Benjamin Lay was born in 1682 with the conditions of both dwarfism and kyphosis. He was raised in England as a third generation Quaker and held numerous occupations until he moved to Barbados with his wife Sarah in 1718. While already vehemently opposed to the institution of slavery prior to their move, the time that the Lays spent in Barbados radicalized them even further. Their outspoken opposition to slavery, becoming louder by the day, quickly caused them to lose favor with the Society of Friends on the island. This prompted their move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1731. 

Lay's beliefs and values were radical for his time, but his commitment to following them surpassed perhaps nearly every abolitionist both before and after. He grew all of his own food, crafted all of his own clothing, refused to eat meat as a deep believer in animal rights, and even lived in a cave. His recent biographer, Marcus Rediker, believes that Lay fully separated himself from any part of society that benefited from the unpaid labor of men or animals.2

Lay believed in the immediate and unconditional emancipation of the enslaved without any form of compensation to slaveholders. Rediker believes that Lay had a "savage, most un-Quaker-like fury." Perhaps the finest example of this was his dramatic performance at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1738. He entered the meeting house with a number of banned items hidden beneath his cloak. These items included a military uniform, a sword, an animal bladder filled with bright red pokeberry juice, and a bible that had been hollowed out in order to hold the animal bladder. Lay waited patiently throughout the meeting until he felt the time was right, then rose to speak, per the standard Quaker meeting protocol that encouraged Friends to speak when called on by the Holy Spirit. Lay sprang into an unprecedented diatribe against his Quaker brethren who held slaves, proclaiming that “Thus shall God shed the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow creatures.” He simultaneously shed his cloak, unsheathed the sword, and plunged it into the Holy Bible, thus covering the Bible, himself, and the meetinghouse floor with what appeared to be blood. Lay was removed from the meetinghouse with force.

Rediker argues that events like this demonstrate Lay's commitment to parrhesia, a Greek word denoting "free, fearless speech, which required courage in the face of danger."3  This commitment, combined with Lay's dwarfism and kyphosis, exposed him to nearly constant ridicule by his community. He even continues to be ridiculed and covered with condescension by some modern historians. Thus, centuries following his removal from his local Meeting due to his activism, Lay continues to garner criticism. Rediker laments that: "Benjamin was, in 1738, the last Quaker disowned for protests against slavery. It would take another twenty years for Quakers to agree even to the possibility of disowning a member for slave-trading and an additional eighteen years to begin to excommunicate slave owners. It was not easy to be so far ahead of one’s time."4 It is abundantly clear that Lay's legacy is far greater than what he has been credited with.