65
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.)
LAY, BENJAMIN.
Benjamin Lay.
Stipple
engraving 8
7
⁄
8
by 7
3
⁄
8
inches printed on
India proof paper, mounted to a larger
sheet (larger sheet, 10 x 8) with the cap-
tion.
Np, circa 1850’s, from an earlier engraving
[500/750]
AN UNCOMMON PORTRAIT OF THE NOTED
18
TH CENTURY SOCIAL REFORMER
,
ABOLI
-
TIONIST AND VEGETARIAN
.
Benjamin Lay
(1682-1789) was barely over four feet tall and
wore clothes that he made himself. He was a
hunchback with a projecting chest, and his arms
were almost longer than his legs. He was a vege-
tarian, and drank only milk and water. He
would wear nothing, nor eat anything made
from the loss of animal life or provided by any
degree by slave labor. He was distinguished less
for his eccentricities than for his philanthropy.
He published over 200 pamphlets, most of
which were impassioned polemics against various social institutions of the time, particularly slavery,
capital punishment, the prison system, and the moneyed Pennsylvania Quaker elite. Refusing to par-
ticipate in what he described in his tracts as a degraded, hypocritical, tyrannical, and even demonic
society, Lay was committed to a lifestyle of almost complete self-sustenance. Dwelling in a cottage in
the Pennsylvania countryside, Lay grew his own food and made his own clothes.
66
●
(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) LEEDS ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
Leeds
Series of Illustrated Anti-Slavery Tracts.
Elaborately engraved broadside, 17 x 19
7
⁄
8
inches; creases where folded; one tiny hole at the intersection of the folds, in a blank area.
London: William Tweedie, circa mid 1850’s
[1,000/1,500]
Featuring 10 vignettes, all of them representing actual events, such as the famous Henry
“Box” Brown incident in which the latter had himself literally shipped to freedom. A large
piece such as this was no doubt meant to be put up at sympathetic bookshops and stationers.
The entire series of 5 or 10 page tracts came to about 400 pages, and was available bound.
66
