The First Abolitionist (TRIH ep 316)
1738 · Resource
This episode examines the life and activism of Benjamin Lay (1681–1759), an eccentric Quaker activist whose experiences in Barbados and later in Pennsylvania drove him to radical early abolitionism. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook trace Lay’s background in Essex, his move with his wife Sarah to Barbados, and the brutal, industrialized system of Caribbean slavery that transformed both their consciences.
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 1738
- Seven Years' War (1756)
- Glorious Revolution (1688)
- Industrial Revolution (1760)
- American Declaration of Independence (1776)
- American Revolution (1765)
- Jacobite rising of 1745 (1745)
- Salem witch trials (1692)
- Industrial Revolution begins (1760)
- American Revolutionary War (1775)
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769)