Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
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Filming and Editing by Christopher Cuthrell
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Transcript:
[Marcus Rediker]
In the 1650s, Quakers were extremely radical. They would disrupt meetings, They would go naked for a sign, as they put it. They believed in acting out their ideas. Benjamin Lay was born in Copforde England, unusually for his time since he was born in 1682, a third generation of Quaker. And he himself was a much more ardent and more radical Quaker than either his grandparents or his parents. That tradition of radical Quakerism, even though it had to some extent died out by the 1680s, was revived by Benjamin and attached to the issue of slavery.
Benjamin's education about slavery actually began during his time as a sailor. Some of his fellow sailors had been on slave ships. These sailors were famous for telling stories -- the sailors yarn, as it's called -- and some of the stories were about the violent exploitation of African women. And he was horrified by this.
So when he felt the need in 1718 to leave London, where he had gotten in trouble with the local Quaker meeting, he and his wife Sarah decided to sail to Barbados. But he actually entered the world's probably leading and most violent slave society at that time. Well, when Benjamin got to Bridgetown, Barbados, and set up his shop, he was shocked to see what kind of society this was. Enslaved people would come into his shop and they were literally starving to death. Gaunt. He also saw the whippings, the floggings, the tortures. He knew a man who ended up committing suicide because he wouldn't bear any more beatings from his enslaver. And he saw that a lot of Quakers participated in this system. Benjamin and Sarah as they put it, they couldn't breathe In the smoky darkness of Barbados society, and they felt that they might become like these other Quakers. They would lose their heart by living amidst such oppression. They left Barbados in 1720, after about a year and a half. But that was a decisive time and Benjamin was an abolitionist ever after.
When Benjamin and Sarah set sail for Philadelphia, they were very excited to go to this Quaker colony. This was Pennsylvania named for the Penn family. This was a place where Quakers were in charge of the state legislature. They made the laws. They ran society. This was going to be a place of liberty and tolerance -- and when Benjamin gets there, he discovers that there's slavery there, as there was in Barbados. More than half of the members of the Philadelphia Monthly meeting owned slaves. So Benjamin says, “What is going on here? This is supposed to be a kind of Quaker utopia, and you've got slavery?” He believed that people were sleepwalking, that they weren't awake and alert to the injustice that was going on all around them. And he thought it was his job to wake them up.
[Benjamin] studied a group of very radical philosophers in ancient Greece called the cynics, and one of their main ideas is that a truly moral person must speak truth to power. You must go into lair of power and confront people who are doing the wrong thing. And Benjamin did that. Benjamin Lay's most famous act came in 1738. Benjamin's enemies were the older Quakers who had a real base of power in the Philadelphia yearly meeting. They were the wealthier Quakers -- the weighty Quakers, as I think they're still called -- and they didn't like this ministry against slavery at all. Many of them were slaves themselves.
Benjamin went to the Philadelphia yearly meeting held in Burlington, New Jersey, And all of the weighty Quakers were there. And Benjamin went with a plan. He had found military uniform. And, of course, Quakers in 1738 were committed pacifists. So this was already a provocation. He had a sword that he buckled at his waist. And then he took a book, And he cut out a secret compartment and filled it up with bright red poke berry juice. Then he threw an overcoat over his shoulders and went into the Burlington meeting and sat in a conspicuous place near the weighty Quakers. People rise and speak as the spirit moves them. And Benjamin waited a good while, and then he rose to speak, and he said that “slavery is the biggest sin in the world.” People expected that knew he would say that...
___
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
QuakerSpeak is a weekly video series. New video every other THURSDAY!
SUPPORT QuakerSpeak! quakerspeak.com/donate
SUBSCRIBE for a new video every other week! http://fdsj.nl/QS-Subscribe
WATCH all our videos: http://fdsj.nl/qs-all-videos
___
Become a Friends Journal subscriber for only $28
http://fdsj.nl/FJ-Subscribe
Filming and Editing by Christopher Cuthrell
___
Transcript:
[Marcus Rediker]
In the 1650s, Quakers were extremely radical. They would disrupt meetings, They would go naked for a sign, as they put it. They believed in acting out their ideas. Benjamin Lay was born in Copforde England, unusually for his time since he was born in 1682, a third generation of Quaker. And he himself was a much more ardent and more radical Quaker than either his grandparents or his parents. That tradition of radical Quakerism, even though it had to some extent died out by the 1680s, was revived by Benjamin and attached to the issue of slavery.
Benjamin's education about slavery actually began during his time as a sailor. Some of his fellow sailors had been on slave ships. These sailors were famous for telling stories -- the sailors yarn, as it's called -- and some of the stories were about the violent exploitation of African women. And he was horrified by this.
So when he felt the need in 1718 to leave London, where he had gotten in trouble with the local Quaker meeting, he and his wife Sarah decided to sail to Barbados. But he actually entered the world's probably leading and most violent slave society at that time. Well, when Benjamin got to Bridgetown, Barbados, and set up his shop, he was shocked to see what kind of society this was. Enslaved people would come into his shop and they were literally starving to death. Gaunt. He also saw the whippings, the floggings, the tortures. He knew a man who ended up committing suicide because he wouldn't bear any more beatings from his enslaver. And he saw that a lot of Quakers participated in this system. Benjamin and Sarah as they put it, they couldn't breathe In the smoky darkness of Barbados society, and they felt that they might become like these other Quakers. They would lose their heart by living amidst such oppression. They left Barbados in 1720, after about a year and a half. But that was a decisive time and Benjamin was an abolitionist ever after.
When Benjamin and Sarah set sail for Philadelphia, they were very excited to go to this Quaker colony. This was Pennsylvania named for the Penn family. This was a place where Quakers were in charge of the state legislature. They made the laws. They ran society. This was going to be a place of liberty and tolerance -- and when Benjamin gets there, he discovers that there's slavery there, as there was in Barbados. More than half of the members of the Philadelphia Monthly meeting owned slaves. So Benjamin says, “What is going on here? This is supposed to be a kind of Quaker utopia, and you've got slavery?” He believed that people were sleepwalking, that they weren't awake and alert to the injustice that was going on all around them. And he thought it was his job to wake them up.
[Benjamin] studied a group of very radical philosophers in ancient Greece called the cynics, and one of their main ideas is that a truly moral person must speak truth to power. You must go into lair of power and confront people who are doing the wrong thing. And Benjamin did that. Benjamin Lay's most famous act came in 1738. Benjamin's enemies were the older Quakers who had a real base of power in the Philadelphia yearly meeting. They were the wealthier Quakers -- the weighty Quakers, as I think they're still called -- and they didn't like this ministry against slavery at all. Many of them were slaves themselves.
Benjamin went to the Philadelphia yearly meeting held in Burlington, New Jersey, And all of the weighty Quakers were there. And Benjamin went with a plan. He had found military uniform. And, of course, Quakers in 1738 were committed pacifists. So this was already a provocation. He had a sword that he buckled at his waist. And then he took a book, And he cut out a secret compartment and filled it up with bright red poke berry juice. Then he threw an overcoat over his shoulders and went into the Burlington meeting and sat in a conspicuous place near the weighty Quakers. People rise and speak as the spirit moves them. And Benjamin waited a good while, and then he rose to speak, and he said that “slavery is the biggest sin in the world.” People expected that knew he would say that...
___
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
