Fearless Benjamin

The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

PM Press

pub. 10.14.2025

32 pages

Ages 3 - 8

Author: Michelle Markel

and Marcus Rediker

   Illustrator: Sarah Bachman

Character: Benjamin Lay

Overview:

"Fearless Benjamin tells the story of a courageous little person, only four feet tall, who fought slavery at a time when almost everyone else accepted it.

A shepherd, a sailor, and a Quaker, Benjamin Lay insisted that all people, of all nations and races around the world, were equal. Every human being—rich and poor, men and women, Black and white—deserved respect, love, and freedom.

After he protested against his fellow Quakers for enslaving others in violation of the golden rule, “do to others as you would have them do to you,” they banished him from the Quaker meeting.

When they ridiculed his small body, he stood up to their prejudice and proclaimed the truth of human decency.

He boycotted all products made by the labor of enslaved people. He spoke out bravely against cruelty and oppression. He lived a life of peace, tolerance, and brotherly love. A man far ahead of his time, he proved to be right in the long run, as Quakers and others eventually joined him in opposing human bondage."

Tantalizing taste:

"Years pass...

until one day,

a friend brings the news: The quakers will disown members who

take part in the slave trade!

Though his health has worsened, Benjamin's heart soars with joy.

His enemies have seen that he's not foolish, not inferior,

he's right! Right to use every inch of his little body

to protest the greatest wickedness in the world.

Right to dream of a world

without bondage,

right to defend his Black

brothers and sisters,

because we're put on this earth to help

one another. Through calm and stormy seas,

it's one and all."

And something more: Author's Note by Marcus Rediker explains: Benjamin Lay "believed that all good people must 'speak truth to power,' that is, speak out against injustices whenever and wherever they arise. Benjamin stood out among abolitionists for his confrontational methods of protest and his urgent insistence that slavery be abolished immediately. He based his life on universal ideals of peace, equality, and justice, which are as important to our own age as they were to his, almost three hundred years ago."