Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry.
Speaker 1: Several times in previous episodes we have talked about the
Speaker 1: role of Quakers, who are also called Friends in the
Speaker 1: abolition of slavery. We haven't, though, really talked about the
Speaker 1: Religious Society of Friends before it became such a visible
Speaker 1: part in the movement for abolition. Benjamin Leigh was a
Speaker 1: Quaker and our radical abolitionist who lived in this period
Speaker 1: between when the Religious Society of Friends started and when
Speaker 1: it started formally banning slave ownership among its members. During
Speaker 1: that time, there were actually a lot of Quaker slave owners,
Speaker 1: especially among the more wealthy and more powerful members, and
Speaker 1: Lay was incredibly outspoken about this issue in an incredibly
Speaker 1: visible and memorable way. In the words of Robert's Vox,
Speaker 1: who wrote a brief biography of Late in the nineteenth century, quote,
Speaker 1: if the comparison be admissible, he appeared rather like the comet,
Speaker 1: which threatens, in its irregular course the destruction of the
Speaker 1: world's near which it passes. Then as one of those
Speaker 1: tranquil orbs which hold their accustomed place and dispensed their
Speaker 1: light in the harmonious order of heaven. So because of
Speaker 1: this comet like behavior and this advocacy, Benjamin Lay was
Speaker 1: disowned from multiple Quaker meetings. He's been described as the
Speaker 1: most frequently disowned Quaker of his time. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk more about what that means and how that happened
Speaker 1: in a bit, and this is who we are talking
Speaker 1: about today. I like that there's a superlative of most
Speaker 1: disowned Quake. Yes, like who's number two. He was also
Speaker 1: the last Quaker known to be disowned for advocating against
Speaker 1: slavery and for the abolition of slavery. So he was
Speaker 1: not the only person to be disowned, but he was
Speaker 1: disowned a lot the most last owned for this reason.
Speaker 1: Benjamin Lay was born in Essex County, England on April two.
Speaker 1: His parents, William and Prudence Ley, were of course Quakers,
Speaker 1: as were his grandparents, and Benjamin's father had a small farm,
Speaker 1: but his family did not have a lot of money,
Speaker 1: so Benjamin didn't really have much of a formal education.
Speaker 1: He did a lot of self study later in his life,
Speaker 1: though he liked to call himself just a just a poor,
Speaker 1: illiterate sailor, but eventually he was very widely and well read,
Speaker 1: and when he was in his teens, Benjamin went to
Speaker 1: live on his brother's farm, where he worked as a shepherd.
Speaker 1: This is something he seems to have really dearly loved,
Speaker 1: but his time as a shepherd was temporary. Eventually he
Speaker 1: was apprenticed to a glovemaker, and that was something he
Speaker 1: did not enjoy at all, So when he was about
Speaker 1: twenty one years old, he left and he went to
Speaker 1: London to become a sailor instead, having made some gloves
Speaker 1: that can understand if it's not for you, it's really
Speaker 1: not free. He did not like it one bit. This
Speaker 1: was an interesting choice for him to have made this
Speaker 1: move to become a sailor. He was expected to inherit
Speaker 1: a family farm and he was giving that up by
Speaker 1: becoming a sailor instead. He also had caposis, or an
Speaker 1: excessive front to back curvature of the spine, as well
Speaker 1: as some form of dwarfism, and this would have made
Speaker 1: some of the work on a ship farm or challenging
Speaker 1: for him, but it also would have allowed him to
Speaker 1: maneuver into tight spaces and through the rigging in the
Speaker 1: ways that larger men really couldn't. Lay was a sailor
Speaker 1: for about twelve years, and during that time when he
Speaker 1: wasn't at sea, he usually lived in London. He also
Speaker 1: spent some time in the Mediterranean and the Middle East,
Speaker 1: visiting various sites that had been mentioned in the Bible. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: we don't have a whole lot of detail about these
Speaker 1: years at sea, but it is where Lay started learning
Speaker 1: about the horrors of the Transatlantic slave trade. He heard
Speaker 1: these stories from men who had either worked on slave
Speaker 1: ships themselves or had heard about it from other sailors.
Speaker 1: At some point during these years, Lay met Sarah Smith
Speaker 1: of Deptford, England. Sarah had become a Quaker in her youth,
Speaker 1: and by seventeen twelve she was an approved minister. Sarah's
Speaker 1: late father had been a plasterer, and if her mother
Speaker 1: was still living when she and Benjamin met, she had
Speaker 1: died by the time that they married. Like Benjamin, Sarah
Speaker 1: had both kiphosis and Dwarfism, and in their life together
Speaker 1: people sometimes commented on how much they resembled each other.
Speaker 1: Benjamin himself described them as quote being pretty much alike
Speaker 1: in stature and other ways. In seventeen sixteen, when he
Speaker 1: was thirty four and she was four or five years older,
Speaker 1: Benjamin started trying to get the necessary permissions to marry Sarah,
Speaker 1: but this presented a problem. In order to marry within
Speaker 1: the Religious Society of Friends, you had to be a
Speaker 1: member in good standing. But Benjamin had made some waves
Speaker 1: in his home congregation in London, which was Devonshire House
Speaker 1: Monthly Meeting. When the Quaker movement was very first evolving
Speaker 1: in Britain in the mid sixteen hundreds, a lot of
Speaker 1: the time it was really confrontational. One of the movement's
Speaker 1: core beliefs was that each person could have a direct
Speaker 1: relationship with God, and in terms of the movements ideals,
Speaker 1: it didn't have any sort of hierarchy. Early Quakers also
Speaker 1: spoke out against established churches and their leaders, including during services,
Speaker 1: but by the time Benjamin Lake came along, the Religious
Speaker 1: Society of Friends had become much more conservative. Speaking out
Speaker 1: against ministers and elders and weighty friends, which is a
Speaker 1: term for influential Quakers, was just not done. Benjamin did it,
Speaker 1: though we don't know what exactly he had been criticizing
Speaker 1: in Devonshire. He had a particular dislike for vanity, pride,
Speaker 1: and covetousness, and he also didn't like preaching that seemed
Speaker 1: like the minister's own words rather than the word of God.
Speaker 1: Based on later incidents that were more well documented, it
Speaker 1: could have been any number of things, but whatever it was,
Speaker 1: he was in enough trouble over it that he did
Speaker 1: not go directly to Devonshire House monthly meeting to ask
Speaker 1: for the certificate that he needed to marry his beloved. Instead,
Speaker 1: he worked on a ship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean,
Speaker 1: and in Salem, Massachusetts, he went to the local Quaker
Speaker 1: meeting house there and said that he wanted to marry
Speaker 1: Sarah Smith of Deptford. In seventeen seventeen, the Salem Congregation
Speaker 1: wrote to Devonshire House. After some discussion, Devonshire House wrote
Speaker 1: back that Benjamin was quote free and clear from all
Speaker 1: persons here relating to marriage, and also free and clear
Speaker 1: of debts so far as we know. But their letter
Speaker 1: went on to say that they thought Benjamin was quote
Speaker 1: convinced of the truth, but for want of keeping low
Speaker 1: and humble in his mind, hath by an indiscreet zeal
Speaker 1: been too forward to appear in our public meetings to
Speaker 1: the uneasiness of friends like, he's not in trouble, but
Speaker 1: he is a sas pants. Yeah, and it's possible that
Speaker 1: he may have been criticizing people who who were slave
Speaker 1: owners at this point. That seems to have come along
Speaker 1: much later into his line of thoughts. So I think
Speaker 1: this was more like, if he didn't like your face,
Speaker 1: do you would tell you that he didn't like your face,
Speaker 1: if he didn't like your preaching, Same deal. He's an
Speaker 1: upstart at heart. Once he got back to England with
Speaker 1: that somewhat reluctant approval, Benjamin continued to criticize ministers and
Speaker 1: others at Devonshire House and at other Quaker meetings in
Speaker 1: and around London, where he also worshiped. He roused enough rabble.
Speaker 1: The Devonshire House refused to give him the formal certificate
Speaker 1: that he needed for marriage. He appealed their refusal to
Speaker 1: the London Quarterly Meeting, which investigated the situation and said
Speaker 1: that while it didn't approve of his behavior, it also
Speaker 1: did not approve of Devonshire House withholding his certificate. So
Speaker 1: although Devonshire House Monthly Meeting did issue the certificate, it
Speaker 1: also ultimately disowned Benjamin it It said something to the
Speaker 1: effect that he could it couldn't consider him part of
Speaker 1: their number. That meant that he was allowed to still
Speaker 1: worship there, but he wasn't considered a member in good standing,
Speaker 1: and he wasn't allowed to take part in business meetings.
Speaker 1: Benjamin and Sarah did finally marry in Deptford on July tenth,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighteen. They left London shortly thereafter and moved to Barbados,
Speaker 1: which was also home to a Quaker community. And we're
Speaker 1: going to get into their time there after. We first
Speaker 1: paused for a little sponsor break. When Benjamin and Sarah
Speaker 1: Lay got to Barbados, Benjamin established himself as a merchant
Speaker 1: with a small shop that was stocked with provisions that
Speaker 1: he'd bought before leaving England. Before long, they experienced a
Speaker 1: series of small thefts from this store, and if Benjamin
Speaker 1: was able to catch the perpetrator, he had punished them
Speaker 1: with a lash, which was a pretty common punishment for
Speaker 1: theft at the time. But soon Lay realized that the
Speaker 1: enslaved people who were stealing from his store were driven
Speaker 1: to it by absolutely desperate circumstances. They were either stealing
Speaker 1: food because they were starving, or they were stealing items
Speaker 1: that they could sell or trade for food. So upon
Speaker 1: this revelation, Benjamin was full of remorse for what he
Speaker 1: had done, and he and Sarah set up an informal
Speaker 1: ministry for the enslaved people of Barbados. They fed as
Speaker 1: many as they could with what they had, although it
Speaker 1: was often spoiled in the Caribbean heat, and they established
Speaker 1: a Sunday school where Benjamin both taught and counseled enslaved
Speaker 1: people and listened to them as they talked about their
Speaker 1: own lives and experiences. So by listening to the words
Speaker 1: of the people around them and by their own observations,
Speaker 1: the Lays quickly learned that conditions in Barbados were really horrific.
Speaker 1: They repeatedly witnessed people collapsing from exhaustion and overwork. One
Speaker 1: enslaved man that Benjamin knew, took his own life rather
Speaker 1: than continuing to be subjected to regular beatings. At one point,
Speaker 1: Sarah was going to visit another Quaker who was living nearby,
Speaker 1: and on our way there she found him man hanging
Speaker 1: in Benjamin's words quote stark, naked, trembling and shivering with
Speaker 1: such a flood of blood under him, that's so surprised
Speaker 1: the little woman she could scarce contain. So when Sarah
Speaker 1: got to the house the people she was visiting, she
Speaker 1: asked them what was going on, and they told her
Speaker 1: that this man was being punished for quote absconding a
Speaker 1: day or two. This experience in Barbados influence not only
Speaker 1: Benjamin Lay's views on slavery, but also his views on
Speaker 1: Africans and people of African descent in general. A lot
Speaker 1: of the other white abolitionists that we have talked about
Speaker 1: on the show argued that slavery was immoral, but they
Speaker 1: were also racist. But Lay really believed that all people
Speaker 1: were equal, later writing, for example, quote the many hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands that are now in slavery, were they at
Speaker 1: liberty as we are, had the same education, learning conversation books,
Speaker 1: sweet communion, and our religious assemblies. I believe many of
Speaker 1: them would exceed many of their tyrant masters in pie.
Speaker 1: The virtue and godliness and their bright genius which I
Speaker 1: know they have would be enlivened, for I have conversed
Speaker 1: with many of them. For liberty is life and slavery
Speaker 1: is death. One of the other things that gets pointed
Speaker 1: out about his writing a lot is that there were
Speaker 1: a lot of abolitionists that still talked about Africans and
Speaker 1: people of African descent as savages, and he reserved that
Speaker 1: kind of language for the people who owned slaves. He
Speaker 1: never used that sort of language about people who were
Speaker 1: enslaved or people who were of African descent. So Sarah
Speaker 1: and Benjamin only stayed in Barbados for about a year
Speaker 1: and a half. Their work with the enslaved population really,
Speaker 1: of course, drew the ire of the slave owning community.
Speaker 1: They faced harassment and threats over it. Sarah was also
Speaker 1: afraid that if they stayed there they would eventually become
Speaker 1: desensitized to what they were seeing, So in seventeen twenty
Speaker 1: they went back to London, where Benjamin seems to have
Speaker 1: re established his relationship with the Devonshire House Monthly meeting.
Speaker 1: But soon Benjamin was once again speaking out against other Quakers.
Speaker 1: In September seventeen twenty, a complaint was recorded that he
Speaker 1: had disturbed Zachary Rouse in his public testimony and also
Speaker 1: had called him a drunkard and a sinner. After some
Speaker 1: back and forth, a man named Joseph Norris brought Benjamin
Speaker 1: a notice from a meeting about his misbehavior, and Benjamin
Speaker 1: through that notice out the window. He was disowned for
Speaker 1: a second time, and then he and Sarah moved to Colchester,
Speaker 1: which is northeast of London. And Colchester Benjamin had a long,
Speaker 1: confusing and frankly pretty petty seeming dispute with the Colchester
Speaker 1: Two Weeks Meeting. This dispute went on for years, with
Speaker 1: Benjamin criticizing people and then the meeting demanding that he apologized,
Speaker 1: and then he would double down or refuse to apologize
Speaker 1: or give kind of a non apology. Sometimes it seems
Speaker 1: as though Sarah tried to smooth things over here, especially
Speaker 1: at various times she was preparing to travel without him
Speaker 1: as a minister and who be gone for a long time.
Speaker 1: She was concerned about his being isolated from his religious
Speaker 1: community while she was gone. The Colchester two Weeks Meeting
Speaker 1: wanted to disown Benjamin but couldn't because he was still
Speaker 1: disowned from Devonshire House Monthly Meeting. He'd never formally become
Speaker 1: a member of Colchester Two Weeks Meeting, and then Benjamin
Speaker 1: and Sarah started attending a different Colchester meeting, the Colchester
Speaker 1: Monthly Meeting, which added another layer of strife thanks to
Speaker 1: an apparent power struggle between those two different Colchester meetings.
Speaker 1: In the middle of all this dispute, Benjamin and Sarah
Speaker 1: disappear from the record for about three years. It's possible
Speaker 1: that they moved somewhere else and became part of a
Speaker 1: congregation where a Benjamin's behavior didn't draw any of this
Speaker 1: kind of notice, or he might have gone traveling her
Speaker 1: with her while she worked as a minister. Regardless, in
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty nine, they were back in Colchester trying to
Speaker 1: make arrangements to immigrate to Pennsylvania. The colony of Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: had been founded by William Penn in sixteen eighty one
Speaker 1: in part to be a home for Quakers who were
Speaker 1: facing violence and persecution in Europe. He called it his
Speaker 1: Holy Experiment, and he wanted it to follow Quaker ideals.
Speaker 1: Penn wanted fair treatment of the native people, no military,
Speaker 1: and a government that ran on principles of freedom, including
Speaker 1: religious liberty, access to education, and universal suffrage for men.
Speaker 1: So this was an obvious place for the Lays to
Speaker 1: want to move, but once again to immigrate the Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: they meeted a certificate from a Quaker meeting in England.
Speaker 1: Colchester Monthly Meeting, maybe motivated by the idea of Benjamin
Speaker 1: Lay living somewhere else, agreed to provide the certificate if
Speaker 1: Benjamin made amends with Devonshire House, which he did on
Speaker 1: November three, seventeen thirty one. Devonshire House sent a letter
Speaker 1: to Colchester Monthly Meeting clearing Benjamin of wrongdoing. Colchester Monthly
Speaker 1: Meeting received Benjamin as a member and issued the certificate
Speaker 1: for him to move to Pennsylvania. Mean while the cultures
Speaker 1: are two weeks meetings still very mad at him wrote
Speaker 1: letters ahead of him, warning Quakers in Pennsylvania about what
Speaker 1: they were in for. I'm wildly abused by all of
Speaker 1: the letters and the like. It's it's very ninth grade drama.
Speaker 1: And so what it is? Do you like? Benjamin? Yes?
Speaker 1: Box notebox um. When the Lays got to Philadelphia, Benjamin
Speaker 1: opened a bookshop specializing in books by Quakers, as well
Speaker 1: as psalters, Bibles, and classical works of literature. But he
Speaker 1: and Sarah were dismayed to discover that, in spite of
Speaker 1: everything that they had imagined about Penn's Holy Experiment and
Speaker 1: its dedication to Quaker ideals, Slavery was still practiced in
Speaker 1: the colony. About ten percent of the population of Philadelphia
Speaker 1: was enslaved, and about half the membership of the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Monthly Meeting owned slaves. Among the wealthiest and most powerful
Speaker 1: friends in the congregation, that number was even higher. Rather
Speaker 1: than advocating the abolition of slavery, the religious Society of
Speaker 1: Friends was more likely to advocate treating enslaved people humanely
Speaker 1: or freeing people after a certain number of years, rather
Speaker 1: than enslaving them and all their descendants for life. Benjamin
Speaker 1: started criticizing slavery and slave owners right away. He also
Speaker 1: met other abolitionists, including fellow Quaker Ralph Sandiford, who by
Speaker 1: that point was in very poor physical and mental health,
Speaker 1: in part due to being harassed by other Quakers over
Speaker 1: his abolitionist beliefs, which had gone on for years. Sandofford
Speaker 1: died in seventeen thirty three, so when Leigh met him
Speaker 1: it was towards the end of his life. After a
Speaker 1: couple of years of this, Benjamin and Sarah decided to
Speaker 1: move to Abington, about fifteen miles north of Philadelphia, and
Speaker 1: they may have chosen this location because Susannah Morris lived there.
Speaker 1: She and Sarah were friends and they had traveled together
Speaker 1: as ministers, including surviving a shipwreck together. But when the
Speaker 1: Lace tried to get their certificate from Philadelphia so they
Speaker 1: could join a meeting in Abington, Robert Jordan Jr. Objected,
Speaker 1: arguing that because of all of the conflict back in England,
Speaker 1: Benjamin's membership in Philadelphia was not authorized in the first place.
Speaker 1: Not long after they moved to Abington, Sarah Lay died
Speaker 1: at the age of about fifty eight. Her cause of
Speaker 1: death is unknown, it does seem to have been unexpected
Speaker 1: and pretty sudden. Benjamin also seems to have thought that
Speaker 1: Jordan's treatment of the two of them contributed to it,
Speaker 1: maybe by causing them both a lot of stress. A
Speaker 1: notice from the Abington Monthly Meeting mentioned Sarah's quote gift
Speaker 1: of ministry and her travels through England, Scotland and Ireland
Speaker 1: and some parts of the continent as a minister. It's
Speaker 1: very likely that Sarah had been a tempering influence in
Speaker 1: Benjamin's life, not just smoothing things over with the various
Speaker 1: Quaker meetings that they were part of, but also in
Speaker 1: reigning in his more radical impulses, and without her, he
Speaker 1: dedicated himself to aggressively speaking out against slavery. And we're
Speaker 1: going to get to that after we have another sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Some of the chronology of Benjamin lays life is a
Speaker 1: little bit fuzzy, so it's possible that some of the
Speaker 1: things we're about to talk about happened before his wife died.
Speaker 1: Even if that's the case, though, after Sarah's death, Benjamin
Speaker 1: became known as an increasingly eccentric figure. He was heavily
Speaker 1: influenced by the Cynic philosophers, particularly Diogenes. If you need
Speaker 1: a refresher on that, we just reran our episode on
Speaker 1: him as a Saturday classic. But in general, the Cynics
Speaker 1: were in favor of living with nature, abandoning social conventions,
Speaker 1: and living in an ascetic, minimal existence. Lay started living
Speaker 1: in a cave in Abington, which was spacious enough that
Speaker 1: he had an extensive library there. It was also big
Speaker 1: enough for a spinning wheel, which he used to spin flax.
Speaker 1: He made all of his own clothes from undyed to
Speaker 1: linen because he didn't want to wear any material that
Speaker 1: harmed animal or was connected to slavery. He would use
Speaker 1: leather from animals that had died naturally, but he would
Speaker 1: not use it from ones that had been slaughtered or hunted.
Speaker 1: Lay had also become a strict vegetarian, although he did
Speaker 1: drink milk and he ate honey that was made by
Speaker 1: bees that he raised himself, taking care not the harmony
Speaker 1: of them when he harvested it. He didn't drink tea
Speaker 1: because of the abuses and the tea industry in Asia,
Speaker 1: and he didn't eat sugar because it was grown, harvested,
Speaker 1: and processed by enslaved Africans. He also went everywhere on
Speaker 1: foot because he didn't want to exploit the labor of horses.
Speaker 1: He started publicly condemning slave owners, especially Quaker slave owners,
Speaker 1: including during meetings, and he became increasingly dramatic in his protests.
Speaker 1: After interrupting someone in a meeting, he was forcibly carried
Speaker 1: out into the rain, and he lay in the mud
Speaker 1: so that the whole congregation had to step over him
Speaker 1: as they left. On another occasion, he stood outside the
Speaker 1: meeting house in the snow with one boot off and
Speaker 1: the leg of his pants rolled up. When people asked
Speaker 1: what he was doing, or said that he should go
Speaker 1: inside because he might get sick. He answered, quote, you
Speaker 1: pretend compassion for me, but you do not feel for
Speaker 1: the poor slaves in the field who go all winter
Speaker 1: half clad. To protest the use of slave labor in
Speaker 1: the tobacco industry and tobacco's unwholesome effects on health, Ley
Speaker 1: took three pipes to an annual Quaker meeting and he
Speaker 1: smashed each of them, one among the ministers, one among
Speaker 1: the women, and one among the men, a lot of
Speaker 1: Quaker congregations at that point separated by gender. He did
Speaker 1: a similar demonstration against the tea industry, protesting the conditions
Speaker 1: in the tea and sugar industries and the luxury that
Speaker 1: was associated with tea, by smashing his late wife's tea
Speaker 1: set with a hammer in a public square. Lay also
Speaker 1: tried to convince some neighbors to free a young girl
Speaker 1: that they were enslaving as a household servant. He had
Speaker 1: also made friends with their child. In some accounts this
Speaker 1: was a son, and in others it's a daughter. One
Speaker 1: day he convinced this child to come stay with him
Speaker 1: for the afternoon, and when he saw the parents that evening,
Speaker 1: distraught over their missing child, he said, quote, your child
Speaker 1: is safe in my house. And now you may conceive
Speaker 1: of the sorrow you inflict upon the parents of the
Speaker 1: Negro girl you hold in slavery, for she was torn
Speaker 1: from them by avarice. At one point, Lay traveled to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia to visit another Quaker family. He arrived as they
Speaker 1: were having breakfast, and he asked them whether the person
Speaker 1: who was serving their meal was enslaved. When they answered
Speaker 1: that yes, he was, Lay said, quote, then I will
Speaker 1: not share with thee in the fruits of thy unrighteousness.
Speaker 1: And he left. There's so many points in his story
Speaker 1: where I want to yell right on, Benjamin Lay is
Speaker 1: putting the rest of us to shame completely. U Lay's
Speaker 1: most famous anti slavery demonstration took place at the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Yearly Meeting on September ninety eight. This was an annual
Speaker 1: meeting of all the Philadelphia area Quaker meetings held in Burlington,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. Lay walked about twenty miles to get there,
Speaker 1: wearing a military uniform with a sword belted to his
Speaker 1: hip under an overcoat. He also carried a hollowed out
Speaker 1: book in which was concealed a bladder filled with bright
Speaker 1: red pokeberry juice. During this meeting, he stood up and said, quote, Oh,
Speaker 1: all you Negro masters, who are contentedly holding your fellow
Speaker 1: creatures in a state of slavery during life, well knowing
Speaker 1: the cruel sufferings those innocent captives undergo in their state
Speaker 1: of bondage, both in these North American colonies and in
Speaker 1: the West India Islands, you must know they are not
Speaker 1: made slaves by any direct law, but are held by
Speaker 1: an arbitrary and self interested custom in which you participate.
Speaker 1: And especially you who professed to do unto all men
Speaker 1: as you would they should do unto you. And yet,
Speaker 1: in direct opposition to every principle of reason, humanity, and religion,
Speaker 1: you were forcibly retaining your fellow men from one generation
Speaker 1: to another a state of unconditional servitude. You might as
Speaker 1: well throw off the plain coat as I do. He
Speaker 1: unbuttoned the one button of his coat and let it
Speaker 1: fall on the ground, and then went on, quote, it
Speaker 1: would be as justifiable in the sight of the Almighty,
Speaker 1: who beholds and respects all nations and colors of men
Speaker 1: with an equal regard, if you should thrust a sword
Speaker 1: through their hearts as I do. Through this book. In
Speaker 1: some accounts He also said, thus shall God shed the
Speaker 1: blood of those persons who enslaved their fellow creatures. So
Speaker 1: then he drew the sword, stabbed it through the book
Speaker 1: and the bladder that was concealed inside of it, let
Speaker 1: the fake blood drip out of it, and flung drops
Speaker 1: of it all over the slave owners who were around him.
Speaker 1: He was like an early performance artist. I kind of
Speaker 1: love it. Uh. These demonstrations unsurprisingly angered the slave owning
Speaker 1: members of the Quaker community. They were personally offended, and
Speaker 1: his aggressive confrontations ran against the Quaker values of peace
Speaker 1: and unity. In that pokeberry juice demonstration, Lay had also
Speaker 1: walked into a Pacifist congregation wearing a military uniform and
Speaker 1: carrying a weapon. On top of all that, in seventeen
Speaker 1: thirty eight, Lay also published a book without the authorization
Speaker 1: of the church's overseers of the press, who were supposed
Speaker 1: to approve all published material by Quakers. This book was
Speaker 1: called and just Buckle Up, Because this is I think
Speaker 1: the longest title we've ever read. All slave keepers that
Speaker 1: keep the innocent in bondage apost dates pretending to lay
Speaker 1: claim to the pure and holy Christian religion of what
Speaker 1: congregations soever, but especially in their ministers, by whose examples
Speaker 1: the filthy leprosy and apostasy is spread far and near.
Speaker 1: It is a notorious sin which many of the true
Speaker 1: friends of Christ and his pure truth, called Quakers, has
Speaker 1: been for many years and still are concerned to write
Speaker 1: and bear testimony against, as a practice so gross and
Speaker 1: hurtful to religion and destructive to government beyond what we're
Speaker 1: it's can set forth or can be declared of by
Speaker 1: men or angels, and yet lived by ministers and magistrates.
Speaker 1: In America, the leaders of the people caused them to
Speaker 1: air written for a general service by him that truly
Speaker 1: and sincerely desires the present and eternal welfare and happiness
Speaker 1: of all mankind, all the world over, of all colors
Speaker 1: and nations as his own soul. Benjamin Lay. That was
Speaker 1: the title name at the end, Pussy. Most historians referencing
Speaker 1: this work just call it all slave keepers that keep
Speaker 1: the innocent and bondage apostates, or even just all slave
Speaker 1: keepers dot dot dot apostates. You know you can't blame
Speaker 1: anyone for that abbrevious No, you really can't. This book
Speaker 1: was really scathing in its discussion of slavery and of
Speaker 1: slave owners, especially those who claim to be people of faith.
Speaker 1: Here is a passage quote, Now, dear friends, behold a
Speaker 1: mystery these ministers that be slave keepers, and are in
Speaker 1: such very great repute, Such eminent preachers, given to hospitality,
Speaker 1: charitable to the poor, loving to their neighbors, just in
Speaker 1: their dealings, temperate in their lives, visiting of the sick,
Speaker 1: sympathizing with the afflicted embody or mind, very religious, seemingly
Speaker 1: an extraordinary devout and demure, and in short, strictly exact
Speaker 1: in all their decorums except slave keeping. These these be
Speaker 1: the men and the women too for the devil's purpose,
Speaker 1: and are the choicest treasure the devil can or has
Speaker 1: to bring out of his lazaretto to establish slave keeping.
Speaker 1: By these satan works wonders many ways. So even if
Speaker 1: you are that great of a person, you are owning slaves,
Speaker 1: you are doing the devil's work. Per Benjamin Lay, this
Speaker 1: book wasn't just about slavery. There were also snippets from
Speaker 1: Lay's own life, kind of little autobiographical sketches, including references
Speaker 1: to that whole dispute with cultister twice weekly meeting. There
Speaker 1: are also selections from other works that he found meaningful
Speaker 1: in some way, including a couple of chapters of the
Speaker 1: Book of Revelation along with Lay's commentary and a chunk
Speaker 1: of John Milton's Paradise Lost. Basically, it doesn't read as
Speaker 1: though Lay sat down intending to write a book. It's
Speaker 1: more like he wrote things from time to time as
Speaker 1: different ideas came into his mind, without really a cohesive
Speaker 1: through line through all of it. The writing style you
Speaker 1: might conclude based on the title is also pretty rambling,
Speaker 1: even when it's not jumping from one topic to another.
Speaker 1: Lay's friend Benjamin Franklin, published the book. Although Franklin left
Speaker 1: his name off the title page in the spot where
Speaker 1: the publisher's name would normally go. Franklin knew that Ley
Speaker 1: was not approved to have it published, and he knew
Speaker 1: that it was kind of a disjointed miss Franklin had
Speaker 1: even pointed that out to Ley, who told him that
Speaker 1: it didn't matter and to print it in whatever order
Speaker 1: that he thought best. In the words of the third
Speaker 1: Benjamin in this paragraph, physician and educator Benjamin Rush quote,
Speaker 1: even the address and skill of Dr Franklin were not
Speaker 1: sufficient to connect its different parts together. So as to
Speaker 1: render it an agreeable or useful work. As a side note,
Speaker 1: although Benjamin Lay often refused to associate with slave owners
Speaker 1: in any way, he seems to have made an exception
Speaker 1: for Benjamin Franklin. Franklin later did become part of the
Speaker 1: movement for abolition, but when he was working on Lay's book,
Speaker 1: he was also enslaving at least two people. Franklin's own
Speaker 1: views on slavery at the time may have been another
Speaker 1: reason why he left his name off of the book,
Speaker 1: although he did print other abolitionist tracks. Franklin's views may
Speaker 1: have also influenced the visual representations of Benjamin Lay that
Speaker 1: we have today. Most of them come from a portrait
Speaker 1: that was done by William Williams that was commissioned for
Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin by his wife Deborah. This is probably done
Speaker 1: like not with Benjamin Lay sitting for a portrait doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like a thing he ever would have done. Was
Speaker 1: probably William Williams was probably familiar with Benjamin Lay from
Speaker 1: having seen him around town, but this portrait has no
Speaker 1: indication of Lay's work as as an abolitionist. Instead, it
Speaker 1: shows Lay holding a book labeled try On on Happiness,
Speaker 1: which was a reference to the Way to Health, Long
Speaker 1: Life and Happiness, or a Discourse on Temperance and the
Speaker 1: Particular Nature of all Things Requisite for the Life of
Speaker 1: Man by Thomas Tryon. We do know that Benjamin Lay
Speaker 1: loved this book and apparently carried it with him a
Speaker 1: lot of the time, but this was not nearly as
Speaker 1: big of a part of his life as his abolitionist work.
Speaker 1: After the poke Berry demonstration and the publication of the book,
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting disowned Benjamin Lay on September seven,
Speaker 1: saying that the certificate that he had presented from Colchester
Speaker 1: when joining the church had been quote irregularly maintained that
Speaker 1: his conduct was disorderly, and that quote we have therefore
Speaker 1: or thought fit to give public notice that we do
Speaker 1: not esteem the said Benjamin Lay to be a member
Speaker 1: of our religious community, but a disorderly and obstinate person,
Speaker 1: one who slights the advice of friends, imposes on them
Speaker 1: in his preaching, that he disregards the peace of the church.
Speaker 1: The Abington Monthly Meeting disowned Lay as well, even though
Speaker 1: he was not actually a member. There was like a
Speaker 1: just to be safe, prophylactic disowning. I guess. Yet the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting also took out advertisements denouncing Lay's book,
Speaker 1: saying it quote contains gross abuses, not only against some
Speaker 1: of their members in particular, but against the whole society.
Speaker 1: Even after being disowned from these congregations, Lay continued to
Speaker 1: attend services and to speak and write against slavery at
Speaker 1: every opportunity, and he did that for the rest of
Speaker 1: his life. He spoke out on other issues as well,
Speaker 1: including denouncing the death penalty. He also visited Quaker schools
Speaker 1: and brought books with him to give out his prizes.
Speaker 1: He also gave money charitably, although while he gave money
Speaker 1: to poor people who needed it, he criticized beggars who
Speaker 1: he thought were able to work. In seventeen fifty eight,
Speaker 1: as Benjamin Lay's health was declining, a friend visited him
Speaker 1: and told him that the Philadelphia Annual Meeting had decided
Speaker 1: to start disowning members who were part of the slave trade.
Speaker 1: Lay answered his friend that he could now die at peace.
Speaker 1: He did die on February third, seventeen fifty nine, at
Speaker 1: the age of seventy seven. Almost twenty years later, in
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, the Philadelphia annual meeting bands slave ownership
Speaker 1: among its members, and then other annual meetings followed from there.
Speaker 1: Because he had made some money during his lifetime but
Speaker 1: had spent almost nothing in his last years, Benjamin lay
Speaker 1: left behind in a state that was divided up among
Speaker 1: family members and charitable institutions, along with forty pounds to
Speaker 1: the Society of Friends at Abington for the care of
Speaker 1: poor children in the congregation. He was buried in an
Speaker 1: unmarked grave at the Abington Burial Ground, although the registry
Speaker 1: there did not list him as a member. He had
Speaker 1: asked a friend to arrange for his body to be
Speaker 1: cremated and his ashes thrown into the sea, but creation
Speaker 1: was not really practiced among Quakers at that point, and
Speaker 1: his friend refused. For a few decades after his death,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Lake continued to be well known, especially in the
Speaker 1: area where he lived. In the words of Benjamin Rush
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier, these were written in seventeen quote. There
Speaker 1: was a time when this celebrated Christian philosopher was familiar
Speaker 1: to every man, woman, and to nearly every child in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: Lay was particularly remembered among abolitionists, but eventually he seemed
Speaker 1: to just disappear from history, and the historians who did
Speaker 1: mention him often dismissed him as kind of an eccentric
Speaker 1: crank rather than as somebody who paved the way for
Speaker 1: later abolitionists. The erasure was widespread enough that when Dave Wormling,
Speaker 1: a caretaker at Abington Meeting House, found an etching of
Speaker 1: Lay in the nineteen nineties, he didn't know who it was,
Speaker 1: neither did any of the older members Wormling asked about it.
Speaker 1: It remained a mystery until Marcus Rhdeicker visited the meeting
Speaker 1: house in while researching his book The Fearless Benjamin Lay,
Speaker 1: the Quaker dwarf who became the first revolutionary abolitionist. That
Speaker 1: book was one of the sources for this episode. It
Speaker 1: is very good and also not portularly long, if folks
Speaker 1: are interested in picking it up. Rhedeicker's work brought new
Speaker 1: attention to Benjamin Lay's life and work, and based on
Speaker 1: his research, Hdeker also encouraged Quaker congregations to revisit those
Speaker 1: past decisions to disown him. Eventually, the four congregations that
Speaker 1: had disowned Lay or their successors issued statements about it, and,
Speaker 1: as one example, on November twelveen the Abington Monthly Meeting
Speaker 1: of the Religious Society of Friends issued a statement that
Speaker 1: it quote recognizes Benjamin Lay's dedication to equality and his
Speaker 1: willingness to repeatedly speak his messages of truth to a
Speaker 1: society that was in denial about the evils of slavery.
Speaker 1: We acknowledge that Benjamin Lay used radical activism and his
Speaker 1: attempts to teach his peers to recognize the equality before
Speaker 1: God of all people, regardless of race or gender. He
Speaker 1: lived his life with integrity according to his Quaker beliefs,
Speaker 1: and he called others, especially slave owners, to accountability. The
Speaker 1: statement went on to say, quote, we now recognize the
Speaker 1: truth behind Benjamin Lay's abolitionist efforts. Although we may not
Speaker 1: reinstate membership for someone who is deceased, we recognize Benjamin
Speaker 1: Lay as a friend of the truth and as being
Speaker 1: in unity with the spirit of our Abington Monthly Meeting.
Speaker 1: The statements from the other congregations that had disowned him
Speaker 1: during his life had very similar tones, and in some
Speaker 1: cases issued joint statements about it. In addition to all
Speaker 1: of these statements, a stone commemorating Sarah and Benjamin Lay
Speaker 1: was placed in the Abington Burial Ground on Apeen and
Speaker 1: a historical marker. A state historical marker was dedicated on
Speaker 1: September two, so he has become a little more well
Speaker 1: known over the last couple of years. I love it.
Speaker 1: Do you have a little bit of listener mail? I do.
Speaker 1: We got emails from a couple of folks in the
Speaker 1: same topic. This first one is from Daniel. Daniel says,
Speaker 1: good day, I love your podcasts. I'm currently an active
Speaker 1: duty officer with the U. S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps
Speaker 1: stationed abroad. CBS fall within the CEC's command, and I
Speaker 1: have never heard of the incident mentioned regarding the nine
Speaker 1: race riots in Guam. I'm an avid history buff and
Speaker 1: have never come across this in my researchers scene it
Speaker 1: mentioned in the US NAVYCB Museum. What you mentioned may
Speaker 1: have been the Aganya Race riots and it involved the
Speaker 1: third Marine Division. If CBS were involved, I would love
Speaker 1: to hear more about the incident. I'll start asking around
Speaker 1: and maybe some of my salty chiefs have more knowledge
Speaker 1: on the confrontation. Very respectfully sounds damn, sounds more formally
Speaker 1: than that, but privacy, I will just say Dan and
Speaker 1: then The other note was from Catherine, and Catherine says,
Speaker 1: Dear Tracy and Holly, thanks a lot for your show.
Speaker 1: It's ter thick. I have one quick question for you.
Speaker 1: In the July seventeen show and the Port Chicago Disaster,
Speaker 1: it mentions a riot on Guam involving CBS in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty four. The comment was about twenty nine minutes and
Speaker 1: thirty seconds into the podcast. Can you tell me where
Speaker 1: I could learn more about this? I served as a
Speaker 1: Navy CBE for many years and would like to learn
Speaker 1: more about the event, but I couldn't tell which of
Speaker 1: the resources to use. UH. By the way, there's a
Speaker 1: great U. S. Navy SABE museum at the Naval Base
Speaker 1: Ventura County just north of Malibu if you're ever in
Speaker 1: that area. The history of the cebes or military engineering
Speaker 1: itself would be a great topic to add to your
Speaker 1: future shows list. Thanks a lot and keep up the
Speaker 1: great work. Best Kate. So thank you Kate and Dan
Speaker 1: for these questions to uh jump back to what we
Speaker 1: said in the podcast. Um In the episode on the
Speaker 1: Port Chicago disaster, we referenced a riot involving black Seabees
Speaker 1: and white Marines on Guam in December of ninety four.
Speaker 1: That's what we said in the podcast. So if you're
Speaker 1: not familiar, CBS are Construction Battalion. Originally this was kind
Speaker 1: of a nickname from the initials CB. Eventually did become
Speaker 1: the formal name. So that was the a Gana Riot,
Speaker 1: which was named after the town where part of it happened.
Speaker 1: That town is now called Hagatna and it's the capital
Speaker 1: of Guam. There had been ongoing violence in Guam leading
Speaker 1: up to it, including an off duty white MP firing
Speaker 1: on black men in the town and a white sailor
Speaker 1: shooting and killing a black marine. There were forty three
Speaker 1: black sailors who tried to invade the white marine barracks
Speaker 1: on Christmas night nineteen and retaliation they were arrested. And
Speaker 1: then there were also rumors of another incident in which
Speaker 1: a black sailor had been killed by a white marine
Speaker 1: and that was what tipped off this riot. So multiple
Speaker 1: sources that we used for this episode referenced the riot
Speaker 1: as part of the context report Chicago and for the
Speaker 1: trials afterward and all of that, and some of them
Speaker 1: used the name agan Near Riot and others didn't. Only
Speaker 1: one of them describes the black serviceman involved as CBS,
Speaker 1: and that was an essay by Charles W. Lemberg called
Speaker 1: Blacks Versus Navy Blue the Mayor Island Mutiny Court Martial,
Speaker 1: and that was published in the journal California History. Other
Speaker 1: accounts that were part of the research didn't describe these
Speaker 1: men as CBS, but they were also pretty vague and
Speaker 1: contradictory about who the black servicemen were and what unit
Speaker 1: they were with. This is surely info that does exist
Speaker 1: concretely somewhere. It's just not something I could confirm leading
Speaker 1: up to it. So it's possible that Walloenberg just made
Speaker 1: an error when he described these men as cebes, or
Speaker 1: that he conflated the Ghanya riots with something else, because
Speaker 1: there were other things that went on with the black
Speaker 1: Sebes in World War Two, including about a thousand black
Speaker 1: Sebes who went on a hunger strike in March of
Speaker 1: nineteen to protest discrimination and segregation, and uh nineteen black
Speaker 1: Seebes who were dishonorably discharged in October of nineteen forty
Speaker 1: three after they had reported racial discrimination. So that is
Speaker 1: the whole story of attempting to clarify what we said
Speaker 1: in the podcast. Um so thank you to both of
Speaker 1: you are writing in about that. If you would like
Speaker 1: to write to us about this or any other podcast
Speaker 1: or a history podcasts at how stuff Works dot com.
Speaker 1: And then we're all over social media at miss in History.
Speaker 1: That is where you will find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
Speaker 1: and Instagram. You can come to our website which is
Speaker 1: missing history dot com and find show notes for all
Speaker 1: the episodes Holly and I have done together and a
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