For he had lived in the island of Barbadoes, and he had witnessed there scenes of cruelty towards them, which had greatly disturbed his mind, and which unhinged it, as it were, whenever the subject of their sufferings was brought before him.

Hence if others did not think precisely as he did, when he conversed with them on the subject, he was apt to go out of due bounds.
In bearing what he believed to be his testimony against this system of oppression, he adopted sometimes a singularity of manner, by which, as conveying demonstration of a certain eccentricity of character, he diminished in some degree his usefulness to the cause which he had undertaken; as far indeed as this eccentricity might have the effect of preventing others from joining him in his pursuit, lest they should be thought singular also, so far it must be allowed that he ceased to become beneficial.

But there can be no question, on the other hand, that his warm and enthusiastic manners awakened the attention of many to the cause, and gave them first impressions concerning it, which they never afterwards forgot, and which rendered them useful to it in the subsequent part of their lives.
[Footnote A: Benjamin Lay attended the meetings for worship, or associated himself with the religious society of the Quakers.

His wife too was an approved minister of the gospel in that Society.

But I believe he was not long an acknowledged member of it himself.] The person, who laboured next in the Society, in behalf of the oppressed Africans, was John Woolman.
John Woolman was born at Northampton, in the county of Burlington and province of Western New Jersey, in the year 1720.