Heard of Benjamin Lay?
Benjamin Lay, born in England in 1682, was one the the first known white radical abolitionists* - but was one of the many people with dwarfism that history left behind.
Avid protestor and author of All Slave Keepers that Keep the Innocent in Bondage Apostates, Benjamin Lay was shunned by his community after calling the church to cast out slave owners*.
"His time at sea, and particularly his experiences in Barbados, fueled his hatred of slavery and he later became notorious for theatrical protests at Quaker meetings. In one spectacular demonstration, in 1738 at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, he hid a bladder, filled with red juice, inside a book, before running his sword through the text and spattering ‘blood’ on the stunned slave-keepers present." *
Not only was Benjamin Lay penalized in life - shunned by his community, denied access to community meetings and his right to marriage* - but he was yet another disabled person history books left out. You can read more about him in Marcus Rediker's The Fearless Benjamin Lay (2017).
*Reference: The Fearless Benjamin Lay: Activist, Abolitionist, Dwarf Person by Eugene Grant (2018)
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