If you are interested in pre-Revolutionary American history, religious history, the history of abolition and slavery, or passionate colorful characters, then “The Fearless Benjamin Lay” by Marcus Rediker may be the book for you!
Born in England in 1682 to a family of modest means, Benjamin Lay was a self-taught man of the world. By the time he was 50 he had worked as a shepherd, a glove maker, a sailor, and a shop keeper. He had lived in various towns in England, London, and Barbados, and at age 50 he and his wife Sarah moved to Philadelphia, as he had been kicked out of several Quaker groups in his native England. A deeply religious man and a natural outcast, being difficult in temperament as well as physically unusual (he had a hunched back and dwarfism), his time in Barbados had also made him vehemently opposed to slavery in an era when slavery was the status quo for wealthy Europeans and colonists, even among Quakers. Given to blunt speech and theatrics in Quaker meetings to get his point across, he quickly made enemies of Philadelphia’s influential Quaker leaders. When Benjamin Franklin published Lay’s book “All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates” (catchy!) in 1738, Franklin saw fit to quietly keep his own name off of the title page.
“The Fearless Benjamin Lay” can be slightly more dry than very juicy narrative non-fiction. This makes sense, as Rediker needs to lay out details about the basis of Lay’s belief system and education that are fairly strange to most of us today. We go a bit into the weeds on subjects such as the religious upheaval in England in the 17th century, the Book of Revelation, some Greek philosophy, etc.. If this sounds like a good time, great! However, Lay is such an interesting character that a little bit of biblical exegesis couldn’t scare me off. This is a guy worth knowing about (speaking of weeds, he was also a vegetarian, made his own vegan clothes from flax he spun himself in his own cozy cave [yes, a cave] north of Philly, and walked everywhere as he refused to ride horses).