Abolition

by Tim Black

  However, the entrance of Mr. Greene and his students caused a few heads to turn, including that of Benjamin Lay. The little man smiled when he saw the teacher and arose from his seat to welcome Mr. Greene, waving to the group to join him in his pew.

  Mr. Greene smiled in return. “Okay, kids, let’s join Benjamin Lay in his pew,” the teacher said. “If he speaks to you do not address him as ‘mister’ Lay, say Benjamin Lay. The Quakers did not use the term ‘mister,’ only first and last names.

  “Welcome Nathan Greene,” Benjamin Lay said. “It is good to see thee again.”

  “It is good to see thee, Benjamin Lay. I brought some young people.”

  The little man smiled at the students who smiled in response.

  Wordlessly the students from Cassadaga Area High School filled the pew with Benjamin Lay, although the diminutive Quaker kept the aisle seat. Victor was anxious to witness the little man’s protest, which was mentioned in the Smithsonian Magazine article. But he had to wait as one of the other members stood up as soon as the meeting opened. Victor glanced down the pew and noticed that Mr. Lay was being patient. He was smiling as if he knew something that no one else did. Finally, with the lull of silence, Benjamin Lay stood up and addressed the assembly. Victor was amazed at the power of the voice emanating from a man of such diminutive stature.

  “God Almighty sees all peoples equally,” he thundered. “Rich and poor, men and women, black and white. He sees them all, alike. Slave keeping is the greatest sin in the world. How can we as a people follow the golden rule and keep slaves?”

  And with that Benjamin Lay paused for effect. He took off his great coat to reveal his military uniform, a sword, and the book with a hollowed-out compartment.

  The faces of the congregation registered horror. “Thus, shall God shed the blood of those persons who enslave their fellow creatures.” Benjamin Lay shouted as he lifted the book above his head and pierced the volume with his sword. The red pokeberry juice, the color of blood, splashed on the unfortunate Quakers in the pew ahead of Lay’s.

  “Let the blood fall on all the slave keepers in attendance,” Lay shouted. “Heed this message! On pain of death and loss of salvation,” he added as the room erupted into shouts of anger at the messenger. Lay, like a sphinx, stood still, saying nothing. He had said what he had come to say.

  The students from Cassadaga Area High School remained in their seats as several Quaker men took Benjamin Lay into custody and carried him out of the meetinghouse, depositing the little man on the grass in front of the building, with one particularly muscular Quaker remaining behind at the doorway to prevent Benjamin Lay from reentering the meetinghouse.

  “Let’s go,” Mr. Greene said to his group. “We saw what we came for,” he added.

  The students followed their teacher from the pew and the ghost of Carl Bridenbaugh floated after the group as they walked up the aisle and exited the building.

  The little man smiled when he saw Nathan Greene and the young people emerge from the meetinghouse.

  “Well,” he smiled. “Thy words were heard at last. By the young,” he added, with a twinkle in his eye.

  At that moment Victor thought that Benjamin Lay resembled a happy little leprechaun. All he needed was a green coat and a shamrock. And perhaps a pipe.

  “Thee art an inspiration, Friend Benjamin Lay,” Mr. Greene said.

  “Thank thee, Nathan Greene,” Benjamin Lay replied. “Everyone is a Goliath to Benjamin Lay. I am a David without five smooth stones. Man-stealers are the spawns of Satan. The evil one. Slavery must be abolished.”

  “I agree, Friend Benjamin Lay,” Mr. Greene agreed. “But, alas we must be off,” the teacher said to Benjamin Lay. He motioned for the students to head toward the meadow where the classroom was parked as he stayed behind a moment to talk with the radical Quaker. “Carry on the fight, Benjamin Lay. In God’s time thee will win the fight.”

  “Do thee think so?”

  Mr. Greene smiled. “Yes, Friend Benjamin Lay. Thee will prevail. Slavery will end. The evil one will be defeated.”

  Mr. Greene did not go on to say that hundreds of thousands of men would die to end slavery or that the nation would be torn asunder over the subject of slavery.

  *

  The students were sitting at their desks when Mr. Greene joined them in the classroom. Nikola Tesla was at the computer, ready to make the jump to the next year on Mr. Greene’s schedule when the teacher addressed his class.

  “As you know from reading that article, Benjamin Lay was a vegan who lived in a cave, but he may have been the first voice for abolition among the Quakers who were among the first group to oppose slavery. He was fifty-six years old when he started his protest. He has been dismissed as basically a ‘nut job’ by most historians, isn’t that so, Mr. Bridenbaugh?”

  Professor Bridenbaugh smiled. “Yes, I’m afraid so. He was once called ‘cracked in the head.’ The physician Benjamin Rush wrote a complimentary biography of Benjamin Lay, but among Quakers he is a hero of the anti-slavery movement. He was sometimes referred to as ‘the Quaker Comet.’ He married a fellow little person named Sarah Smith and the pair attended Great Meeting House in Philadelphia on Market Street. When Lay and Sarah arrived in Philadelphia, he was shocked to witness the slavery, which was legal in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t long before Lay started to protest publicly against slavery in the colony. At meetings he stood up and hounded slave owners and he was constantly escorted out of meetinghouses following the disturbances he created. Lay and his wife left Philadelphia for Abington outside the city. A few years before the display you just watched, his wife died and Lay retreated to a cave and wrote, All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates, which was a strong anti-slavery book published by Benjamin Franklin, the month before his performance in Burlington. It was an important book in the abolition movement. Slave owners, he often said, ‘carried the mark of the Beast.’ They were Satan on earth and they needed to be thrown out of the Quaker church. That was a revolutionary statement for its time. There were other Quakers before Benjamin Lay who spoke out against slavery,” Bridenbaugh continued. “But they were ignored. Benjamin Lay was hard to ignore…”

  “Thank you, Professor Bridenbaugh,” Mr. Greene said. “Today we might say that Benjamin Lay did ‘performance art’ or that he was ‘in your face’ about slavery, but while earlier Quakers in Philadelphia had been unsuccessful in getting Quakers to free their slaves, Benjamin Lay’s life had an impact on abolition in Pennsylvania. He didn’t live long enough to see slavery abolished in Pennsylvania, but he certainly got the Quakers to think about abolition, that’s for sure. Are there any questions? Yes, Samuel?”

  “What we just witnessed was nearly fifty years before slavery was abolished in Pennsylvania, Mr. Greene.”

  “Forty-nine actually, but close enough.”

  “So maybe Benjamin Lay wasn’t so effective after all.”

  “Yes, 1787 was the year for the abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania. Many of the Northern states did not abolish slavery until after the American Revolution. But the Quakers in Pennsylvania told members in 1774 to give up their slaves or leave the church. And that was before the start of the American Revolution. We are about to depart for the first meeting of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in Philadelphia on April 14th in 1775 at the Rising Sun Tavern. Mr. Tesla?”

  “Yes, Mr. Greene?” Tesla replied.

  “As the kids say, ‘strut your stuff.’”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” the ghost smiled. “Buckle up, students.”

  Chapter 3

  Nikola Tesla brought the portable classroom down in a field on the outskirts of Philadelphia on the morning of April 14, 1775, and immediately applied his cloaking device. Before the group left the portable, they broke for a meal of a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, which Mr. Greene had warmed up in his large classroom microwave.

  “Who is the bearded gentleman on the box?” Nikola Tesla said to Victor as the boy scarfed down a
drumstick.

  “Colonel Sanders, Mr. Tesla,” Victor replied before grabbing a chicken thigh for an encore. “He is supposed to be a southern colonel, white suit and so forth. His image has become something of a stereotype of a southern plantation owner, I guess.”

  “Fascinating,” Tesla said, as the teacher rapped his desk with a pointer to get his students’ attention.

  Mr. Greene addressed his class. “You are about to meet one of my heroes, a teacher by the name of Anthony Benezet, a French Huguenot, who emigrated from France to Pennsylvania at the age of seventeen. He joined the Society of Friends and began a career as a teacher. You might say that Benezet picked things up where Benjamin Lay left off. In 1750, he started teaching slave children in his home after the regular school day ended. Four years later he started the first public girl’s school in America. And working in concert with fellow Quaker John Woolman, Benezet helped persuade the Philadelphia Quaker Yearly Meeting to take an official stance against slavery in 1758, twenty years after Benjamin Lay did his thing at Burlington. Benezet’s arguments for abolition with his Some Historical Account of Guinea, written in 1772, influenced Benjamin Franklin to give up his slaves and drew the attention of John Wesley. Anyone know who Wesley was?”

  “The founder of the Methodist Church,” Minerva said.

  “Yes, along with his brother Charles Wesley and George Whitehead, but you are correct Minerva,” the teacher said. “So, we are about to attend the first meeting of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first American society dedicated to abolition. It will eventually change its name to the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. And Anthony Benezet is going to have a good deal to do with its beginning. This meeting, by the way, takes place five days before the Battle of Lexington and the beginning of the American Revolution. Ironically, the Revolution will slow the momentum of the abolition movement. John Wesley and others promoted Benezet’s anti-slavery writings in England, and his influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. By 1775, Benezet is in poor health, but he was still attending the famous meeting at the Rising Sun Tavern.”

  As the group assembled outside the classroom on the warm spring day in Philadelphia, Mr. Greene said, “Remember we are here to observe only. Let’s try to blend in with the Quakers at the meeting. Don’t speak unless spoken to and then make your reply as polite and short as possible. This meeting is a small group of white men, residents of Philadelphia and seven are Quakers. The tavern somewhat resembles the City Tavern from our notorious trip to Philadelphia where Benjamin Franklin flirted with Minerva,” Mr. Greene said with a smile.

  Minerva Messinger blushed.

  Victor Bridges chuckled until Minerva, standing next to him, jabbed his arm with her elbow.

  “Wooden tables, kids. Count on it,” Bette Kromer told the younger travelers.

  “Better lighting though,” Mr. Greene observed. “Perhaps Mr. Tesla and Professor Bridenbaugh can float ahead of us and scout out the tavern.”

  “Of course,” Professor Bridenbaugh agreed. “Let’s go Mr. Tesla.”

  “Yes,” Tesla said. “Let’s be off then.”

  Victor saw no difference in the Philadelphia of 1775 to the Philadelphia of 1776 that he remembered visiting. Having come a year before their last visit to the colonial capital, no one would recognize the students of Cassadaga Area High School or their eccentric history teacher, Nathan Greene. At a gesture from Minerva, who had moved to the back of the group, Victor slowed his pace so that he, too, was in the back of the group. Minerva slowed her pace even more and there was a gap between her and the ears of her fellow travelers.

  “I’m sorry I elbowed you, Victor,” Minerva apologized.

  “It didn’t hurt,” he lied, stoically.

  “That’s good. Do you have a date for New Year’s Eve?”

  “Huh?” Victor said, wondering ‘where did that come from?”

  “New Year’s Eve, do you have a date?”

  “Ah no,” he said.

  “Would you be my escort?”

  “Huh?”

  “There is a Yale get together in Orlando. Would you go with me? It is important and I need to make an appearance.”

  The puppy dog face, Victor thought.

  “Alright, I guess.”

  “It’s formal.”

  “Monkey suit?”

  “Uh huh. It is really important to me, Victor.”

  “I said I would go.”

  She kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks,” she said as she picked up her pace to rejoin the group. and Victor Bridges was baffled, once again, by a woman.

  Meanwhile, as Mr. Greene and the rest of his students walked along cobblestone Market Street, the east to west artery of Philadelphia, the teacher acted as a tour guide. “Watch out for the pigs and ducks and the chamber pots from the second floor,” he cautioned. “It is a little primitive by our modern standards, but it is the largest city in British North America, and Pennsylvania is centrally located among the colonies. The Keystone State, we call Pennsylvania. Think of an arch and the brick in the middle at the top. That is how Pennsylvania got its nickname, the keystone colony of the American Revolution. Ah, here comes the tavern. No ale drinking, is that clear? I want no replays of the Anderson twins.”

  “They got wasted,” Victor explained to the younger members of the group. “I’m glad they moved to Georgia.”

  “We all are,” Bette added.

  The windows of the Rising Sun Tavern provided enough sunlight to illuminate the inside of the building. In a corner of the tavern a group of men were sitting around a long table. Victor counted a total of twenty-four men, the majority of whom appeared to be Quakers by their dress, although he couldn’t be certain. An elderly man, wearing a wig, coughed repeatedly into a handkerchief and then seemed to check the cloth for blood.

  Was the old man suffering from tuberculosis? Victor wondered. He remembered an old western he had watched with Val Kilmer playing the role of Doc Holliday, the tubercular dentist turned gunfighter at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, and the man at the table with the coughing fit reminded Victor of Holliday.

  “The man coughing into his hankie is Anthony Benezet,” Mr. Greene said. “He is the leader of the meeting and the driving force for the abolition of slavery in the colony of Virginia. Less than a month from now the 2nd Continental Congress will meet up the street in reaction to the battles in Massachusetts. But as of April 14,1775, the American Revolution had not begun. Let’s take a seat at the table over there,” Mr. Greene suggested.

  As the group sat at an adjacent long table, close enough to eavesdrop on the meeting of the abolitionists, a waitress came to take their orders and Mr. Greene ordered lemonade for everyone. The teacher considered ordering a shandy for each student but hesitated at the idea of mixing beer and lemonade as he remembered the fiasco with the Anderson twins. “We are the proverbial flies on the wall,” Mr. Greene said.

  Benezet coughed again and hit the table with a wooden gavel. “I call the first meeting of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage to order. The chair recognizes Thomas Paine.”

  The future author of Common Sense rose to his feet to address the group. “Like most of you I believe in complete emancipation, which I believe should be the goal of our society. But in the here and now, I propose that we aid free slaves and prevent freemen from being kidnapped and sent into slavery. I believe we should provide legal assistance to any slave in Pennsylvania who is taken prisoner by a slave catcher. After all, two years ago we stood behind a slave woman who was brought to Pennsylvania by her master and many of us donated to her legal defense to sue for her freedom only to be disappointed when the judge ruled her a slave. But that failure inspired our meeting here today. As my Virginia friend Patrick Henry said last month at St. John’s Church in Richmond, ‘Give me liberty, or give me death.’”

  “That is a bit
disingenuous,” Mr. Greene whispered to his students. “For Patrick Henry was referring to raising a Virginia militia to fight the British should they invade Virginia. It had nothing to do with slavery. Indeed, Henry, like many of the prominent Virginians, owned slaves and would have been appalled to see his words used as an argument for abolition. Paine was a sneaky fellow,” Mr. Greene smiled.

  Another man, unidentified, rose from his seat and began speaking after Thomas Paine. “Gentlemen, I bring up the case of a woman known as Nevill, a Negro woman who is the mother of three children in the town of Bethlehem north of our location. A man from Virginia claims to be her master and since he claims to be her master, he claims the woman’s children as his property as well. I make a motion that we cover Nevill’s legal expenses and I assert that we should pass the hat among the men who are here assembled.”

  “Do I have a second to the motion?” Benezet asked.

  Several men shouted out “I second the motion.”

  “It has been moved and seconded that we take up a collection for the woman named Nevill’s legal expenses for her fight for her freedom in Bethlehem, as well as her children’s. All in favor say ‘aye.’”

  There was a chorus of ‘ayes.’

  “All opposed say ‘nay.’”

  It was unanimous.

  Heather, who was sitting next to Mr. Greene, whispered. “Did she win her freedom, Mr. Greene?”

  Mr. Greene replied softly. “I wish that I could say that she did, Heather. But she lost her court case, I’m afraid.”