This was a solid and fairly interesting biography of an early abolitionist. It was also pretty short (primarily because of a lack of documentary evidence, I think) and while I think there are lots of areas that Rediker expands on that are interesting, the one that drew me to this book in the first place (disability) is left pretty uncommented on--which raises some questions about his claim that this is related to disability studies, especially given that the comments he DOES make are along the lines of "his disability never held him back!" which I guess could count more broadly but I do prefer more critical disability studies and am more interested in disability more generally during the period, including on ships (a dangerous workplace generally, so you see a lot of folks missing limbs etc.,) and things of that nature. 

It was still an interesting book, and can be useful for disrupting narratives around enslavement and abolition in the colonial period. It was just limited by the documentary record and the avenues that Rediker chose to focus on, and I think could have been expanded in a couple of ways that would have let us see the richness of Lay's world--which, on the other hand, the book is pretty short, less than 200 pages before notes. So, useful, just not my fave kind of history.