About this item
The little-known story of an eighteenth-century Quaker dwarf who fiercely attacked slavery and imagined a new, more humane way of lifeThe Fearless Benjamin Lay chronicles the transatlantic life and times of a singular and astonishing man - a Quaker dwarf who became one of the first ever to demand the total, unconditional emancipation of all enslaved Africans around the world. He performed public guerrilla theater to shame slave masters, insisting that human bondage violated the fundamental principles of Christianity. He wrote a fiery, controversial book against bondage that Benjamin Franklin published in 1738. He lived in a cave, made his own clothes, refused to consume anything produced by slave labor, championed animal rights, and embraced vegetarianism.
About the Author
Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh and Senior Research Fellow at the Collège d'études mondiales in Paris. He is the author of numerous prize-winning books, including *The Many-Headed Hydra* (with Peter Linebaugh) , *The Slave Ship*, and *The Amistad Rebellion*. He produced the award-winning documentary film *Ghosts of Amistad* (Tony Buba, director) , about the popular memory of the *Amistad* rebellion of 1839 in contemporary Sierra Leone.Photo credit Curtis Reaves.
