Benjamin Lay | Radnor Friends Meeting

It’s Never Too Late to Have a Truth-Filled Childhood

by Lee H. | Oct 14, 2025 | Climate Action Committee, Upcoming Events

LET’S MEET AT THE BOOK LAUNCH at Abington Meetinghouse at 6pm on Tuesday, November 11, 2025! Write to Radnor Meeting (type radnor.meeting @ radnorquakers . net without the spaces) if you need to know more, or just want to let us know you’re coming. Maybe you can give someone a lift. Families are welcome.

Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery is about to set sail to the Abington Quaker Meetinghouse (Jenkintown, Pennsylvania). It’s the new children’s book by Michelle Markel and Marcus Rediker, illustrated by Sarah Bachman. This has me thinking about the history lessons, books, games and songs I encountered in elementary school, and perhaps you did, too.

Please scroll to read on…

When I was a youngster, no one gave me a history book about how wealth, influence, and status were created on this land. I was not told that the ancestors of many of my “fellow Americans” were considered the property of others.

Elementary school teachers tiptoed around the topic. History spoke of founding fathers, not slavers. We cheered for Harriet Tubman, fascinated with the phrase Underground Railroad. It hinted at courageous struggles of enslaved people that could not even be told in whispers. There were no teachers of African heritage in my school. No one asked why.

Today, at least some kids can take field trips to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It’s still there, right? You see. A rich, geographically accessible body of teaching is needed now, as it was when we were elementary school kids. Fearless Benjamin could not be timelier.

Full of Goodness

Co-author Marcus Rediker has been uncovering information about Benjamin Lay’s life for years, and producing collaborative works of art and education from the findings: a biography, a graphic novel, a stunning, one-person play featuring Mark Povinelli, past president of the Little People of America.

Benjamin Lay’s own denunciation of slavers appeared when Benjamin Franklin published it in 1738 under the title All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates. Now, with this children’s book, Marcus Rediker joins Michelle Markel to contemplate anew the fierce integrity of the 18th-century sailor-turned abolitionist in a way little children can absorb.

As a child, Benjamin faces teasing for being a different size than the other children…

“…but he knows he’s full of goodness.”

It’s a striking message. Benjamin hears the teasing, yet doesn’t dwell in it. It is integrity—being full of goodness—that actually matters.

From this foundation, a young reader will then consider the reality of human bondage, and what happens because “Little Benjamin” spent years urging fellow Quakers to call it wrong. The result will be remarkable.

A Sailor and a Co-Worker in the World

The collaboration through which Markel, Rediker and Bachman (they’ll all be at the book launch) produced Fearless Benjamin echoes the collaborative nature of Benjamin Lay’s work in the world. Solidarity on the ship was essential to surviving the journeys at sea. The sailor’s motto is One and All! Perpetrators and victims of human trafficking could have been co-workers. Benjamin knew it. This horrible system had to be stopped.

Benjamin meets Sarah Smith, another person of short stature and a Quaker minister. Their plan is to go to Philadelphia and call for the immediate release of enslaved people. But when they get there, they hit a wall. Many prominent Quakers own slaves. This selective disregard for the Quaker commitment to peace is utterly intolerable to Benjamin, who becomes a personification of rebellion in the streets and in the meetinghouses. Time after time, Benjamin goes out to stage dramatic protests against slavery, confronting the leaders who uphold and benefit from the system.

What happens then?

Much like those who resist oppression in our present world, Benjamin winds up under surveillance. Benjamin is repeatedly ejected from Quaker meetings—even physically thrown out. And then, as the story tells us, “Benjamin and Sarah find a new home, this time in a cave, miles away.”

In a cave? Oh, yes, this is truly the stuff of a riveting story! But it’s true. Not only do Benjamin and Sarah really live in a cave, but they turn it into a library with hundreds of books. And they plant gardens and trees and flax so they can grow food and make clothes as simply as possible, without the exploitation of any fellow creature – human or other. For we are all co-workers within the great, living community on Earth.

Benjamin grows old. One day a friend brings news: Change, finally, is coming. All Quakers must personally divest from the system of human bondage. The significance of this decision is monumental. Quakers emerge as the first religious group to ban enslavement. Collectively, they become co-workers in the global emancipation movement.

If Only We’d All Received This Book as Children!

After I grew up, I began to understand the real history of the nation as it was formed. I began to learn my responsibilities on account of that history. I wish I’d learned earlier.

I wish I’d been taught that the impulse which leads us to sustain human-rights work is due for an extension to other living, feeling communities as well.

Now that I’m a grownup, I welcome such an expansion of our moral and spiritual circle, our beloved community.

Repairing the harms that linger from the days of enslavement, and seeking our right relationship with fellow living, feeling beings—these are things I yearn to find in spiritual places. Benjamin and Sarah tell me those things are here, right here within us, ever-ready to spring into our consciousness and lead us in continuing revelation.

Fearless Benjamin could be that early catalyst, preparing young explorers to reach their full potential. Within that journey comes the strength to face the wrongs that still plague our society. To replace them with right actions and right relationships, regardless of how we might be teased or thrown. To work, co-work, to repair the damage done. To focus each day on embodying the spirit of collaboration…

Well, it’s never too late to have a truth-filled childhood. To delight in Sarah Bachman’s beautiful illustrations, that remind me of Quaker folk art. To find myself “eldered” by the gentlest of Quaker ancestors, channelled with care by Michelle Markel and Marcus Rediker.

Reading Fearless Benjamin and anticipating the book launch have moved me to get some clay so I can make clay pins with Benjamin on them, for friends who’ll be coming to the book launch. Here are a few doodles as I figure out the plan for painting the clay disks.

So, this blog entry is a work in progress. I hope the craft project works… It’s been a while since I’ve been a kid! Please come back soon and see how the project comes along. Then, let’s meet at the book launch! It’s presented by the Library Committee of the Abington Quaker Meeting (how cool is that?), where our ancestral co-workers Benjamin and Sarah, full of goodness, are laid to rest. Together, let’s rise in power. See you on 11/11.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Fearless Benjamin (PM Press) is for readers aged 4-8 and up. 32 pages, 10 x 8” hardcover. $18.95. Sarah Bachman’s illustrations were made with pencil, ink, acrylic, and gouache. Michelle Markel writes justice-focused works for young audiences, such as Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909. Marcus Rediker focuses on the human story “from below” and most recently gave us Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea.

Sign Up for Our Benjamin Lay Play Field Trip

by Lee H. | Nov 9, 2024 | Upcoming Events

Radnor’s Climate Action Committee and Outreach Committee have joined forces to invite our community and friends to attend the opening performance of The Return of Benjamin Lay, a play by Marcus Rediker and Naomi Wallace. The production features the Quintessence Theatre Group in residence at the Sedgwick Theatre in Mount Airy, Philadelphia.

→ BUY TICKETS HERE

An update on transportation for the evening of Thursday, May 1, 2025: The first bus we have dibs on holds eight people. We’ll continue planning transit as we receive commitments. Reserve a seat on a first come, first served basis.

Please let us know if you plan to go and if you hope we can reserve a bus seat for you.

Mail Lee Hall of our Climate Action Committee at climatelaw[AT]me.com to say

“I am committed to going with the group on May 1, 2025. I do not need / do hope to go in group transit.”

“I already bought my ticket! I do not need / do hope to go in group transit.”

Please sign up even if you’re taking your own transportation. We are looking for a number to give Quintessence management so we can participate in a talkback session following the performance.

Here’s more about the production from the Quintessence website:

A 4ft tall “Little David” confronts the “Goliath” of slavery once again as he pleads to be readmitted into the Quaker community that has disowned him and who still believe him to be dangerous. Now, “trembling at the edge of playing God himself”, how far will Benjamin go as he stares down his accusers? Continuing a unique decade-long collaboration between multi-award-winning playwright Naomi Wallace and multi-award-winning historian Marcus Rediker, featuring acclaimed American actor Mark Povinelli and directed by RSC Honorary Associate Director Ron Daniels, The Return of Benjamin Lay sweeps across the centuries in a bold exploration of an utterly impossible man.

Text and graphic featuring Mark Povinelli as Benjamin from the play. Artwork depicting Benjamin Lay on our home page is by Vance Lehmkuhl.

March 17 Forum: The Visionary Ecology of Early Quaker Abolitionists

by Lee H. | Mar 1, 2024 | Past Events

Cartoon of Benjamin Lay drawn by Vance Lehmkuhl

Benjamin Lay, by Vance Lehmkuhl

The Climate Action Committee introduces our guest forum presenter Vance Lehmkuhl on Mar. 17.

A WIDER CIRCLE OF CARE: THE VISIONARY ECOLOGY OF EARLY QUAKER ABOLITIONISTS

March 17 is the day! Join us at the Rise of Meeting, in the Meetinghouse or via Zoom, as tour guide Vance Lehmkuhl leads our exploration.

Brush up on your Benezet,

Get ready for Benjamin Lay.

From the book and sword,

To an Earth restored,

These champions still show us the way.

Longtime Philly resident Vance Lehmkuhl, director of the American Vegan Center, is a former newspaper columnist, a cartoonist, a book author, and an active member of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides.

Vance designs Old City tours and cartoons that feature early Quakers, bringing their work for social fairness, radical simplicity, and spiritual clarity to contemporary audiences. Currently, Vance is developing a Philadelphia tour focused on Anthony Benezet…in French.

The Climate Action Committee of Radnor Meeting would love to anticipate your presence at this unique and engaging forum, happening Sunday March 17. Time: Approximately 11.20am – 12.20pm. To join, You can access the Zoom forum through this link. All are welcome! Or find the link from our home page to click through to the Zoom portal.

Links: Our Food, Our Climate, and Biodiversity Loss

by Lee H. | Jul 16, 2022 | Climate Action Committee

Red wolf communities once populated the continent, from Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas in the west, to Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the east. Were they still here, they’d be naturally curbing the population of white-tailed deer. They are completely gone from our state, chased off by hunting and agribusiness.

Our age has been coined the Anthropocene. We have gone so far as to alter the climate that protects all living beings on Earth.

To make room for grazing, we buried huge swathes of prairie and forestlands. Why have we felt so free to blanket the great North American plains with chemically dependent monoculture crops and feedlots? Only because the interests of the wolves and coyotes, ferrets and foxes, cranes, owls and curlews posed no obstacles in our moral framework.

Today, are we different? No; we continue to displace indigenous beings for agribusiness interests.

Over the most recent three years, taxpayers have funded Wildlife Services killings of 188,670 coyotes, 74,630 beavers, 8,183 foxes, 2,108 bobcats, 1,267 black bears, 1,007 gray wolves, 784 cougars, and 12 endangered grizzly bears.

So this is another reason to divest from animal agribusiness. Not only is it a massive emitter of methane and a heavily carbon-driven food system, but it’s killing the free-living animals. Wolf kills are going on now – in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and Wyoming – as wolves are reviled for eating into the profits of sheep farming.

Same story for the grass-fed beef cattle. Wolves and coyotes, free-roaming horses and burros, and many other untamed animals are targeted because ranchers don’t want them there. While grass-fed is promoted as an environmental benefit, in reality, all cattle are grass-fed. They start on pastures, then wind up at feedlots and are eventually trucked to slaughter.

Organic, biodynamic, regenerative, and now targeted grazing have been praised as the answer to soil health. On the African continent, cattle farming is being rebranded as sustainable. But all are systems in which massive amounts of water and feed are diverted to animals who are bred into existence only to be used and slaughtered. We do not have the water, forage, feed or grass to sustain this business. And cattle grazing is leading the threats to biodiversity.

Meanwhile, dairy cows are kept in intensive confinement and machine-milked. Dairy farmers are now using water sprayers and air conditioners (more electricity!) because milk production wanes as summer temperatures rise.

Intensive confinement for any animals becomes like a petri dish for diseases and viruses. Recently, bird flu has apparently jumped from intensive commercial bird farms to the Harbour seals of Quebec. For struggling species, there is a lot of collateral damage from animal agribusiness

Loops Upon Loops

Agribusiness, mostly grazing and feed production, is the key driver of deforestation. And then, human-driven climate disruption itself degrades still more forests. And degraded forests have a hard time absorbing CO2. Thus, more global heating.

We know the heating of this continent is causing strange disasters that take tolls on human lives. Are we paying attention to what it’s doing to the rest of the planet’s living communities?

Bark beetles thrive unnaturally in a warming West. They are free to eat up the pine bark, thwarting the growth of pine seeds that serve as food for endangered bears of the Yellowstone.

This is an example of the links between our food systems, climate, and extinctions. It’s somewhat hard to wrap our heads around these links, and it’s easy enough for most of us to pay no attention until climate crisis arrives at our own doorsteps. And yet, as with the famous effect of the butterflies flapping their wings, everything is connected. When any one ecosystem unravels, the entire biocommunity of a continent eventually suffers for it.

The best answers might not be easy, but they are simple.

We stop breeding cows into existence for consumer demand. We stop using land for feed crops for industrially confined, mechanized dairy animals.

Already, the livestock sector (meat and dairy production, grazing and feed crops) covers 27% of the Earth’s total land surface. That’s more than the Earth’s forested lands – which are rapidly being degraded and destroyed for animal agribusiness.

And if we divest ourselves from animal agribusiness, with its high carbon and methane emissions, its waste runoff, and its indifference to aware beings? This will help us shift to direct use of land to grow human food – as opposed to allocating it to the global feed markets that create economic dependencies and usurp far more planetary space than humanity needs.

And it will align our food system with the Quaker testimonies of simplicity and peace. Consider the radical approach to these testimonies taken by the well-known Quaker humanitarian Benjamin Lay. Preaching an anti-slavery message all the way from London to York in the north of England, Benjamin Lay walked. Why? Lay was protesting the oppression of both the stablehands and the horses. Lay refused to subjugate others in the human community – and beyond. Benjamin Lay would find plenty to protest today.

Lee H., Radnor Friends Climate Action Committee

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