Benjamin Lay was one of the earliest and most radical abolitionists in America. He angered the established Quaker culture of Philadelphia so much that he is barely acknowledged in history books, but he made quite a splash in his day- literally. In 1738, he went to the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia Quakers prepared for a storm. Lay dressed in a military uniform and carried a sword, which he covered with an overcoat. He hid an animal bladder filled with red juice inside a book.
Quakers have no formal ministers, so congregants speak as the spirit moves them. Lay was a man of large and unruly spirit. In a thundering voice that belied his stature, he announced that slaveholding was the greatest sin in the world. He threw off his overcoat to reveal his military uniform. The crowd gasped. He raised the book above his head, unsheathed his sword, and declared: ‘God will take vengeance on those who oppress their fellow creatures.’ He ran his sword through the book. The bladder exploded in a gush of blood, spattering the slaveholders sitting nearby. A group of Quaker men grabbed up Lay – he did not resist – and threw him out of the meeting house into the street. The soldier of God had delivered a chilling prophecy: slaveowning would destroy the Quaker faith.
Lay came into his opinions honestly. He spent years as a sailor traveling the world, and then settled in Barbados, where he witnessed the horror of slavery up close. Read about the life of the lesser-known abolitionist and little person Benjamin Lay at Aeon. -via Metafilter