Benjamin Lay (1682-1759)

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.