharply condemned his cynical demeanor in 1720, and he was temporarily expelled from the community. In 1731 the Lay couple left Europe and settled on the island of Barbados, which Lay had previously visited. Here they experienced the inhumane conditions of slavery up close. The family preached sermons to local plantation workers. Towards the end of 1731, the plantation owners arranged for the Lays to be expelled and they were now moving to Philadelphia . Lay then moved to Abington, Pennsylvania, where his wife later served as a minister in the ward. Benjamin Lay was one of the first anti- slavery activists there. He attended Quaker meetings and preached accusatory sermons. Lay died in 1759 after a brief illness and was buried in the Abington Quaker Cemetery.

Physical disability

Like his wife, Lay was disabled. He was no more than four feet tall and had several physical deformities. Lay had a humpback and arms about the same length as his legs.

Beliefs

Lay opposed the death penalty, as is the religious belief of the Quakers. He had been a vegetarian since his time in Philadelphia and fought against alcoholism , the consequences of which he had learned about on his voyages. He boycotted the purchase of products from slave plantations. Out of humility he refused to wear clothes at times, walked around in a simple raw linen robe and lived in a cave on York Road near Branchtown . Lay's arguments against slavery and vegetarianism are inseparable: He did not want to use any products or services that were the result of slave labor - whether performed by humans or animals. He also spurned food and clothing, which animals must die to make, and refused to travel on horseback. He recalled the vegetarian tradition of the heretics of the Middle Ages when he wrote about the Waldensians : "I never read in the history of the Waldenses, our first reformers of papism, that they kept slaves; I know that they very much were moderate and ate neither meat nor milk nor eggs. " Lay said: "I do not believe that righteous, consistently good people would keep their fellow creatures in bondage", and demands: "Compassion, forgiveness even to the worst enemies, tenderness, gentleness, mildness, sweet love and compassion for all creatures of all kinds . " Lay had an extensive library with around 200 books and writings by pietistic classics and church fathers .

effect

In meetings of the Quakers, Lay proclaimed his message of the dissolution of the bound , which referred to slave owners as it were to slaves. In doing so, he also attracted the opposition of the slave owners, who were also present among the Quakers, and was sometimes forcibly expelled from meetings.

The incident is well known when a journeyman blacksmith from a meeting in Philadelphia (Market Street Meeting) put him on the street. Lay remained lying in the ditch and told the passers-by that he was not free to get up: only the person who had thrown it could help him out of the ditch.

Lay staged spectacular appearances at the annual meetings , so he appeared in a white sheet to get up after a period of silence and proclaim: You slaveholders, although you put up a front of your quaker-ness, your true nature comes through ( dt. about: You slave owners, although you want to be considered Quakers, your true nature is revealed ). Then he threw away the sheet and stood in the middle of the Quaker meeting in military uniform. He held a Bible in one hand and a saber in the other. Again he shouted: Thus shall God shed the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow-creatures ( So shall God shed the blood of those who enslave their fellow creatures ). He used the saber to crush a bubble hidden in the book, which was filled with red paint.

Lay was a role model for John Woolman , who continued his work. After the decision of the Philadelphia Annual Meeting of Friends in 1758 against the import and sale of slaves, Lay is said to have said: "I can now die in peace". He died about a year later.

glossary

For the technical terms used in the article, see also the article " Glossary Quakerism ".

literature

• Benjamin Bush: Biographical Anecdotes of Benjamin Lay . In: The Annual Monitor, or, New Letter-Case and Memorandum Book . Volume 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 and Isaac Comly (Eds.): 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 Rescure from Oblivion those Manuscripts, Left by them which may be useful to Survivors . Volume 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 , Volume 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 , Volume XXIX, 1856, 180f.
• Biographical Anecdote of Benjamin Lay . In: Evert Augustus Duyckinck, George Long Duyckinck, Michael Laird Simons (Eds.): 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 . Volume 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 , Volume LIII, 1879, 135
• Benjamin Lay. Born 1677 - died 1759 - aged eighty-two years . In: W. Beck, WF Wells, HG Chalkley, HG: Biographical Catalog , 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 , Volume XXII, 1925, 72f (e.g. The Friend. A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal, Volume C, 1926, 18-19)
• Benjamin Lay . In: The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society , Volume XXIII, 1/2, 1926, 59f.
• Brightwen Rowntree: Benjamin Lay (1681–1759) at Colchester , London, Barbados, Philadelphia. In: The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society , Volume 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 , Volume XLV, 1985, 35-39
• Marvin Perry: Benjamin Lay . In: Alden Whitman (Ed.): American Reformers. To HW Wilson Biographical Dictionary . New York 1985, 514-515
• Lay, Benjamin (1677-1759) . In: Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary . Vol I. Wilmington 1998 (2), 31-33
• Paul Rosier: Benjamin Lay . In: John Garraty, Mark Carnes (Eds.): American National Biography . Volume 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 catalog 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 . Volume I. London 1867, 92-93.
• Claus Bernet:  Lay, Benjamin. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 19, Bautz, Nordhausen 2001, ISBN 3-88309-089-1 , Sp. 875-880.
• Lay, Benjamin . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 3 : Grinnell - Lockwood . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1887, p. 643 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

Commons : Benjamin Lay  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• C. Bernet: Quaker of the Week (1): Benjamin Lay. Blog article, Wednesday January 4, 2012
• Wilford P. Cole: Henry Dawkins and the Quaker Comet . 1968. English text on Lay (13 pages) jstor.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marcus Rediker: You'll Never Be as Radical as This 18th-Century Quaker Dwarf. In: The New York Times. August 12, 2017, accessed January 3, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Claus Bernet:  Kelpius, Johann. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 23, Bautz, Nordhausen 2004, ISBN 3-88309-155-3 , Sp. 778-786.
3. ^ Matthias Rude: Antispeciesism. The liberation of humans and animals in the animal rights movement and the left . Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 2013, p. 39.