Benjamin Lay (1682-1759)

Montgomery County · dedicated 2018 · At Abington Friends Meeting, 520 Meetinghouse Rd., Jenkintown

An early advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery, Lay, a Quaker and a dwarf, wrote a scathing attack on Quaker slaveholders, who in turn disowned him. His dramatic public protests and his boycott of all items produced by slave labor later inspired Quakers to become the first religious group to abolish slavery within their own ranks in 1776. He lived in a local cave. His grave was marked at the Quaker cemetery nearby in 2018.

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Marker data: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission via data.pa.gov

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