Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

Eugene Grant opens this essay by stating that he didn’t learn who Benjamin Lay was until he was in his thirties because very few books chronicle the lives of historical figures with dwarfism. He cites Marcus Rediker’s The Fearless Benjamin Lay as a notable exception. Grant introduces Benjamin Lay as “one of the first white radical abolitionists […] an autodidact, […] a sailor, glovemaker, bookseller, and author” (207). He was born in the late 1600s and wrote one of the first abolitionist texts.

Throughout this essay, Grant recaps highlights from Lay’s life, describing him as a brave, intelligent, and compassionate Quaker. He praises Lay for his dedication to abolitionism, his “theatrical” protests, and his rapier wit. He also recounts Lay’s hardships; for example, the church “disowned” and alienated him for his political views.

Grant—like Lay—is a little person. He criticizes historians who “thought it best to celebrate Lay’s achievements without mentioning his dwarfism” because “life in a dwarf body shaped Lay’s beliefs” (207). Grant absorbed dehumanizing portrayals of little people in media from a young age but did not learn about real-life heroes with dwarfism like Lay until well into adulthood.

Grant praises Rediker for the way he addresses Lay’s dwarfism, in contrast to other books that insult little people or diminish their struggles, even when they intend to portray them positively.