The Fearless Benjamin Lay Audiobook By Marcus Rediker cover art

The Fearless Benjamin Lay

The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist

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The Fearless Benjamin Lay

By: Marcus Rediker
Narrated by: Cornell Womack
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About this listen

The little-known story of an eighteenth-century Quaker dwarf who fiercely attacked slavery and imagined a new, more humane way of life

The 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. He acted on his ideals to create a new, practical, revolutionary way of life.

©2017 Marcus Rediker (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Americas Christianity Revolution & Founding United States
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How is this story coming too light only now!? a compelling (and fast) read about a man well ahead of his times.

stunning story

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I learned a lot and enjoyed the biography. It brought to life an important work of art and an a singular and important life. The shenanigans in England are a bit dry but contained an important warning to us all.

Very informative, nice narration

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Strange tale of Benfamin Lay, who despite physical challenges had lived a long and varied life. Born a hunchback dwarf near Essex, as the son of a farmer.He went to sea and spent time in Barbados, ended up in Pennsylvania. A life long Quaker in was self taught and spent most of his life against slavery.

ahead of his time

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This was a fantastic book. I never heard about Benjamin Lay and his story. There were some parts that seemed repetitive to the narration, but if you're reading the nonfiction as chapters it makes sense to include it.

Fantastic Historical Early Abolitionist and Quaker

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I loved this book. Womack's reading is clear, professional and well recorded. His cadence is highly formal and evokes documentaries and news reports. Maybe too formal. His cadence seems repetitive and dry, as if the book went into Womack's eyes and out of his mouth without truly passing though his brain.

I highly recommend it!

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An important historiographical intervention in the early history of Atlantic abolition. Worth a read or listen.
Only obstacle I encountered was the incompatibility of the narration with the pace of the biography.
It was weird to hear the exegetical passages on Lay's "All Slave Keepers, Apostates" in the narrator's epic, 90's movie-trailer voice. Otherwise, an excellent and informative book/performance.

If you like this book, you might like:
"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano", also available on Audible.

Important story, strange narration

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