The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 338 - Abolitionist Benjamin Lay

Episode Date: July 31, 2018

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine abolitionist Benjamin Lay. SOURCESTOUR INFO MERCH BY JAMES FOSDIKE

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American History podcast. Well you just you're pretty. Each week I read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about thank you Salt Lake City. Josh Olson gets really mad when you say about and that's why we still continue. Yeah yeah and that's why we keep doing is just because a Hollywood writer named Josh Olson. What is he written that Hollywood's embraced? Zero. You write something that the people like then I'll let him tell me where to put about. Thank you. Okay. You're right. When you're right you're right. Thank you. And called it quote is jam-packed. Jam-packed? I'm the fucking hippo guy. Steve okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come particularly clocked out. Okay. This is like anarchy. I'm a five-part coefficient. My room's a place. Now hit him with a puppy. You both present sick arguments. No sleep. No hippo. That's like a hippo. Action. Hi Gary. No. I sleep dead my friend. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Why? There's a lot of people mad at how many things we just read. I'm sure they live it to that I say, cool, we'll start putting them in the middle. No, people like here's people. Keep putting,up they're like oh yeah, I'll start it 1110 if you go and post all of the websites that are commercials and 1036 we will start doing them in the middle of the podcast, because the advertisers can see We will find a way. You're a fucking idiot. Life finds a way. Yeah, you're a fucking idiot, and then you'll have to deal with it in the middle. That's how this works.

That's how this works. Stop being stupid. I mean, it'd be really fun for you to, like, coyly be like, and then he went to talk space because he had issues. Jesus. April 26, 1682. Okay. Interesting.

Benjamin Lay was born in a small cottage in Cupford County, Exis, about 60 miles outside of London. Oh, nice, yes. Hello. Ben Lay. Hello, Ben Lay. How are you? Ben Lay, you say?

That's me, boy there. That's right. It's me. I'm Ben. I'm laying again. Hello, Benny. Are you laying down? Someday I'm going to have a clock named after me when I get nice and big, I will, I will.

Cupford had 48 households, including, quote, nine poor persons. Nine poor persons or nine poor houses? Persons. Okay. So there's a census for, it's easy to take a census. They're not on the, they're not on the tax records because they're so poor. So they're just like, there's Philly shit. Right.

Okay. Yeah. Sure. The village chapel had a sheet of flayed human skin that hung on the door as a warning, probably to poachers. They probably caught a poacher, but so it's the 1600s, that's when you threw like a skin human up on the front of the chapel. Don't do it again.

Look what happened to him. What happened? That one's fucked. It looks like the outside of the pig roast. That's my dad. No. He'll be damaged certainly. Benjamin's father William had three kids from his first marriage.

His wife died and he married, then he married his second, or sorry, his first cousin, Mary. That's what we called God's divorce back then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Benjamin was the product of that marriage. The Quaker church would question whether it was right, quote, to marry one Sonia Kin, but Benjamin, but William just said he was sorry and they already moved on.

Oh, it's easy. Yeah. So that was Benjamin's dad. Benjamin was a third generation Quaker. Okay. He went to a bit of school and learned just the basics. As far as Quakers go, we've discussed their early behavior in another episode, which you probably don't remember.

So here's a quick recap because you don't remember anything. They publicly ranted against established ministers. Right. They would go to the... It's always a lot of bells. Yeah. Yeah. They would go to the services of the Church of England and wait for the minister to start

speaking and then they'd stand up and start screaming and loudly denounce the speaker and the sermons as being unrighteous. Right. Hey, protestors. Yep. Astroturfing. They would... Astroturf?

Yeah. Do you know what astroturfing is? Yeah. Yeah. It's better for indoor football. Off their hats in the presence of a so-called social superior. This was a huge breach of social etiquette at the time. Early Quaker, John Perot, said he'd been told not to take off his hat by God.

And Quakers would also act out in public to shock people out of their sinful complacency. Okay. Right. For sure. The whole religious services all over the place in barns, open fields, and the streets. They were known for things like, quote, going naked for a sign or burning Bibles in public. Interesting. I mean, refresh, good refresh.

Going naked for a sign. Going naked for a sign literally meant going on public naked to symbolize the spiritual nakedness of society at large. I like this. So you just got to see some hot bots. You're like, oh, that one's a Quaker. Meow. Well, I mean, okay.

Mm-hmm. What's up, Quake? What? I real... So this is just some creepy Quaker watcher? Yeah. Yeah. When Quakers walk around naked, there's going to be a lot of fucking creepy Quaker watchers.

Right. Yeah. Quake watch. A little pocket-flogging we call it. Me groups call it Quake Watch. In many communities, this created scandal and Quakers were often sentenced to whipping or the stocks. Quakers also insisted that wicked lads need not be obeyed.

I agree with the Quakers. I do too. In 1655, Oliver Cromwell issued a national proclamation to prevent heckling of ministers. Okay. So hundreds of Quakers were then prosecuted in prison between 1660 and 1700 Quakers then profoundly changed. They gave up the boisterous, yell-y stuff and became disciplined pacifists like they are today.

Okay. Benjamin Lay, however, stuck with the old ways. Okay. So he's... Right. I like this. So it's the 1690s, Benjamin's father apprenticed him to a master-glover in Colchester. Oh.

So is there a better vision for your future than becoming a master-glover? Yeah. That's great. I'm going to met gloves, perfect ones, the best gloves you've ever seen. And that is what his job is, is to make gloves? Well, that's what he was trained as. Gloves. Glove making was one of the stinking trades.

One of the stinking trades? Stinking. It was called a stinking trade because... I hate the stink of trade. That's kind of it. Really? No, it dealt with the skin of dead animals. So it was stinking.

So they literally fucking raked. You could make some mittens out of that guy that was put in front of the church if you wanted. That's right. If you wanted to, you could make mittens out of that guy. Make a set of mittens out of him. Grab a rabbit. A shawl.

Grab a rabbit, throw a little bit on the inside and make a few gloves. Right. Make some gloves out of it. Yeah. Right. Okay. He did not like the job. Really?

Benjamin was not into it. He said it took, quote, neither much strength nor ingenuity. Well, that's... I guess I can understand that being frustrating. That's kind of insulting to other glove makers. I mean, yeah. LL Bean right now is just lividly tweeting. Yeah, livid.

At 19, Benjamin left his glove apprenticeship and moved in with his half-brother William and Fordham. Benjamin took care of the sheep, which he very much enjoyed. Okay. Whoa. What? Did he enjoy it like that? Yeah.

Did he? He just winked. Yeah, I just assumed. If someone said me... Is he putting the sheep on like gloves? I'm... I'm... I'm...

I'm... I'm... I'm thinking things through and thinking... You've inferred that there was sexual sheep... I believe so. I believe so. That's what I've inferred. Hmm.

What's that? INFURR? Yeah. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Maybe I just wanted to wink. Because he is infer. So you made an infer about his infer.

That's right. I got to go. I'm going to all parked. Bye. In 1703, at the age of 21, Benjamin moved to London. For the next 12 years, he spent months at a time sailing on a ship. Okay. Is that just the right of passage, that thing you always have to do around this time?

I think everybody is like, all right, I'll go work on a ship. Well, I'm going to go be in a ship for four years. Hello, Shippy. Hello. How are you? I'm so tired. What's happening right now? I'm a tired ship.

You're a retired ship? Ah, yes, I'm retired, yes. This is the ship talking. Um-huh. So on the ship he was around men of different ethnicities, living in cramped quarters. And he met men who had been slaves. He met men who had been on, worked on slave ships. Got to know a lot about slavery and had a big effect on them.

In 1714 he joined the congregation of the Devonshire House Monthly Meeting. Sure. It's a Quaker, all the Quakers call them meetings, right? Right. I'm going to start using their, I'm going to call this DHMM. DHMM. Right. Sure.

In London, they're in London. He remained a member of the DHMM. What is that Sam for? The Devonshire House. But he attended the Wheeler Street, Grace Church Street, the Peel, the Bull Hill, the Mouth Quaker meeting. So he would just go to a bunch of different Quaker meetings. Okay.

When they didn't meet his standards, he would confront the ministers. So he's back to the old ways of the Quaker. Yeah. Right. Benjamin confronted two ministers, William Seckl and Richard Price, at different meetings because they were, quote, preaching their own words, not God's truth. He would yell out during their sermons and tell them, quote, to be silent and sit down. Wow.

During a sermon? Yeah. Oh boy. I mean, that's the, the two things I think a sermon needs is standing and talking. We're actually listening to this. Sit down. What's your shit down, please? And shut up.

It's not what God said. Wake. He told Price he was a hypocrite. Okay. The leaders at the DHMM had three friends talk to Benjamin, Tenderly, they said, about his outburst and to encourage. Sort of pillow talk or something? Yeah.

To encourage him to, quote, come to a sense of his offense. Why don't these ministers just use learned crowd work? They could. Yeah. I mean, that's good. Shut him down. Don't come down to where you work. Slap the sheep off your cock.

There you go. Hello. Benjamin refused. He was not down at the next worship service. He was given a copy of an article drawn up against him. Two weeks later, during the service, it was read aloud as a public shaming. Okay. And that was like a huge thing back then.

Yeah, yeah. You're supposed to. That was like Twitter outrage. Quakers were not supposed to like rile up the other Quakers, like that's part of that deal. Right. Okay. He still refused to, quote, join with the meeting and condemning his own behavior.

Okay. But he was sure he was right. He's like, no, I'm on this. I know I'm the only guy yelling at the ministers, but I'm fucking on this. Right. A month later, Benjamin gave the DHMM an apology in writing, quote, it appeared that friends have been grieved on my account, which I'm sorry for. And hope my contact for the future will be such as to give no occasions to friends.

But this is not much of an apology for his behavior. He was just saying he's sad. They felt bad. Yeah. He's not saying he's done. Yeah. He's saying they still do it. Hopefully in the future, you're not so angry about all this.

Yeah, basically. So the DHMM was like, we're not, this is not, we're not taking this is not apology. So he just kept doing it in 1717. He got engaged to Sarah Smith, a fellow Quaker. Sarah was a dwarf and had a hunchback. Okay. One biography describes Sarah as an intelligent and pious woman. Oh, I should, I should also say what Benjamin looked like from a biography, Robert, a biographer

Robert Vaugh, Benjamin stood only four feet, seven inches in height. His head was large in proportion to his body. The features of his face were remarkable and boldly delineated. He was hunchbacked with the projecting chest below his body, uh, became much contracted. His legs were so slender as to appear almost unequal to the purpose of supporting him. He's also a dwarf. Okay. So at this point, I'm just going to picture this as a animated fairy tale musical, if

that's okay. Yep. Great. So two dwarfs met and they're, and they're getting married to Quaker Dwarfs. Okay. Dwarfs. Um, yep. To marry Sarah, Benjamin needed a certificate from the Quakers stating he was clear it was

debt and marital obligations. So he's like free, right? So he's also disliked, uh, by the weighty Quakers of the DHMM. The weighty Quakers? Yeah. They're like the big headers. The big hit. Oh, okay.

Right. Okay. Um, at the DHMM, that he was worried, uh, they would refuse the certificate that he needed. Okay. Yeah. That's what I would assume. Yeah.

So he got a job. This is when your heckling pass catches up with you. That's right. Yeah. So he got a job on a ship and sailed to Salem, Massachusetts, where he asked the local Quaker meeting for a marriage certificate. Is that because they don't know him? Yeah.

But also it's super, like you're showing up like, hi, I just came from, can I get a marriage certificate? Like it's super obvious what the fuck you're doing. Oh, okay. I went to see all those. Oh. Forgot it. Look where we get into this.

Can I just get a marriage certificate real quick? Huh? Real quick. You just came here from America? Yes. London? London, America. To America and you immediately want a marriage certificate?

Not immediately. No. So you just placed the, with the meeting you were at in London? Gosh, you know what? That makes so much sense. I completely forgot that that was an option. I guess you could say sometimes I have no idea what being a Quaker is about. Take that, Josh Olson, if you're here at this meeting.

So the Salem meeting wrote to the DHMM in London to check on him. So this take, this is not, I mean, again, this is, this is ages. You're not, yeah. First of all, stamps.com's not around. All right, all right. That's the, this is, you're already doing the new tactic of ads. I mean, it's like 12 weeks or something to get across the water. So, so that's, you know, he's there for a while until the letter comes back.

So they get another, they get a letter back warning that Benjamin is indeed a problem. But somehow he still got their certificate and eventually on July 10th, 1718, Benjamin married Sarah. Okay. So he's, he's now 36, she's 41. Okay. So they're still tense at the local meeting. So they decided to move.

Okay. And they sell for Barbados in the fall of 1718. You like it? Yeah. Like a move. It was a place in America, it was the first place in America to have a Quaker presence. He set up, he set up a shop that would serve dock workers. So he's like, you know, serving food and stuff.

Wait, you mean he was cooking dock workers and giving them to people? No. He set up a shop. He wasn't serving dock workers. He was serving dock workers food. Thank God. And then I thought he was cooking the dock workers later. Barbados was the world's leading, leading slave society.

The population was 9,000 people of European descent and more than 70,000 African to worst. But he's been affected by this, uh, the 12 months on a ship. Yeah. He's already super not into the whole slavery thing. So when he sees seven, 70,000 controlled by 9,000, Hoiditoides, right. And knowing that this is a guy who has trouble biting his tongue. Yeah. No, he's not good at that at all.

Right. Thomas Walduck wrote of it, quote, the English brought with them drunkenness and swearing, the Scotch imprudence and falsehood, the Welsh coveness and revenge, the Irish cruelty and perjury, the Dutch and Danes craft and rusticity and the French dissimulation and infidelity. So that's what that guy thought of. Sure. They exported the best qualities from Europe.

All the people that are there, slavery defined Barbados, tons of money came from sugar plantations where slaves were forced to work 18 hours a day without rest. Benjamin and Sarah saw slaves so weak they fainted in the street. On market day, hundreds of slaves would come to town to sell stuff and steal what they could. Sometimes Sarah would throw out food that had spoiled, quote, yet the poor creatures would come running and tearing to get a part of the scramble of that, which I'm sure some dogs would not touch.

Much less eat of their poor bellies were so empty and so ravenous were they that I never saw a parcel of hounds more eager about a dead carcass than they always were. Well, this is quite a picture you're taking. It's beautiful. It's really it's just mankind at its best. This podcast is helpful for, you know, white person morale, I think. Well, you'd think it would be, but then but then we just get a lot of people on on places saying that we that white guilt is bullshit and we should shut up with it.

Well, I think Dave, to be fair, to their point, enough already. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Can we turn the page? Did I tell you what this is what happened to me at a show about a month ago? I did a bit and after the show, someone said you walked someone someone left because they thought you were racist.

And for 20 minutes, I was stewing like, oh my God, this is I was trying to think of where and I kind of had some idea, but I still was like reaching and then someone cleared it up and was like, no, it was a white lady who thought you were like shitting on white people too much. And I was like, oh, oh, I feel great. How about this? How about after the last several hundred years that have happened? How about you sit and listen to listen to a little bit of shitting on white people?

Truly the audacity to be like, we've been through enough over the last 15 months. That's really bad. How about recent history, Mr. God. I think white people think like your the history is like laptop porno and you can just clear it before anyone comes and checks on you. So at the beginning, Benjamin with lash slaves who stole from him, but he quickly realized the slave masters were the real thieves and he felt guilty. It does grieve me, quote, it does grieve me to this day, considering the extreme cruelty

and misery they've always lived under. He decided to speak with the slaves and what a revolutionary, what the fuck, out of his mind. You speak slave. He walked amongst them. They just speak. They just talk like us. They just speak the same words.

It's English that they've learned. So you're doing it now. Well, I'm talking to you, but this is also how you talk to them. I also know slave. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so we all know it's because it's not because she's called slaves called English. Like they've they've they've learned English so they know English.

We're a slave. Aren't you? No, I'm not a slave. I'm just a guy that knows the Queen's English. Your eyes are dead inside. My heart is dead. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. He decided to speak with the slaves and learn about their lives. He got to know one man, a Cooper who made his master, Richard Parrot, seven shillings and six pence a day working. Sure. And today that's like 40 shillings and 19 pence. Yeah. According to Benjamin, the owner, Parrot quote, used to whip his Negroes on Monday mornings

very severely to keep them in awe. What? So to start the week, start the week by beating them up. That to send a message for the week? Yeah. Sort of like a team meeting and like an ad agency or something. Yeah. Yeah.

Same thing. Monday morning, pow wow. You get together and you talk about what you're going to do that week. Sure. Send a message by beating, physically beating other humans. Physically beating humans. Sure. One Sunday night, the slave took his life to avoid the next day's beating.

Wow. So that didn't work out for that. Like that speech, that idea, the weak speech. It's like voodoo economics. It's ray economics. It's trickle down economics. Benjamin wrote that many of the slaves, quote, are murdered by working hard and starving, whipping, racking, hanging, burning, scalding, roasting, and other hellish formats.

Jesus Christ. Were all routine. So the ladies began holding meetings at their home each Sunday, serving meals to crowds of slaves. There they would denounce slavery. Pretty soon, quote, many hundreds of slaves turned up. Of course, the white slave owners on the island were furious. Oh, I thought we were going to ad-lib this.

Weird, right? They tried to banish the ladies from Barbados. But Benjamin began to worry that living around all of this nightmare would eventually cause them to become accustomed to cruelty. And he decided to make it his mission to end slavery. So he announced two missions in his life, one calling out false ministers and two abolishing slavery. Okay.

So far, loving the tent poles. Yep. So he would have to take a back burner for a while as they were now going to return to England where there wasn't much slavery. Surely that was cool news to all the people, all the slaves that had been serving food to. Yeah. Well, unfortunately, we'll need to take a pause on this mission. Okay.

We'll see you later. We're going to go cuss out some ministers for a year or two. That's not really the same. Stay strong. It's important. We're all so white. I can't eat food anymore. Life's bullshit.

Wait, who's going away from who? You. Surely it has to stay with someone if they're going to go away. In the fall of 1720, the Lays returned to London and worshipping at the Devonshire House monthly meeting. And under a month, he started challenging the Quaker ministers again in public first against a minister named Zachary Routh. After one meeting, he said Routh was quote, a drunkard and a swine.

When asked to elaborate by fellow Quakers, Benjamin said that Routh was quote, drunk with wind and that he preached in his own spirit and not the spirit of truth. Drunk on wind. Yeah. I think we know a leader who's like that. The guy from Tuxby. Okay. The DHAMM leaders asked Benjamin to retract his comments and repent.

And he. Did. Damn it. I'm bad. I'm over two. In the first meeting, an article was read aloud in front of the congregation to shame Benjamin. They asked him to public renounce renounce his accusations and he said, yes, God damn it.

Well, I gotta hit him do. So they disowned him. Okay. But Benjamin just kept going to the meetings because being disowned by a meeting only meant he couldn't attend the business meetings where group decisions are made. The Quakers are like we our laws have been too inclusive. Yeah, so basically everyone can still go to the worship services. Right.

Couldn't be a part of the decisions. Sure. It doesn't really seem like that matters. It doesn't help this situation at all. Two months later, the DHAM tried again. A Quaker went to Benjamin's Glover's workshop and gave him the article. And Benjamin looked at the article and crumbled it up and threw it out the shop window. That's so great.

Because you know that guy walked over there like, well Benjamin, what do you think of that? You can surely tell now that you're in quite a bit of trouble. Huh? See? And toss, crinkle, crinkle, toss. Matt! Matt! Excuse me.

The Quaker went out. That took us quite a while. We worked on that. It was all Saturday and Sunday. Hello? What's wrong? There's only one copy. So the Quaker went outside, picked it up, brought it back into the shop and put it on

Benjamin's counter. Benjamin just ignored it and the messenger. Okay. Now, Sarah and Benjamin decided to move again. This time to his native Colchester, where around 500 Quakers belong to the Colchester Two Weeks meeting. Sure. The CTWM.

Right. Where they would have a meeting every two weeks. Yeah. Okay. After a very brief period, he started to attack the ministers there. Okay. The CTWM leaders wrote the London Committee of Sufferings. Oh man.

And a step forward, Matt, what is your suffering of God? I've got a bit of gout. All right. Well, the council has heard that you've got gout. We'll now take a vote if this is actual suffering. No. Tell me, Matt, what's your diet then? Alcohol.

Right. And sausages. Yeah. The council deems this self-inflicted, sorry, yes, this suffering is self-inflicted. Yes. Are you in pain or are you objecting? It's an objection. Oh, it's hard to tell.

Oh, gosh, you've got a torrid cough. I've got a bit of the coffees. The coffees? Oh. All right. Next. Put him on the dolly and drag him out. Next.

Me eye keeps weeping. All right, sir, the council of sufferings is in great fear of this man, we find he is indeed suffering. Sorry about that, man. Don't shake me head now like a dog. We will not do that. Oh, gosh, couldn't dip. Never close your eyes.

Don't get it in your eyes. So they asked the London Committee of Sufferings, which I just so am into. You don't want to be in the middle of that line. No. They asked what to do about Benjamin, saying Benjamin was in a, quote, dark, disordered condition. Sure. Now, we're not sure what London wrote back, but the CTWM elders held a meeting and summoned

Benjamin and he refused to come. Okay. It's pretty easy. So they, they disowned him. Okay. So now he's been disowned by the DHMM and the CTWM. Boy, I bet those slaves on Barbados would love to hear about some disowning. I know, seriously?

Yeah, might be. A lot of things to export. All I used to do was apologize, repent, you know, to get back in, although he technically wasn't a member of the CTWM because he couldn't join a new meeting until he made things right with the DHMM. This is, now he needs to go to the Council of Acronyms. Right. So this is like a double secret disowning.

The Colchester people didn't have to do anything. Right. He was never actually in whatever. Okay. Sarah, however, was accepted into a smaller meeting in Colchester, the CMM. The CMM. Country music. Yeah, go ahead.

Country music. Metal. Yeah. They had an important role in the history of the church. In 1692, they had rejected the national trend among Quakers toward separate meetings for men and women. So they were more progressive, a little more progressive. Sure.

You know, it's interesting that the vice president still isn't okay with meetings like that. It is weird. Kind of. But he says he can't drink around, he can't be alone with his wife when there's alcohol around, which means that he clearly fucked another woman at some point. During the 1720s. Or a Bible.

Or a Bible. During the 1720s, Sarah and a fellow minister would travel for months at a time preaching to Quaker congregations while Benjamin went to CMM and CTWM meetings and just caused trouble. Sure. He started purposely keeping his hat on when he prayed. This was also an old school move. Quakers had been into keeping their hat on in the 1600s as a protest, but this had changed. Now Benjamin was the only one who was doing it.

Right. Okay. So they're all freaking out that he's keeping his hat on the church. I mean, I don't think we need to go down another one of these holes of fucking madness, I say. It burns the hats. How is your prayer going to get to God if you've got a hat on? You're fucking hat on your head. It's blocking your signal, mate.

It's fucking ridiculous, mate. So in May 1723, the CTWM meeting drew up charges against Benjamin. Okay. Benjamin found out and refused to come. After a couple months later. It's sort of as one of those tree falling in the wood questions. Yeah, yeah. If you keep giving someone charges and they totally ignore them, have you charged anyone

but them? I don't think so. Yeah. Also, if they can keep coming, what's the charge? Yeah. I mean. A couple months later, Benjamin got into trouble at an angelic and church. He was, quote, indicted for depraving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

He pleaded not guilty. What does that mean? I guess he went in the same thing. He just ate a bunch of the body of Christ and then pounded the wine. That's what I'm talking about. I've done that. I think he went in during the sacrament sort of fucking screaming. Yeah.

So he says he's not guilty. The judge asked him if he would appear at the next session for trial. He said no. This is a much better time as far as trials go. Yeah. Nah, I'm busy that time. Come on, David. The judge offered to release him on his own recognizance.

Yeah. I like that. Yeah. He said no. Okay. So he's put in jail. Oh, okay. He'd rather have that then.

Well. Ha ha! I'm in the fucking jail. Yeah. Option three, they call me. Suck on that. There we are. Could be walking around.

I'm not. Why? Because I'm right. Yeah. By 1723, Benjamin's protests and general shit causing behavior was becoming a national issue. Okay. The Quaker yearly meeting sent a letter to all localities, quote, against any disorder

of keeping on ye hat in time of prayer or other appearances of disdain. Good. But as long as they're nipping the most important thing in the bud, I mean, that's, that's what the hatch. The hatch. Yeah. Get the hats squared away. The CTWM was seriously done with Benjamin.

He was still yelling and wearing his hat. Okay. So they drew up another indictment against him, which included, quote, gross and abominable practices. Dominal practices. Yeah. Dominable. Different.

The plan was to read it out loud wherever Benjamin disrupted a meeting. So now they have a standing. So now they're, they're, they're going to combat his distracting by adding another voice to the distraction. Yeah. So anytime he yells, they're going to read a thing about him. I read from a pre-prepared statement that I said I would read over if Benjamin Lai was to speak at one of these meetings.

It's the official ye is a douchebag statement. This minister has no idea what he talks about. I will keep my hat on. On May 13th, 1724, Benjamin spoke in the women's quarter in the great meeting house. Is he Mrs. Doubtfiring it? Yeah. That was it. The CTWM fucking lost it.

Okay. They picked three Quakers, quote, to keep him out of ye gallery for ye future. Oh ye serious now. He aren't ye. So he's so fucking annoying that he had gotten pacifist to use physical force to keep him out. So he invented bouncers. He.

In a backwards way. He really did. The CTWM sent two members to try to talk it out with him, but Benjamin refused to talk to him. In December, he agreed to have his case decided by friends as long as they were impartial about him and the issues. Friends who are impartial? Friends is what Quakers called each other.

Oh, okay. February 1725, Benjamin went before an eight man committee. He was contrite and seemed to really want to be readmitted and they refused. Okay. So he went back to the DHMM with his hat in hand, so to speak. He wrote them a letter addressed to dear and loving friends. Okay. That was the highlight of the letter.

He then went on to explain what the problems with the meetings were as he had been told by God and then he would have to point them out during meetings. Okay. So that's pretty. Okay. Not a great deal. And he ended with quote, I remain dear friends, you're sincere, true and loving, although exercised and at times sorrowful and much afflicted brother.

Okay. So he petitioned for a reinstatement to the DHMM and the DHMM said, no, your letter was fucking crazy. Okay. He kept trying over the next year and at one point the DHMM wrote to the CTWM saying, if they'd forgiven the DHMM would too. Interesting. So this is like if mom says you can go.

Yeah, basically. But the CTWM said no, he was still keeping his hat on and yelling at ministers and he was now disrupting churches all over town, the Angelicans, the Presbyterians, the Independents, the Baptists. I mean, there's really no problem with his, with his, the disowned nature of his pun. Like it's not really stopping him from doing what he wants. Nothing. Okay.

In May 1726, Benjamin wrote a long letter to the CTWM apologizing and saying he was wrong and weary and done with his nonsense and the CTWM was like, now we're good. Yeah. Okay. We're fine. And after that, there were no church records of Benjamin or Sarah for three and a half years. Now she's in good standing this whole time, like she's like a minister, like they love

her. Okay. Then in November 1729, Sarah wrote to the DHMM, it turns out the Lays were moving to Philadelphia and needed Benjamin to be reinstated so he could join a Quaker community in America. Okay. The DHMM asked the CTWM for advice and they said, look, he's still a pain in the ass, but he was never a member of our meeting because you had already disowned him so he couldn't make him a member.

So it's always been on you and it's really none of our business in the end. Okay. So now, we're in state. So the CTWM meeting then found out Benjamin was trying to join the CMM, which is the local little Colchester meeting. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And now they're pissed. Okay. So he almost maybe had it, but then they found out about the CMM. Yeah. Now he's like joining the rivals. Right. Right. Now it's...

Now he's on the baseball fairies. ...Manchester, United States, Manchester City situation. Sure. So now they get involved, even though he just said it was none of their business. Right. And they sent members to the CMM to let everyone know that Benjamin was a pain in the ass and that he'd been disowned by the DHMM, but the CMM didn't care and decided to grant Benjamin membership.

All right. They're like, he's fucking in. He's a party animal. He said, get one, they swan. We like him. And then Richard Price, who was the minister of Benjamin who had attacked 14 years earlier, jumps in the fray. And he tried to talk to CMM out of granting the lays, a travel certificate.

So they have to get... Jesus Christ. They have to get a certificate to be able to travel, I guess, if they're Quakers. So essentially they're trying to get citizenship to a Quaker state. Yeah. They're trying to get out to be able to travel to a Quaker state. Yeah. But they're like, there's paperwork.

There's a approval process. There's tons of paperwork. Fucking shitloads of paperwork. Yeah. But the CMM said Price's letter was not cool and totally irregular. So Price... Is that their words? Because they sound like the kind of cool lip, guys.

They didn't use not cool, but they didn't use irregular. So Price wrote to the CTWM, who technically had absolutely nothing to do with it. So the CTWM got back into it and tried to stop the CMM from giving the certificate. But the CMM unanimously voted to award a certificate to the lays that would permit them to move to Pennsylvania and join a Quaker congregation. So it's over. They could go. So basically just a bunch of fucking people were like, dang it, don't let them, you fucking

leave. Right. But then the hole in the wall one was like, yeah, he's fine. He's all right. He's not bad. He likes biscuits. They left in March 1732. It took 11 weeks.

Benjamin spent a lot of time talking to the seamen and hearing their voice, their stories about the slave trade. Now Philadelphia is the largest city in America. There's 12,000 people. The Quaker colony was the second largest in the world. Benjamin set up as a merchant selling books. And then Benjamin and Sarah joined the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, the PMM. Good.

Good. Damn it. The PMM. Okay. Those are gone though. We're done with the CMM, the CHMM. They'll pop up a tiny bit. Four church leaders led religious and political life in the city and the colony.

They're all wealthy landowners and many Quakers owned slaves. I had a feeling. Philadelphia was a big shock to Benjamin coming from Colchester where slavery was rare. Well in 10 people in Philadelphia were enslaved. So Benjamin's abolitionist principles were fucking fired back up. He discovered half of the members of the PMM owned slaves. He was trying to live the best life he could. He made his own clothes to avoid exploiting the labor of others, including animals.

He refused to eat food or wear clothes made by slave labor. He refused to use sheep's wool so all of his clothes were made out of undied spun flax. Oh man. I love this guy. Itchiest motherfucker on earth. That's fine though. Itchiest human. The only human that was harmed in the process of this was me.

But the thing about sheep is like they actually can, like you have to shear them. Yes. Like if that, all that wool grows then they just fucking collapse. They become enormous balls. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, maybe it was a torturous process or something. I'm sure it wasn't the most humane.

He also went everywhere barefoot. Whoa. So he's got a cool flax suit and he's got no shoes. It's like Wim Hof. He dressed in high colored plain clothes and a white hat. Okay. So okay. Okay.

Yep. He was nearly a vegan. Geez. Before the word was invented, he decided to become a vegetarian the day he killed a groundhog that had destroyed his garden. He cut the groundhog into little pieces and nailed parts to the four corners of his garden. What sort of... Okay.

She's getting shit done. Okay. He's then overcome with remorse and renounced the killing and eating of animals and he walked everywhere so as not to use horses. Is this the story of Groundhog Day? So he fucked up a groundhog in ways that are like in just pure insanity. He treated it how like a queen used to treat their enemies, just sort of staked it up in certain areas to show it off.

And then as happens to one who cuts a groundhog into many pieces and nails it all over the place, you go... You start to go... Because this was too much. You go... What is my life? Yeah, what? What do I stand for?

I gotta say, just looking at me in this position, I've gotten pretty weird and maybe have to reevaluate this. Yeah. I mean, I ground a groundhog. Yeah. Okay. So he stopped cheating. Stop cheating me.

Wow. Love this. Benjamin was very against materialism. He said it was, quote, the chiefest of the seven devils and supreme ruler, head and governor of hell, Babylon and bottomless pit. Jesus. He's pretty... Yeah, he's pretty...

He's got the language of a sorcerer now. Yeah, he goes pretty hardcore when he's against stuff. Yeah. An all or nothing kind of guy. Yeah. He thought all covetous men are, quote, beasts, blasphemers, liars, thieves, and murderers, as well as... I don't know what that word is.

It's changed. Sure. But it's bad. And that the wealthy were the masters of misrule in both politics and religion. Wow. He doesn't like the people who want stuff. Yeah. Or the people who are obsessed with materialism and a gap in class.

Right. Oh, I always say, I was raised in a family that always said, listen to the guy in the flax suit. Yeah. Listen to the man who's in the itchiest outfit. That's right. Yeah. Who won't take his hat off.

And he thought America was much worse than Colchester, quote, I do believe here in this land of America as selfish, sordid, greedy, covetous, earthly minded people of almost all names as any in the world. Well, Dave, then he can just stay in the locker room. Well, he's right. He's right. Some patriot you are. Sometimes I wonder if you know what it means to be a patriot.

Do you know what it means to love this country? I don't. It means you're not allowed to ask questions and point out flaws. Okay. Keep your head down, shut up, do your job, trust the process. It's bad. Your head's up. Put it down.

Okay. That's fair. He did not like the way Quaker society was changing. Involvement in business and land speculation was quickly making Quakers wealthy. He believed rich slave owning Quaker ministers were destroying his religion. Covetousness was probably Benjamin's number one shit talking term. Quakerism required rescue from slavery from capital sin. So he is basically saying the quest for items and status is the biggest problem.

Yes. Okay, gotcha. Imagine that. I can't. I mean, really, it's stuff to fathom. So to bring awareness, Benjamin started holding public protests against, quote, men of renown. When winter came, he stood at the doorway to the Quaker meeting house. His right leg had no shoe or sock, and he stuck it in the snow.

Okay. Interesting start. Well, when his fellow Quakers passed and told them he would get sick doing that, Benjamin would say, quote, ah, you pretend compassion for me, but you do not feel for the poor slaves in your fields who go all winter half clad. Well. And then they go, I'm just going to go inside. Well.

Yeah. Head inside. Okay. Good luck with your... So someone is... Holder. Right. So someone's out there making logical points.

Yeah. That can't be accepted. So anyone who owned a slave tried to speak, Benjamin started jumping up and yelling, quote, there's another Negro master. Wow. He's the best. That's great. He's so great.

He started going to different churches and renting administers who were also becoming very offended. Sometimes he'd just show up wearing a sackcloth to show his humility before God. Some churches started having him physically removed. Jesus. I mean, he's really going for it. Yeah. He's all out.

One preacher said he heard a voice from heaven and Benjamin yelled, quote, from thy life and preaching. I question whether thou ever hearst a voice from heaven in thy life. And if thou didst, I am sure thou hast not obeyed it. Oh my God. The preacher grabbed a bullwhip and chased Benjamin out of the meeting. Wow. What?

I mean, how did... Church. Does a whip cut through a sack? First time we could find that out finally. Back in England, the Colchester two weeks meeting was still trying to get Benjamin banished from the Quakers. Wow. So they've moved on.

They're... Okay. They're not scorned or anything. They had made an official complaint to the Essex Quarterly meeting. The EQM ruled Benjamin, quote, was not a proper member of the meeting and should not have been given a joint certificate to go to Philadelphia. But the CMM did not give two shits. They still sent a copy of the joint certificate to the Philadelphia women's meeting, which

had requested it. Okay. So the CMM is just like not playing ball. Right. They're like, no, fuck off. Right. They're a cool little section. The CTWM wanted Benjamin to suffer.

They wrote a letter, quote, to friends in Philadelphia or elsewhere in America concerning the irregular certificate Benjamin Lay had from Colchester Monthly Meeting. They pushed Philadelphia to write and send their own letter to anywhere that Benjamin might settle down. Okay. Right. So they're just like... This is an APB.

Yeah. APB, Scorched Earth. Right. This is like he's on the 10 most FBI wanted list. Right. Quaker Wives. The least wanted list. Both of the letters ended up in the hands of church leader Robert Jordan Jr., a slave

holder who fucking hated Benjamin. Wow. So on March 1734, the Lays moved eight miles north to Abington. At this point, Benjamin was well known in Philadelphia, quote, the name of this celebrated Christian philosopher was familiar to every man, woman, and nearly every child in Pennsylvania. His antics got attention and his protests were written up in the press. So he's making noise. Right.

The Lays built the home, although from the description that was in the Philadelphia Enquirer. I can't imagine what his house... They must try to keep it pretty meager. And not that great. Right. Quote, the slope of... Just a bunch of sacks.

Oh, it's worse. On the slope of the hill, he had his cave. What? Okay. Interesting story. I know. Okay. As well as one for his wife, the roof of which he covered...

Oh, so they had like sort of dick van dyke couples' beds, but caves? Caves. Sort of like... All right, honey. Fires out. The roof of which he covered with thatched straws and limbs of trees. Okay. The spring near the cave he walled...

So he had forts. Yeah, basically. Okay. The spring near the cave he walled up for his household use, and near the cave he planted four black walnut trees, which marked the place for many years. They lived entirely upon vegetable and grain diet and cultivated garden and fruit orchard around his cave. Oh, my God.

So it sounds like he literally fixed up a cave. Yeah. Sometimes it's described as a cottage, but other times as a cave. So I think it's a cave that he fixed up to look like a cottage. It's a nice cave. I think outside it looked like a cottage and you'd go inside and it was a cave. Right. Okay.

So he's living like the hobbits and lord of the rigs. Their Benjamin built the new home into a, quote, natural excavation in the earth to afford himself a commodious apartment. So it's a big cave. Okay. Right. Sure. I mean, yeah.

So he's... Yeah, right. He's just... He's just... He's digging his home. He's just a classic... He learned much from the groundhog. He's just a classic dwarf living in a cave.

Sure. Right. Oh, right. I keep forgetting. Right. Okay. The cave was spacious. I'm going to tell you right now that I haven't heard a thing about this that I don't like.

Okay? Yeah. Um, books were his most prized possession, the only worldly good he carried about. Okay. People started coming over to see how he was living, quote, life in agreement with nature. Love it. He hosted big names like Governor Richard Penn and Benjamin Franklin at his cave. Oh my God.

Benjamin Franklin was in his cave. Benjamin Franklin was friends with him. He's always in the cave. He'd roll by once in a while. Yeah, okay. Cave buddies. Oh, sure. Benjamin and Sarah needed a certificate so they could join the Abbington Monthly Meeting,

right? So the local, they got to get... The AMM. They got to get fucking approval again to get into the AMM. AMM. But then Sarah died in 1735 at age 58. It was unexpected. Benjamin was devastated.

Okay. The approval process for the AMM continued, though. The PMM appointed two friends, John Brinkhurst and Anthony Morris, Jr., to investigate Benjamin's request. Okay. Both were slave owners. Well, okay. I think we know where this is at.

Morris had actually been the leading writer of Pennsylvania's slave code 10 years earlier. Okay. It was called an Act for the Better Regulation of Negroes in this Province. Oh my God. So we, I mean, just always labeling these horrid things, just, this is a great way. Straight up, their model, the model they based everything on was Barbados. Which we know had a great ratio. Yeah.

Also, Benjamin's Trigger Island. Mm-hmm. The Philadelphia Bill also sought to control the free black community, stating, quote, free Negroes are an idle, slothful people who afford ill examples to other Negroes. There is such a contradiction even within that logic, though, the idea that you would then take these, quote, unquote, slothful people and be like, you work here. You need to do physical labor. Yeah.

Yeah. It's all fucking bullshit. I think, again, it just points to the confidence of the white. Mm-hmm. White man is very confident. Yeah. It also made it difficult for an owner to free a slave and interracial marriages illegal. So we can assume these two guys hated Benjamin, right?

Yeah. Obviously. So the letter from the CTWM in England about Benjamin was all they needed. And the PMM revoked Benjamin's membership. Okay. But again, Benjamin just kept going to meetings and yelling about false ministers and slave keepers. Yeah.

Okay. So they don't have a real handle on how to deal with this and all. Yeah. He said that any Quaker-owned slaves bore the, quote, mark of the beast and should be disowned. Yeah. He's gone. The rhetoric's getting stronger if anything. He's fucking all in.

Yeah. Yeah. And Sarah, so after the death of Sarah, Benjamin's anti-slavery activism picked up even more. Right. Okay. And it actually- Because he's got time on his hands and a new cave that he can sort of devote as like his work cave.

And he's probably a little mad. I don't know how to imagine. He's trying to go home office. Based on what it sounds like she was, she probably settled them down a little bit. Right. So that was a settled down version of- Right, right, right. For sure.

Right. Gotcha. Right. And it worked. Okay. So in 1935 and 1743, which were his Pete protest years, there was a profound shift in the attitudes of Philadelphia Quakers towards buying imported slaves. Wow.

Okay. At the time, Benjamin's ridiculed, heckled and dismissed by Quakers as being mentally deficient, but he was making progress. Right. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. And I would also imagine that like the Quaker heckles have nothing on his heckles.

So it's almost like- Oh yeah. Yeah, there's a story. I took it out because this is long, but there's a story of a guy fucking with him in the street and he just totally bested the guy. Right. Like he's a smart dude, but he's a dwarf. And so I assume while Quakers are pretty accepting, they still just fucking, like they

didn't take him seriously or they were, like I'm sure his opinion was not as accepted to having been just a regular looking person. Right. Right. Probably why he identified with the disenfranchised. That's right. And I know he had empathy for people who had to go through shit. Which back then was treated as a disease.

That's right. Right. You had to go see how to pop the carry if you suffered from empathy. That's right. Yeah. We could get hung and burned for having empathy. Oh, that's fun. At one Quaker meeting in Horsham, Pennsylvania on April 10th, 1737, Benjamin was sitting

quietly when he was just grabbed and roughly carried out of the meeting solely based on his reputation. Okay. At another meeting, he was thrown into the street on a rainy day. So he came back and laid down in the mud right in front of the door. So every person leaving the meeting had to step over his body. Okay. Interesting.

Right. Okay. So you just become a mud man. I mean, that's fucking great. Because like you're just making them do that makes them feel like a fucking asshole. Not enough people play the swamp monster card. Where you just- I'm telling you what, mud guy is one of the best protests ever. Yeah, that's strong because people are like, they don't know how to deal with a mud man.

No, fucking who does. In 1737, the PMM reported Benjamin's interruptions were, quote, very troublesome. An example, quote, for friends, all you that are ministers of antichrist, whether in pulpits or galleries, you that are of the king of locusts and are creeping out of the bottomless pit a little to see what mischief you can do to mankind and service your king Lucifer to see what good you can get for your god, your bellies. I kind of wish this guy was still hanging around a little bit, you know. Right.

I mean, he'd be great to have around right now. Yeah. It'd be a good time. He'd be fucking on point. Yeah. 24-7. Especially if he still wore the mud. Oh.

It became pretty common for ministers to fly into a rage and have him physically removed. Gee. So he is just, I mean, he is public enemy number one. Yeah, but also you, you know, these, I mean, these protests are a little more in your face, but like if you take Conkapernax protests, like those protests are made to show what your enemy is. Right. So he has exposed the NFL for what it is.

He's exposed, you know, Trump and all these different people for what they are. Like it, your peaceful protest just brings out the rage and hate. And then you go, see? It's so true that he did so little to cause so much. He literally took a knee and people lost their minds. And the NFL has now completely, well, part of the pun, fumbled that. They have no idea how to deal with that. Lose gobs of money.

Trump has lost his mind. They lost his mind. These, you know, people who support this rhetoric of Trump's and that support him. And it's all because, and Conkapernax gets signed all because he went on his knee and picked out his fro a little and that just drove the white crazy. So he's, I mean, he's a little more boisterous, but he's also calling out slavery and materialism, which you should probably have a little bit of leverage to if you're white in a situation like this, even if he is like, you know, different.

I mean, he is allowed, he's allotted a little more wiggle room. Yeah. Yeah. So it became pretty common for ministers to fly under rage and have them physically removed. It's very similar. Yeah. They eventually put in a console to keep him out of meetings around Philadelphia.

So now they have an assigned guy fucking hired a Benjamin Lay cop to do only patrol Benjamin Lay. Right. Okay. Soon, two powerful members of the PMM drew up a quote, a testimony against him to be brought to the next meeting. He was given the opportunity to seek the reconciliation. The PMM ruled against Benjamin.

They delivered that ruling to the AMM and the AMM banned him as well. So his local has now kicked him out. Right. This was his fourth disownment, first London, then Colchester, then Philadelphia and now Abington. Right. Okay. Like inequality, right?

Just dude in February 1738, Benjamin responded by beginning a 40 day fast. Wow. He was to only drink water. He kept his regular routine on the ninth day he reported he was in good health. One morning he walked eight miles to Philadelphia to meet with his friend Benjamin Franklin. Franklin later said Benjamin's quote, breath was so accurate as to produce a suffusion of water in his eyes, which was extremely painful. And this is at a time when breath was at an all time low.

No breath at this time. Not that this time was just like having like a horse shit in your nose every time someone spoke. Everybody walked up to you, you're like, yeah. And then you'd speak and they go, and now you have a guy who's like, but Franklin's not even talking about how bad the breast milk is. That's just a given. He's saying his breath smells so bad, it's fucking up his eyes, his own eyes.

So these are, he has, right. I mean, stink marks coming out of his mouth. Yeah. Right. So he keeps losing strength with the fast. By the third week, he couldn't leave his cave and soon couldn't get out of bed. He said, it's not normal, even for this time, it's not a normal statement. He couldn't, he couldn't, he was cave ridden.

Yeah. Yeah. At that point, he talked a friend into putting a loaf of bread on a table in his cave so he could test his will. What? Why does he have to do, he needs to give himself biblical challenges? Yeah, yeah. He's given himself a challenge.

He could barely speak, but he kept saying, quote, Benjamin, thus see it, but thus shall not eat it. What? But as mental faculties began to fail, his friends started to feed him and slowly he was brought back to life. Were they like baby birding him? Yeah. Probably.

I would imagine. Yeah. At that point. Okay. After he would never try to fast again, though he would always live a life of austerity. Now he'd been writing a book for two years, it demanded the immediate end of bread on tables. No, close.

Wait, give me one more guess. Slavery. You were close. Slavery. Slavery. I was going to say fur. Okay. Slavery.

Right. The Quakers refused to publish it. That is out of character. Well, they're against, they're for slavery. Yes, I'm kidding. Fortunately, Benjamin, oh, you kid on this thing? I tried once, didn't go well. Actually Benjamin knew a well-known Philadelphia publisher named Benjamin Franklin.

So on August 17, August 1738, Franklin published, ready for this? Yep. All slavekeepers that keep the innocent in bondage apostates pretending to lay claim to the pure and holy Christian religion of what congregation forever, but especially in their ministers by whose example the filthy leprosy and apostasy is spread far and near, it is a notorious sin for which many of the true friends of Christ and his pure truth called Quakers has been for many years and are still concerned to write and bear testimony against as a practice of gross and hurtful to religion and destructive to government

beyond what words can set forth or can be declared by men of angels and yet lived in by ministers and magistrates in America. I didn't know titles could be run on. It's catchy. It's catchy. How could Benjamin Franklin invent electricity but not an editor? How do you let that happen? I mean, that...

Who invented titles? That's like a two-page title. That's a thesis, and it even then needs to be cut down. It's going to have to be a big book to fit all that on. Alrighty. Here we go. So it's a catchy title. For sure.

I can't stop thinking at how much it rolls off the tongue. His writing was a stream of consciousness type. Really, his titles didn't reflect that. Here's a passage. Slaves kept for their glory and pride to wait on them amongst their proud, lazy, dainty, tyrannical, gluttonous, drunken, debauched visitors, the scum of the infernal pit, a little worse than the same that comes off their sugar when it is boiling, which is composed of grease, dirt, dung, and other filthiness as it may be limbs, bowels, and excrements

of the poor slaves and beasts and other matters. Shorter than the title. Okay. Yeah. So my guess is, well, first of all, it's great. Second of all, my guess is this is not going to go over too well with people. It's not going to go over too well, but I also think probably the truth, based on what we know about food production, that guys would lose their limbs when they get put in with

the sugar. Mm-hmm. I bet that was true. Oh, God. So he had watched... Sugar arms? He had watched the sugar foundations and Barbados. Yeah, so he's talking about sugar arms.

Oh, gosh. I want sugar arms to come back. Well, I mean, yeah. Like, maybe... Like, you just open up a thing of sugar and there's a finger in there. Hey! Oh, that's it. I mean, yeah.

Well, yeah. Sugar fingers definitely sounds like it could be a candy. Yeah. So apparently all that stuff would go into sugar, according to him. So I believe him. Why not? The Quakers were worried. Some people would think the book was church-sanctioned.

So they three times published an official notice in the Pennsylvania Gazette saying they had nothing to do with it. Absolutely, nothing to do with it, nothing to do with it. It's not our deal. We have nothing to do with it. Okay. Benjamin repeatedly said his enemies were elders in the church and that it was, quote, time for such old rusty candlesticks to be moved out of their places.

Okay. That's all right. Yeah. This is a time of... There's a lot of generation divide amongst the Quakers. Benjamin realized that the younger generation of activists were the best hope and made sure to distribute the book to them. Okay.

So six weeks after the book was published, Benjamin made his greatest protest of all time. He hollowed out a book and he put an animal bladder filled with bright red pokeberry juice inside. Okay. And he walked 30 miles to Burlington, New Jersey, only eating almonds and peaches. Jesus, God. I don't know what that part was, but that's what he did.

He was there to attend the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the biggest Quaker event of the year. Okay. Under a large coat, Benjamin was wearing... The Quakies. The Quakies. Under a large coat, Benjamin was wearing a military uniform and carrying a sword. Okay. Since the Quakers had sworn off war, this was quite a statement.

In the meeting, he waited for the perfect time and then he stood up and made a long statement against slavery. During it, he tossed off his coat and exposed his military uniform. Okay. And then he kept speaking. And then he plunged the sword into the book, spraying slave owners seated around him with fake blood. Wow.

People went ape shit. Yeah, this is a Banksy. They thought it was real blood. Yeah. Yeah, this is a Banksy. This is a Banksy. A few Quakers picked him up and carried him out of the building. He didn't...

Like champions after the Super Bowl? Yeah, it did, though. Oh, no, not that vibe. Not Madden. He didn't resist. He felt like he had made his point. Yeah. I think he might have.

I mean, this is a fucking quality. He put a sword through a book that shot blood everywhere. Yeah. This is a quality movie. Yeah. One day, Benjamin's Quaker neighbors in Abington owned a young slave girl, and he would often argue with them about slavery, insisting the girl should be freed. Okay.

They did not give two fucks. So one day, Benjamin saw the couple's six-year-old son playing. So he invited the boy to his cave and entertained the boy all day. So this is before people got the message out that you need to know a guy well before you go to his cave. That's right. Right. Okay.

Jimmy, don't go into any man's cave. Yeah. Yeah. So that night, he sees the boy's parents running around frantically in a panic. I'm not probably looking for their boy. They haven't seen all that. All right. And he asked what was the matter, and they said their son was missing.

Oh boy. And Benjamin said the boy was safe in his cave house thing. Sure. And quote, you may now conceive of the sorrow you inflict upon the parents of a Negro girl you hold in slavery for she was torn by them, Jesus, by a avarice. Just serving. So fucking kick their dicks. Yeah.

Like that is a fucking, now clearly that didn't go over well with the Quakers, but right. But it is. But that's a fucking. Yeah. Well, someone's making points. Yeah. Big time points. Yeah.

Benjamin had a lot of contempt for the Quakers who supported slavery because they hoped to buy slaves themselves one day, which is the most grotesquely American thing I've ever read. Yeah. Right? Yeah. The American dream. The American dream to own a slave so you don't want slavery to go away because I might own

one someday. Yeah. So even. You're not going to. You're a plumber. Right. This country, great history of ethnic capitalism. Yeah.

Yeah. And after all of this, Benjamin kept attending church services. Okay. In March 1742, Benjamin decided to protest the mistreatment of people who harvested tea in Asia along with the Americas in the Americas who produced sugar to sweeten the tea. He set up a table at an open air Philadelphia market and placed fine china tea cups and saucers that had belonged to Sarah on top. A crowd gathered.

What's this all about? They're thinking. What's going on here? Are you doing some kind of etiquette tracing? Is it a tea demonstration? What are we having? Elocution tea. Benjamin then took out a hammer.

Interesting. And smashed one tea cup. Okay. So he is Banksy Meets Gallagher. Okay. And then he smashed another. All right. And the crowd is now freaking the fuck out because China is super, like China is just

not something that you fuck with. Like it's hard to get. It's expensive. Sure. It's like the shit at this time, right? Right. But we forget he lives in a cave. Yeah.

He's a cave guy. He keeps smashing. Someone yelled they'll buy it. They'll buy it and stop smashing. She's all buy it all. Finally the mob rushed him. A young man stepped up behind him, quote, adroitly slipped his head between his legs and suddenly rising up, lifted Benjamin up and carried him off.

What? Like he six flagged him? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Quite a move. This is very wrestling. Everyone then grab and save the teacups.

Did the ref have his back turned at the time? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then they all grab his teacups. Yeah. They keep them. Sure.

They keep those. Interesting. This event was such a big deal. It made into papers all over Europe. Like in Dublin, there's a newspaper article about this. Okay. Benjamin also worked with abolitionist Anthony Benazette and raised money to establish a school for black children in Philadelphia.

The school was open in 1770 and operated for at least over a hundred years. Wow. It may still be around today. Not sure, but it was there in 1913. Wow. The two men also helped the students get jobs and advocated for fair treatment in the courts. In 1757, 75 year old Benjamin's health started to decline. He still received visitors at his cave and his mind was clear.

Sure. Although he lived in a cave. Yeah. He offered occasional manuscripts, Benjamin offered a visitor a hundred... On a cave wall? Yeah. Right. He offered a visitor a hundred pounds if the visitor would, quote, burn his body and

throw his ashes into the sea after he died. Oh, I thought he was saying like that afternoon. Yeah. Now. Yeah. Now. Please. And after I ate this bread.

This is way before cremation was a normal thing. Oh, wow. Okay. The visitor refused and Benjamin never brought it up with anybody again. Wow. Yeah, I tried. Yeah. In the year of 1758, Deborah Franklin commissioned a local artist to paint a portrait of Benjamin

Lay as a giffer husband, Benjamin Franklin. Okay. Benjamin Lay would never have agreed to sit for the portrait, but the artist had seen Benjamin around Philadelphia enough to paint the portrait from memory. Okay. It's now on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1758, the Philadelphia yearly meeting started the process of disciplining and eventually disowning Quakers who traded slaves.

Wow. It would take another 18 years for them to completely outlaw slave holding, but this action was attributed to quote zeal, tenacity, and fervor of Benjamin Lay. When Benjamin heard, he said, quote, Thanksgiving and praise be rendered unto the Lord God, I can now die in peace. And on February 3rd, 1758, he died. The cause is unknown. He was buried in an unmarked grave near Sarah in the Quaker burial ground in Abington.

In 1775, in Philadelphia Quakers founded the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. In 1776, the Philadelphia yearly meeting of friends declared that members must free their slaves or be banned. And on March 1st, 1780, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law, began the process of the abolition of slavery. In 1788, Pennsylvania set a fine of £1,000 for anyone participating in the slave trade. His manuscripts along with most of his library were destroyed by the British during the Revolutionary War.

This year, April 2018, the Abington Monthly Meeting dedicated a headstone to mark the graves of Lay and his wife, Sarah, at the entry gates to the burial ground. They don't know exactly where the graves are. It's difficult to match up, but OK. But Benjamin Franklin credited Benjamin Lay with having started the anti-slavery movement in Pennsylvania. There is a Benjamin Lay Society page slash group on Facebook calling for the statue of William Penn, a slave owner, to be removed from city hall and replaced with one of Benjamin

Lay. So you can go join that group and get involved in that. What is that? Benjamin Lay Facebook group? Yeah, the Benjamin Lay Society. The Layheads. So go to the Benjamin Lay Society on Facebook, get involved, especially in Philadelphia, and get that fucking pen shit out of there because this guy was the real deal.

I think you're done. Yeah, I was going to look to see if I could find the painting. It definitely is such a good story because, let's have a look at this, oh wow, whoa, that looks very surrealist. It's good painting. Yeah, it is. It's interesting. He looks, he certainly looks wizardly.

He does. Yeah, that's interesting. He's like a wizard guy. It just, it really does speak to the history this country has and when there is bullshit, the disenfranchised or the like people who are viewed as lesser have less of a voice. But if you can be a fly in the ointment in any way and disrupt and cause shit, it might take a while. But that is what we need more than ever now because it is like, I mean, it is getting

so ridiculous with thinking that the elite, you know, our government and the elite people in this country, in this world have any clue or any interest in what is best for us or best for civilization. I mean, as you sit here and watch like the world burn, the record temperatures, it is just like, oh sorry, you haven't heard about that part, I'll do a dollop on that. But it is like that you just need to be pissed and use your voice when you're pissed. And it goes beyond tweeting at people, it goes to like actually doing shit, like saying shit, trying to change people's opinions, trying to like get people to do shit that

is annoying, it annoys them when you call them, it annoys them when you write directly to them. That annoys them. Rather than just throwing your thoughts down and, you know. What would Benjamin Lay do and say about separating parents from their children at the border or the organization ICE? We'll do a dollop on ICE because you guys will be delighted to hear that in just a few years they've completely changed from their original organization of what they were.

They used to be water. But now there are people out there and you can find them at ball shites, ICE sites all over the country and they are at the ICE offices, they are blocking them, they are stopping them from, they're trying to stop people from going in and getting out, they need food, they need water, they need bodies, they need supplies and that needs to happen now. And I think even about when, you know, like a couple weeks ago Trump completely misspoke and he actually, he meant to say wouldn't instead of would, you think about that. But before we had our, I guess we'll call it apology for the misstep, people were starting

to show up outside of the White House, more and more people every night were starting to show up and that bothers them, that is different than anything else. We should like, I don't think protests don't mean anything, but I think surrounding buildings means something and I think, and by the way, let me just say this, there's a fucking resistance group in Northridge, California, I think they're called Indivisible or whatever, fuck you you fucking idiots, we knew where Jeff Sessions was going to be in Los Angeles, we had the fucking building, we had inside information, we were going to fucking lock him into a fucking building in Los Angeles and those stupid goddamn pragmatist assholes let the fucking

word out and he didn't go to the building, we were going to have that fucker locked in and they were going to have to fucking break through and drag his ass out by taking us down and those stupid fucking assholes, pragmatist bullshit, don't lock Jeff Sessions, fuck yes you do, that's when you do it, you do it now. So that kind of shit needs to stop and those motherfuckers need to get out of the fucking way. Postponing it makes it harder. So fuck you Northridge Indivisible, you fucking weak assholes.

Anyway, that's how I feel about it. Dolloppodcast.com if you want to hear some of this fervor live. Yeah, alright. But I'll be doing people last, there will be a dollop on Ice, Ice is a very, very, very bad thing and historically if you look at countries that have fallen into nightmare situations, forces like Ice are the thing that lead to it. Anyway. It's an exciting time.

Yeah, it's an exciting time. Alright, send a couple cars this weekend and we'll continue to do so. I love me. What? That's it.