Benjamin Lay denounces Quaker Enslavers, 1737

Benjamin Lay was an 18th-century Quaker abolitionist who authored All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage in 1737 as a critique of the institution of slavery and its moral contradictions, especially within the Quaker community, a group that emphasized pacifism and egalitarianism. Lay was known for his radical and dramatic methods, such as an event where he stabbed a bladder of berry juice stuffed inside a Bible to relay the message that blood was on the hands of all enslavers. He further used this treatise to confront fellow Quakers who owned slaves, arguing that their participation in slavery violated the core principles of Christianity and the values of their faith. The book, using biblical references and his personal interactions with enslaved people, portrayed slavery as an abomination and called for immediate emancipation. Lay’s work is considered one of the earliest abolitionist texts in the Atlantic world. 

No greater nor no better Law, say I, than to love God above all, and all our Fellow-Creatures as ourselves; these two contain Law, Prophets and Gospel, do to all as we would be done by. No greater Sin Hell can invent, than to prophane and blaspheme the pure and Holy Truth, which is God all in all, and remove God's Creatures made after his own Image, from all the Comforts of Life, and their Country and procure for them, and bring them into all the miseries that Dragons, Serpents, Devils, and Hypocrites, can procure and think of; these things are carried on by Christians, so called, and Ministers too, in the very greatest appearance of Demurity and Sanctity in the whole World, that ever I read or heard of; God which is the Truth, saith we shall not eat this cursed Fruit; our Ministers say we may eat, and lawfully too; which shall we believe?

We pretend not to love fighting with carnal Weapons, nor to carry Swords by our sides, but carry a worse thing in the Heart, as will I believe appear by and by; what, I pray and beseech you, dear Friends, by the tender Mercies of our God, to consider, can be greater Hypocrisy, and plainer contradiction, than for us as a People, to refuse to bear Arms, or to pay them that do, and yet purchase the Plunder, the Captives, for Slaves at a very great Price, thereby justifying their selling of them, and the War, by which they were or are obtained; nor doth this satisfy, but their Children also are kept in Slavery, ad infinitum; is not this plainly and substantially trampling the most Blessed and Glorious Testimony that ever was or ever will be in the World, under our Feet, and committing of Iniquity with, both Hands earnestly? Is this the way to convince the poor Slaves, or our Children, or Neighbours, or the World? Is it not the way rather to encourage and strengthen them in their Infidelity, and Atheism, and their Hellish Practice of Fighting, Murthering, killing and Robbing one another, to the end of the World.

My dear Friends, I beg, I would intreat, in all Humility, with all earnestness of mind, on the bended Knees of my Body and Soul; willingly and with all readiness, sincerely, if that would do, that you would turn to the Lord, the Blessed Truth, in your Hearts, for Direction, for Counsel and Advice; that you may quit your selves like Men, honourably, of this so Hellish a Practice. Especially, you that have the Word of Reconciliation to preach to the Children of Men; and if you have any true tenderness of the Love of God in you, as I right well know, blessed be the Name of the Lord, all true Ministers have, you my dear Friends, consider waightily of these important concerns, and quit yourselves of yourselves and Slaves; for a good example in you might do a great deal of good, as a bad one will do, and has done a very great deal of mischief to the Truth; for the Eyes of the People are upon you, some for good, and some for Evil.

And my Friends, you that have Slaves, and do minister to others in our Meetings, consider I intreat and beseech you concerning this thing in particular. What Burthens and Afflictions, Bondage, and sore Captivity you bring upon your dear and tender Friends, and keep them in, which cannot touch with this vile and Hellish Practice, but are constrained to bear Testimony against it, as one the greatest Sins in the World, all things considered: And against you too in some sort, as being in the practice yourselves, of that which is directly opposite to your own Pretensions, and a very great stumbling Block in the way of honest, godly Inquirers, which want Peace to their Souls.

What a great Strait these tender hearted mourning Souls must needs be in, think ye, betwixt Love and Duty; they love you dearly for the Truth sake, and yet think it their Duty absolutely in the Fear and Love of God, to testifie against the Sin, and you for continuing in it.

Dear Friends, what Peace can you have, in thus afflicting your Fellow Members; even the same Testimony they have with you in Meetings, where is the Blessed Unity and Fellowship, you have been preaching so many Years, as being sensible of one anothers exercises, Bearers of one another's Burthens, having a deep sence and feeling of others infirmities, or afflictions, or troubles.

What is become of this blessed experience, my Friends? is it all lost as to you, if so I must give my judgment, that you? [sic] have not your constant dwelling in him, that was touched with a feeling of our infirmities, tempted in all cases like unto us, yet without Sin; and so are his Saints, for they are all of one, and they live with him Night and Day, in his blessed Kingdom, which is within; and they love him dearly, they cannot avoid it, for he first loved them or us, and we cannot keep back our love from him any more than we can hinder, or stop the Rivers and Streams from running into the Ocean: For we having received all from him, of course all return or run to him again; it is the nature of his essence or divine being.