Poem: "Beyond What Words Can Set Forth"
This poem is spillover from the November 7, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from . It also fills the "key" square in my 11-1-23 card for the Drabble Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by . It belongs to the series Peculiar Obligations.
"Beyond What Words Can Set Forth"
[1700s]
Benjamin Lay was an activist
so radical that he annoyed
everyone, even other Quakers.
He was an avid abolitionist,
humanitarian, and vegetarian,
concerned with the kind treatment
of humans and animals alike.
It was in Barbados where he
first realized the barbarity of
treating people as slaves.
Benjamin came to know
a slave named Caesar who
belonged to a cruel master
and toiled in the sugar fields.
Caesar's owner was fond
of beating his slaves for
trivial reasons, or even for
no reason other than spite.
One day, Caesar decided
to take his own life rather
than suffer another beating.
It made such an impression
on Benjamin that he declared
slavery to be a wicked practice
so gross and hurtful to religion,
and destructive to government,
beyond what words can set forth.
He would not stoop to violence,
but he embarked on a campaign
of such mischief that nobody
would abide his presence.
He started by standing outside
a Quaker meeting house, coatless
and barefoot in the winter snow.
Whenever someone stopped
to express concern for him,
Benjamin pointed out that
slaves were forced to work
in winter wearing the same.
Another time, he dressed
as a soldier, ranted against
slavery, and then used a sword
to stab a Bible in which he had
concealed a bladder of red juice.
For a while, Benjamin went about
kidnapping children of slaveholders
to show them the misery caused
when slavers broke up families.
He always let the children go
afterwards, but that didn't make
people feel any better about him.
Unsatisfied with the rate of progress,
Benjamin finally turned to smuggling.
He smuggled everything from food
to abolitionist pamphlets to keys
into the slave compounds, and
smuggled slaves out of bondage.
Some of the people he rescued
later became smugglers themselves,
so that it grew into a whole ring of
people working for freedom.
Sometimes, Benjamin lived on
a ship so he could move around,
and other times he lived in a cave,
providing for his own needs.
Eventually, in spite of
his antics, other Quakers
came to respect him and
they even hung pictures
of him in their homes.
Benjamin didn't care what
people thought of him.
He only cared that he
was the key to creating
an abolitionist movement
among the Society of Friends.
* * *
Notes:
Peculiar Obligations is a new series, an Eastern featuring Quakers as organized crime.
"slavery -- a Practice so gross & hurtful to Religion, and destructive to government, beyond what Words can set forth"
-- Benjamin Lay from All Slave-Keepers That keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates
Benjamin Lay (January 26, 1682 - February 8, 1759) was an Anglo-American Quaker humanitarian and abolitionist. He is best known for his early and strident anti-slavery activities which would culminate in dramatic protests. He was also an author, farmer, vegetarian, and distinguished by his concern for the ethical treatment of animals.
"Beyond What Words Can Set Forth"
[1700s]
Benjamin Lay was an activist
so radical that he annoyed
everyone, even other Quakers.
He was an avid abolitionist,
humanitarian, and vegetarian,
concerned with the kind treatment
of humans and animals alike.
It was in Barbados where he
first realized the barbarity of
treating people as slaves.
Benjamin came to know
a slave named Caesar who
belonged to a cruel master
and toiled in the sugar fields.
Caesar's owner was fond
of beating his slaves for
trivial reasons, or even for
no reason other than spite.
One day, Caesar decided
to take his own life rather
than suffer another beating.
It made such an impression
on Benjamin that he declared
slavery to be a wicked practice
so gross and hurtful to religion,
and destructive to government,
beyond what words can set forth.
He would not stoop to violence,
but he embarked on a campaign
of such mischief that nobody
would abide his presence.
He started by standing outside
a Quaker meeting house, coatless
and barefoot in the winter snow.
Whenever someone stopped
to express concern for him,
Benjamin pointed out that
slaves were forced to work
in winter wearing the same.
Another time, he dressed
as a soldier, ranted against
slavery, and then used a sword
to stab a Bible in which he had
concealed a bladder of red juice.
For a while, Benjamin went about
kidnapping children of slaveholders
to show them the misery caused
when slavers broke up families.
He always let the children go
afterwards, but that didn't make
people feel any better about him.
Unsatisfied with the rate of progress,
Benjamin finally turned to smuggling.
He smuggled everything from food
to abolitionist pamphlets to keys
into the slave compounds, and
smuggled slaves out of bondage.
Some of the people he rescued
later became smugglers themselves,
so that it grew into a whole ring of
people working for freedom.
Sometimes, Benjamin lived on
a ship so he could move around,
and other times he lived in a cave,
providing for his own needs.
Eventually, in spite of
his antics, other Quakers
came to respect him and
they even hung pictures
of him in their homes.
Benjamin didn't care what
people thought of him.
He only cared that he
was the key to creating
an abolitionist movement
among the Society of Friends.
* * *
Notes:
Peculiar Obligations is a new series, an Eastern featuring Quakers as organized crime.
"slavery -- a Practice so gross & hurtful to Religion, and destructive to government, beyond what Words can set forth"
-- Benjamin Lay from All Slave-Keepers That keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates
Benjamin Lay (January 26, 1682 - February 8, 1759) was an Anglo-American Quaker humanitarian and abolitionist. He is best known for his early and strident anti-slavery activities which would culminate in dramatic protests. He was also an author, farmer, vegetarian, and distinguished by his concern for the ethical treatment of animals.