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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24600-0.txt b/24600-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2322ad1 --- /dev/null +++ b/24600-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1409 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible?, by Isaac Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? + +Author: Isaac Allen + +Release Date: February 13, 2008 [EBook #24600] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, S. Drawehn and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from scans of public domain works at the +University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note.--This e-text uses UTF-8 characters with diacritical +marks. If they do not display correctly, please see the ASCII version. +Italics are rendered as _underscores_. For information on the Hebrew, +and a list of errata, see the end of the text.] + + + + + No. 45. + + IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY + THE BIBLE? + + +If there is one subject which, above all others, may be regarded as of +national interest at the present time, it is the subject of Slavery. +Wherever we go, north or south, east or west, at the fireside, in the +factory, the rail-car or the steamboat, in the state legislatures or the +national Congress, this "ghost that will not down" obtrudes itself. The +strife has involved press, pulpit, and forum alike, and in spite of all +compromises by political parties, and the desperate attempts at +non-committal by religious bodies, it only grows wider and deeper. + +But the distinctive feature of this, as compared with other questions of +national import, is, that here both parties draw their principal +arguments from the Bible as a common armory of weapons for attack and +defense. On the one side, it is claimed that slavery, as it exists in +the United States, is not a moral evil; that it is an innocent and +lawful relation, as much as that of parent and child, husband and wife, +or any other in society; that the right to buy, sell, and hold men for +purposes of gain, was given by express permission of God, and sanctioned +by Christ and his apostles; that this right is founded on the golden +rule; and says Dr. Shannon of Bacon College, Ky., "I hardly know which +is most unaccountable, the profound ignorance of the Bible, or the +sublimity of cool impudence and infidelity manifested by those who +profess to be Christians; and yet dare affirm that the Book of God gives +no sanction to slaveholding." All these affirmations are fairly summed +up thus: "As slavery was practiced by the patriarchs, received sanction +and legality from God in the Mosaic law, and was not denounced by Christ +and his apostles, it must have been right. If right then, it is so +still; therefore Southern slavery is right." + +On the other hand, it is contended that chattel slavery is nowhere +warranted or sanctioned by the Bible, but is totally opposed both to its +spirit and teachings. + +It will be the object of the present discussion to determine which of +these opinions is correct. + + + SLAVERY DEFINED. + +What, then, is chattel slavery as understood in American law? + +1. It is not the relation of wife or child. In one sense a man may be +said to "possess" these; but he can not buy or sell them. These are +natural relations; and he who violates them for the sake of gain is +branded by all as barbarous and criminal. + +2. Not the relation of apprentice or minor. This is temporary, having +for its primary object, not the good of the master or guardian, but that +of the apprentice or minor, his education and preparation for acting his +part as a free and independent member of society; but chattelism is +_life_ bondage, for the _sole_ good of the master. + +3. Not the relation of service by contract. Here a bond or agreement is +implied, and therefore reciprocal rights, and the mutual power of +dissolution on failure of either in the terms of mutual agreement; but +chattelism ignores and denies the ability of the slave to _make a +contract_. + +4. Not serfdom or villeinage. The serf or villein was attached to the +glebe or soil, and could not be severed from it, deprived of his family, +or sold to another as a chattel; being retained as part of the +indivisible feudal community. But the chattel slave is a "thing" +incapable of family relations, and may be sold when, where, or how the +master pleases. + +Chattelism is none of these relations; its principle is "property in +man." Its definition is thus given in the law of Louisiana, (Civil Code, +art. 35:) "A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to whom he +belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, +his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, acquire nothing, but what +must belong to his master." + +South Carolina says, (Prince's Digest, 446,) "Slaves shall be deemed, +sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law, to be chattels personal in +the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, +administrators, and assigns, to all intents, purposes, and +constructions whatsoever." + +Judge Ruffin, giving the opinion of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, +(case of State _v._ Mann,) says a slave is "one doomed in _his own +person_ and _his posterity_ to live without knowledge, and without the +capacity to make any thing his own, and to toil that another may reap +the fruits." + +We now come to the point at issue: Does the Bible sanction this system? + + + OLD TESTAMENT. + + 1. _Hebrew Terms._ + +The Hebrew terms used in reference to this subject are עָבַד, +_auvadh_, "to serve;" the noun, עֶבֶד, _evedh_, "servant" or +"bondman," one contracting service for a term of years; שָּׂכִיר, +_saukir_, a "hired servant" daily or weekly; אָמָה, _aumau_, and +שִׁפְחָה, _shiphechau_, "maid-servant" or "handmaid;" but there is _no_ +term in Hebrew synonymous with our word _slave_, for all the terms +applied to servants are, as we shall show, equally applicable and +applied to free persons. + +The verb עָבַד, _auvadh_, according to Gesenius, signifies primarily, +to labor; then, to labor for one's self, for hire, or compulsory labor +as a captive or prisoner of war. Gen. 2:5, 15; 3:23; 29:15. Ex. 20:9; +21:2. Next, national servitude as tributary to others; as Sodom and the +cities of the plain to Chedorlaomer, Gen. 14:4; Esau to Jacob, Gen. +25:23; the Israelites in Canaan to surrounding nations, Moabites, +Philistines, and others, Judg. 3:8; Jer. 27:7, 9. Next, national and +personal servitude or serfdom, as of the Israelites in Egypt. Lastly, +the service of God or idols, Judg. 3:7, &c. From these and similar +passages we see that neither the generic nor specific meaning of the +term, taken in its connections, implies chattel slavery, but labor, +voluntary, hired, or compulsory, as of tributary nations or prisoners of +war, whose claim to regain, if possible, their freedom and rights, is +ever admitted and acted on; showing that freedom is the normal state of +man, subjection and compulsory servitude the abnormal and unnatural. + +But it is objected that, though the proper meaning of the verb "to +serve" does not imply chattel slavery, it is certain that the derived +noun עֶבֶד, _evedh_, translated "servant" and "bondman" in our +version, is frequently used to designate involuntary servitude, the +service of one "bought with money," and therefore a chattel slave. We +reply, By far the most frequent use of this term, as is well known, +represents either the common deferential mode of address of inferiors to +superiors, or equals to equals, used then and to-day in the East, or the +political subordination of inferior to superior rank invariably existing +in Eastern governments. Otherwise we have Jacob saying to Esau, "The +children which God hath graciously given thy" _slave_; and Joseph's +brethren saying to him, "Thou saidst to thy _slaves_, Bring him down to +me." "When we came up to thy _slave_ my father." Saul's officers and +soldiers are his slaves, David is Jonathan's, and _vice versa_; Abigail, +David's wife, is his slave; his people, officers, and even embassadors +are all his slaves; all are slaves to each other, and none are masters, +unless it be the king. + +How, then, can we properly define the meaning and status of the term +"servant" in any particular passage? We answer, only by the context and +the usage of the particular time and place, so far as known. + + 2. _The Curse of Canaan._ + +We first meet with the term "servant" in the oft-disputed passage, Gen. +9:25-27: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his +brethren.... Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his +servant." ... Now, as we have no state of servitude in the context or +the usage of the times with which to compare this, and as only Canaan +and his descendants are included in the curse, we must look to their +subsequent history for the fulfillment of the prophecy, and the kind of +servitude there implied. + +We find the descendants of Canaan and their land defined in Gen. +10:15-20. They were not the Africans, as some ignorantly assert, but the +Canaanites, who dwelt in Canaan, and were there destroyed by the +Israelites, or rendered tributaries, except the Gibeonites, who were +doomed to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water," the serfs of the +temple service. Josh. 9:23, 27. There is not one word of buying and +selling _individuals_--no chattelism, or any sanction of it; there is a +performing of the service of the temple, or paying tribute, but never +slaves or chattels. Canaan thus became the servant (not slave) of Shem; +and when afterward Israel was oppressed and rendered tributary to other +nations, the Canaanites became thus not only "servants," but "servants +of servants." + + 3. _Patriarchal Servitude._ + +The next example of the word "servant" brings us to that epoch in +relation to which the Harmony Presbytery of South Carolina says, +"Slavery has existed from the days of those good old slaveholders +Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (who are now in the kingdom of heaven,) to +the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his master +Philemon, and wrote a Christian and paternal letter to this slaveholder, +which we find still stands in the canon of the Scriptures." + +The account we have of Abraham's servants is briefly as follows: That +he had men-servants and maid-servants, Gen. 12:16; 14:14; 17:27, (not +_slaves_, for we have shown above by numerous passages that to give such +a definition to the term "servant" is false and absurd, unless sustained +by the context or the usage of the times;) that they numbered some two +thousand persons, (reckoning by the number of fighting men among them, +generally one in five of the population,) were trained and accustomed to +arms, Gen. 14:14; could inherit property, Gen. 15:3, 4; in religious +ordinances were perfectly equal with the master, Gen. 17:10-14; had +entire control not only over the property, but also the heirs of the +household, Gen. 24:2-10; lastly, they were invariably considered as +_men_, not slaves or chattels. Gen. 24:30, 32. "And the _man_ (servant +of Abraham) came into the house, and he ungirded his camels, and gave +straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the +_men's_ feet that were with him." + +"But," it is objected, "some of these servants were 'bought with money;' +therefore they must have been possessed as 'chattel slaves.'" This +conclusion depends partly on the meaning of the Hebrew verb קָנָה, +_kaunau_, "to buy;" and asserts that whenever this term is applied to +persons, it implies the relation of chattel slavery. The primary +definition of the verb, given by Gesenius, is, to erect; then, 1. To +found or create; 2. To get, gain, obtain, acquire, possess; 3. To get by +purchase, to buy. + +Let us see the meaning of this term, applied to persons in other +passages. In Gen. 31:15, Rachel and Leah say of their father, "He hath +_sold_ us, and quite devoured also our money," referring to Jacob's long +service for them; were they chattels? Gen. 47:23, Joseph _bought_ the +Egyptians; were they chattels? Ex. 21:2, "If thou _buy_ a Hebrew +servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out +free, for nothing;" was he a chattel? Ruth 4:10, "Ruth the Moabitess +have I _purchased_ this day to be my _wife_;" was she a chattel? These +passages clearly show that the simple application of the term "bought +with money" does _not_ imply property and possession as a chattel. + +The phrase "bought with money" relates, in the case of wives, to the +dowry usual in Eastern countries; in the case of servants, to the ransom +paid for captives in war, and paid by the individual on adoption into +the tribe; or to an equivalent paid as hire of time and labor for a +limited period, either to parents for their children as apprentices, +&c., or to the individual himself, as Jacob to Laban. Gen. 31:41, "Thus +have I been twenty years _in thy house_; I served thee fourteen years +for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle, and thou hast +changed my wages ten times." Thus Abraham could acquire a claim on the +service of a man during life by purchase from himself; could acquire the +allegiance of a man and his family, and all born in it, by contract, not +to be broken but by mutual agreement; and in a few years have a vast +household under his authority, "born in his house," and "bought with +money," yet not one of them a slave. + +Another general proof already alluded to is, that the terms עֶבֶד, +"servant," and נַעַר, _naar_, "young man," are applied synonymously +and equally to servants and free persons. Gen. 14:24, Abraham calls his +servants young men, and again in Gen. 17:23, 27. So in Job 1:15-19, the +term נַעַר is applied alike to Job's servants and sons. Also in +Judg. 7:10; 19:3, 11, 19; 1 Sam. 9:3, 5, 10, 22, and numerous other +places, these terms are applied indiscriminately to servants, showing +that they were always regarded as men, never as chattels. + +But we are not left to conjecture in regard to the status or condition +of Abraham's servants; we will bring proofs showing that it could not +have been chattel slavery. + +Two of the fundamental characteristics of chattelism are, The status of +the mother decides that of the child, and The slave, being property, can +not inherit or possess property. Was this the condition of "servants" in +patriarchal society? If so, then these characteristics brand them as +chattels; but on the contrary, if no record is found of their being +sold, (the buying we have already reasonably accounted for;) if the +children of these servants were reckoned free, if they and their +children could inherit property, then even American slave law and custom +declare them free persons, and not chattels personal. + +Take the case of Hagar. We read, Gen. 16:1, she was an Egyptian +"handmaid, maid-servant," perhaps one of those referred to in Gen. +12:16. Abraham, at Sarah's instigation, makes her his concubine. The +usual bickering of Eastern harems ensues. Hagar leaves the tribe, is +sent back by the angel, Ishmael is born, and this son of a slave (?) is +regarded not only as free, but heir of the house of Abraham. Years pass, +and the wild, reckless Ishmael is seen ridiculing Isaac, his puny +brother and coheir. At the sight, all the mother and the aristocrat +again rise up in Sarah, and she cries out to Abraham, "Cast out this +bondwoman and her son, for he shall not be heir with my son, even +Isaac;" and Abraham, so far from regarding them as chattels personal, +and selling them south, sends off the wild boy to be the wild, free +Arab, "whose hand will be against every man, and every man's hand +against his." + +Take the case of Bilhah and Zilpah, given by Laban (Gen. 29:24, 29,) as +handmaids (אָמָה) to his daughters Leah and Rachel. Gen. 30:4-14. +They become Jacob's concubines, and bear him four sons--Dan, Naphtali, +Gad, and Asher. Here the case is plain; the mothers are "servants," they +have children, and these, instead of being (as in similar cases daily at +the South) "reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels personal," are +recognized as free and equal with the other sons, Reuben, Judah, &c., +and become, like them, heads of tribes in Israel. In these cases,--and +they are all which relate to the point at issue,--either the status of +these servants _did_ or _did not_ decide that of their children. If it +_did_, then, by the laws of chattelism, the children being free prove +the mother (though servant) to be free; if it _did not_, then the mother +was held only by feudal allegiance, while the children were always free. +In either case the conditions of chattelism did not exist; they were not +slaves, but free persons in the same condition as members of wandering +Arab and Tartar tribes to this day. + +Did the second fundamental condition of chattelism mentioned above +exist? The slave, being property, can not possess or inherit property. +In Gen. 15:3 we find Abraham complaining to the Lord, "Behold, to me +thou hast given no seed, and lo, _one born in my house_ is my heir!" The +same term is used here as in speaking of Abraham's other servants; and +yet this "servant" is declared by Abraham his acknowledged heir. Here +there is a manifest contradiction of the conditions of a chattel slave. +They can not inherit property; this man could; therefore he was not a +slave. It is an entirely gratuitous assumption to assert that Abraham's +dependents were slaves; for similar cases occur daily in nomadic tribes, +as formerly they did in Scottish clans. If the chief has no child +capable of succeeding him in office, he chooses from his dependents some +tried and trusty warrior, and adopts him as lieutenant or henchman, to +succeed him as heir or chief. Just so Abraham, then nearly eighty years +old, despairing of a son to take his place as chief of the tribe, +adopted some young warrior (perhaps a leader in the battle of Hobah) as +his heir, with the proviso of resigning in favor of a son if any be +born. But in the case of Jacob's four sons the conclusion is +self-evident--children of "servants" or "handmaids," yet recognized as +free like the other sons, sharing the property of the father equally +with them;--the conditions of a state of chattelism did not exist. + +These things prove conclusively that the term "servant" never meant +_slave_ in patriarchal families; that the term "bought with money" +referred only to feudal allegiance or service for a time agreed on by +both parties. These servants could possess and inherit property; their +children were free; they were trained to the use of arms; in religious +matters master and servant were alike and equal; and they were always +considered and called _men_, never slaves or chattels,--all which are +directly contrary to the principles and express enactments of American +slave law, and are the characteristics of free persons even at the +South. Add to this the significant fact that not one word is said in the +patriarchal records of _selling_ any of these servants, (the only act +mentioned of selling a human being is that of Joseph by his brethren, so +bitterly reprobated and repented of by them soon after,) though +frequently bought; that no fugitive law existed, in fact could not exist +in a wandering tribe,--and the natural conclusion is, that they were not +slaves, but free men and women; and therefore the records of patriarchal +society conclusively deny the existence of chattel slaves or slavery as +one of its institutions. + +Years pass, and we find the Israelites reduced to a servile condition as +the serfs of the Egyptians. God, in his purposes, allowed them to remain +thus for a time, and then, instead of sanctioning even this modified +form of slavery, demanded their instant release; and on refusal, with +terrible judgments on their oppressors, he led forth that army of +fugitive slaves, and drowned their pursuers in the Red Sea. + + 4. _Mosaic Laws._ + +We come next to the sanction and authority of chattel slavery claimed to +exist in the laws and economy of these people just escaped from bondage, +and framed by him who had shown his displeasure against slavery by +nearly destroying a nation of slaveholders for holding and catching +slaves. The arguments for this claim are--1. That the term "servant" or +"bondman" used in the Mosaic law means chattel slavery; 2. That in +certain cases the Hebrews might hold their brethren as slaves for ever; +3. They might buy slaves from the heathen around, and hold them for +ever. These positions, we admit, have some plausibility, and have +doubtless had great weight in producing the opinion that chattelism is +sanctioned by the Bible. We propose to consider the condition of the +classes of servants referred to in their order. + +1. _Hebrew servants._ These were of four kinds--servants under contract +or indenture for six years, probably from one sabbatic year to another: +servants held till the year of jubilee, or "for ever:" children born in +the house, or hired out by their parents: convicted thieves; and +afterward, though sanctioned by no law, debtors. + +In respect to the first of these classes, the law is found in Ex. +21:2-6; Deut. 15:12-18. "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall +he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out _free_, for nothing." Here +the term "buy" can only be applied to the _service_, sold by the servant +for six years, (or perhaps to the sabbatic seventh year, as daily or +weekly service ended with the Sabbath,) for it is applied to a state +which no ingenuity whatever can construe as chattelism. + +The second class of Hebrew servants is mentioned Ex. 21:5, 6. "If the +servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I +will not go out free; then his master shall bring him to the judges: he +shall also bring him to the door or to the door-post, and he shall bore +his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever." Deut. +15:17, the same law adds, "And also to thy maid-servant shalt thou do +likewise." But in Lev. 25:39, 40, 53, it is expressly enacted that one +who served longer than six years was not to be treated or considered as +an עֶבֶד, _evedh_, one contracting for a term of years, but as a +שָּׂכִיר, _saukir_, a hired servant, to be well treated and compensated +for his services. "Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant, +but as a hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee." The +servant must plainly say, "_I will not_ go out;" it must be _voluntary_ +service; but chattelism is involuntary, forced, and directly contrary to +the case before us. "He shall serve _him_ for ever," not his sons after +him, not giving the right of transfer or sale of service to a third +person, "_He_ shall serve," not his wife or children, but himself, till +death, or his master's death, or the jubilee. This, then, was not +chattelism, for it was _voluntary_, _without purchase_ or sale, _ending +with the life of the servant, the master, or the year of release--the +jubilee_. + +The third class of servants--children--appear during minority to have +been, as now in all Eastern countries, entirely at the service or +control of their parents, and might by them be hired out, Neh. 5:2-6, +but, when of age, were of course independent of parental acts and +control. John 9:21. That the offspring of servants in patriarchal times +were free we have already proved; that they were so among the Israelites +is shown by the case of Abimelech, the son of a maid-servant, Judg. +9:18, yet free as his brethren, and afterward king of Israel; also of +Sheshan. 1 Chr. 2:34, 35. No service, indeed, could be recognized or +demanded, in Jewish law, of grown persons, except as the result of +contract or crime. + +In respect to the fourth class, it is plain from the language used that +only sufficient service could be required of them to cancel the +obligation of restitution. Ex. 22:3. "He should make full restitution; +if he have nothing, then he shall be _sold_ for his theft;" in case of +debt, Matt. 18:34, "till he should pay all that was due to him." + +2. _Servants obtained from the heathen._ These were, first, captives. +From the account of the first taking of captives by the Israelites, Num. +31:7-47, we learn, verse 7, that they marched into Midian, slew all the +males, and seized the women, children, flocks, and herds. On their +return Moses reprimanded them for disobeying God's command by preserving +the grown women; and thereupon they killed all but the virgins and +children, reserving them for adoption into the families of the nation. +In Deut. 20:14 and 21:10-14, we have these commands and regulations +given, with an express prohibition of the enslavement of these captives, +in case of repudiation by the captors. "It shall be, if thou have no +delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou +shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of +her, because thou hast humbled her." Now, all slaveholding tribes and +nations, when they seize captives for slaves, aim to obtain as many +strong and vigorous men as possible; must it not, therefore, fairly be +inferred from this regulation that God, by prohibiting instead of +sanctioning the most productive mode of slave-making,--the enslavement +of prisoners of war,--did not intend, but positively prohibited, the +Israelites from becoming a slaveholding nation? + +Secondly, "bought with money." The law referring to these is Lev. 25:44, +46. "Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids which thou shalt have shall be +of the heathen round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and +bondmaids.... And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children +after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen +for ever." As we have already stated, the Hebrews had but two terms for +"servant"--the generic term _evedh_, one under contract for a term of +years, and _saukir_, one hired by the day, week, or year. Now, the term +here translated "bondman" is the generic עֶבֶד, _evedh_, elsewhere +translated "servant," and therefore should have been thus translated +here, unless a different rendering is required by the context. The more +literal reading of the Hebrew is, "And thy men-servants and thy +maid-servants which shall be to thee from the nations around you, of +them shall ye procure the man-servant and maid-servant." What, then, was +the difference between the Hebrew and heathen _evedh_? + +This. The Hebrew could only be an _evedh_, a servant by contract, for +six years, Ex. 21:2--"Six years shall he serve, but in the seventh _he +shall go out free_;" (longer service could not be contracted for, but +_must be_ voluntary, Ex. 21:5;) or as a hired servant or sojourner till +the jubilee, but _never_ beyond. Lev. 25:10, 39-41. But a heathen could +bind himself as an _evedh_ for longer than six years; and thus his +service, unlike the Hebrew, could be "bought" as "an inheritance for +your children after you," but, like the Hebrew voluntary "for ever" +servants, they were bondmen for the longest time known by the law--till +death or the jubilee. + +Is it objected that the terms "buy," "possession," "for ever," are used, +and indicate chattelism? We answer, All admit the Hebrew was not a +chattel; for his service expired at the seventh year, the death of +himself or his master. "_He_ shall serve _him_ for ever;" but, if both +lived on, this service, though voluntary, as has been shown, expired +with all such claims at the jubilee. Since the same terms, and, as we +shall show directly, the jubilee, applied equally to both, if it does +not prove the one a chattel, it does not the other; therefore both are +equally voluntary contractors. The service, and not the bodies, were +bought; and both were equally free at the jubilee. + +Two objects were accomplished by this law. 1st. To permit the Hebrews to +obtain that assistance in tilling the land, which otherwise they would +not have been allowed to do. 2d. To increase the numbers of the +commonwealth, since the Hebrews, in obedience to the Abrahamic covenant, +Gen. 17:10-14; Ex. 12:44-49, were bound to circumcise these indented +servants "bought with money," thus making them part of the household +during their period of service, and also naturalized citizens of the +state, members of the congregation, partakers of all the rites and +privileges common to the mass of the people. Ex. 12:44-9. Num. 15:15-30, +"One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for +the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your +generations; _as ye are, so shall the stranger be_ before the Lord." +Lev. 19:34, "The stranger that dwelleth among you shall be as one born +among you, and _thou shalt love him as thyself_." In accordance with the +frequently-repeated injunction of this law of equality, they were +invariably recognized as citizens, and alike with Hebrew servants, were +amenable to, and received protection from, the laws of the state. + +In further proof of this, and in direct opposition to chattelism, is the +fact, that the laws regulating the relation of master and servant are +each and all enacted for the benefit and protection of the servant, and +not one for that of the master. Again, when property is spoken of, oxen, +sheep, &c., the term _owner_ is always used, _master_ never; when +servants and masters are spoken of, _master_ is always used, _owner_ +never. Ex. 21:29, "The ox shall be stoned, and his _owner_ also shall be +put to death," Ex. 21:34, If an ox or ass fall into a pit left +uncovered, "the _owner_ of the pit shall make it good, and give money to +the _owner_ of them." But, Deut. 25:15, "Thou shall not deliver to his +_master_ the servant which is escaped from his _master_ unto thee." + +The inference from all this is plain. No such thing as property in man +is recognized in the Mosaic law; but God, finding polygamy and the law +of serfdom existing among the Israelites, did not see fit to abolish +them at once, but so hampered and hedged them about by restrictive +statutes as gradually and finally to abolish them altogether. + + 5. _Restrictive Laws._ + +But lest oppression should trample upon the rights of the laboring +classes, and aim at their enslavement,--which actually happened +afterward, and was one of the principal items of God's indictment (Jer. +22:3; 34:8-22) against the Jews prior to their destruction by +Nebuchadnezzar,--three special enactments were made to prevent such +iniquity, and break up any attempt at chattel slavery in the nation. + +_First. The law against kidnaping._--Ex. 21:16, "He that stealeth a man +and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put +to death." Thus the one great means of obtaining slaves is forbidden. He +who (no matter where) seizes a human being, (no matter whom,) and +reduces him to involuntary servitude, shall die; for he seeks to take +away the rights and privileges of freedom, all that goes to make up +life; seeks to make property of man, to extinguish the man in the +chattel. + +"But," it is said, "this only refers to stealing slaves." Mark the +logic: a man could seize and enslave another with impunity; but if, +afterward, the father, brother, or friend of the enslaved should attempt +to rescue him, he must die! Glorious argument for slaveholders and +slave-catchers! It is also said this refers to Hebrews, not strangers. +Let God answer. Lev. 24:22, "Ye shall have one manner of law, as well +for the stranger as for one of your own country; for I am the Lord your +God." This is his interpretation of the breadth of the law given in the +preceding verse, "He that killeth a man, he shall be put to death." The +law, therefore, is unrestricted and universal; Hebrew or heathen, he +that killeth a _man_ and he that stealeth a _man_ shall alike die; thus +putting slavery and murder on the same footing, as equally criminal. +Now, if God sanctioned slavery, why did he make such an inconsistent law +as this forbidding it? + +_Second. The law concerning fugitives._--Deut. 23:15, 16, "Thou shalt +not deliver to his master the servant which is escaped from his master +unto thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which +he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt +not oppress him." + +There is no equivocation here; "_thou shalt not deliver_ unto his +master." It is imperative; they were to receive him among them as a +citizen, and, if need be, protect him from his master; mark, not a +"heathen" or "Hebrew," servant, but the "servant," heathen or Hebrew, +whoever should fly from the ill treatment or injustice of a hard master. +Compare for a moment the Hebrew and American fugitive laws. The Hebrew +says, "Thou _shalt not_ deliver to his master the servant that is +escaped." The American says, "Thou _shalt_ deliver him up to his master, +or be fined one thousand dollars, and suffer six months' imprisonment." +The Hebrew says, "He shall _dwell_ with thee ... thou shalt _not +oppress_ him." The American law says, "The commissioner who tries the +case shall get five dollars if he fails, and ten if he succeeds in +'delivering to his master' the fugitive, on the simple affidavit of the +former that he is his slave." + +What are the deductions from this law of Moses? The return of stray +_property_ is expressly commanded in Deut. 22:1-3; the return of +_servants_ is expressly forbidden here; the servant could leave a hard +master at any time, and the state could not compel him to return: it did +not recognize the condition of forced, but only voluntary servitude, and +thus rendered the existence of chattelism impossible. + +_The third great protective law was that of the Jubilee._--Lev. +25:10-55, "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim LIBERTY +throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a +jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and +ye shall return every man to his family." ... Here the expression is +emphatic, no reservations are made, no restrictions allowed. As the +sound of יוֹבֵל, יוֹבֵל, Yovāl, Yovāl, sounded through the land, and was +echoed back from hill and village, from hamlet and town, the cry was +taken up, and borne along by the laboring thousands of Israel, many of +whom had been toiling under contract for years, by the unfortunate +debtor, and those whom poverty had compelled to part with "the old house +at home," all returned, all were free. "Liberty, liberty!" + +It is vain to assume that the benefits of the Jubilee were restricted to +a particular class. To what class? Not the six years' servants; they +were freed in the seventh. Not to debtors; there _was no law_ compelling +them to serve at all; therefore they could only serve voluntarily to pay +their debts. Not to thieves; they could only be compelled to make +restitution of the thing stolen, or its value; that paid, they were +free. The only other classes to whom the law could apply were "all the +inhabitants of the land" who served the longest time, the Hebrew "for +ever" servants, and the heathen servants, thus preventing the +possibility of the rise and growth of a servile class, the curse of any +country. In this way only can we account for the fact that Jewish +history never mentions the existence of a large servile class, or a +servile insurrection in Israel, so common and disastrous an occurrence +in the history of ancient slaveholding communities. + +Some object here, that the term "inhabitants" implies "all the Hebrews," +and excludes the strangers, Canaanites, &c.; but by admitting that "all +the Hebrews" were freed at the Jubilee, they admit that those who, in +Ex. 21:6, are servants "for ever," are also freed, and thus to serve +"for ever" only implies till the Jubilee. If, then, "for ever" means +only till the Jubilee in one case, it means no more in the other. And if +we show that the strangers and Canaanites _were_ considered "inhabitants +of the land," then the Jubilee referred to Hebrew and stranger alike, +and both were free. In Ex. 34:12, 15, "Take heed to thyself, lest thou +make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest;" +and Lev. 18:25; Num. 33:52-55, Moses calls the heathen "the inhabitants +of the land;" and as he was likely to understand the meaning of the term +pretty well, he either refers in the Jubilee law to Hebrews, Canaanites, +and all, or he meant Canaanites and heathen alone, which is still more +decisive. Again, in 2 Sam. 11:2-27; 23:39, we find one of these +strangers, Uriah the _Hittite_, not only an "inhabitant" of Jerusalem, +but one of David's best officers, and his wife becoming queen of Israel +and mother of Solomon; and in 2 Sam. 24:18-25, another, Araunah the +Jebusite is a householder, and more, is praised as acting like a king +toward king David, who bought property of him whereon to build an altar; +and yet, forsooth, they were not inhabitants! + +But, as if to prevent equivocation, Moses defines the phrase "all the +inhabitants;" "Ye shall return _every man_ to his possession, and ye +shall return _every man_ to his family." Not every Hebrew, but every +_man_, the same generic term as in the law against killing or stealing +"a man;" it is unqualified and universal. Thus with one blow this noble +law strikes down the two principal sources of social oppression--monopoly +of land and monopoly of labor. All who had by poverty been compelled +to part with the old farm and homestead received it back; all claims of +service against any person, however mean and humble, were canceled; and +the land and its inhabitants were again free as God had made them. + +These accumulated arguments, each separately weighty and forcible, but +collectively insurmountable, we think prove conclusively that the form +of servitude among the Israelites was not chattel slavery, and that +there is no sanction or authority for it in the Mosaic laws and +regulations. + +Thus in Jewish history we see the Israelites groaning under Egyptian +bondage, and God's arm outstretched to rescue them when fugitives, and +punish their pursuers--a warning to all such thereafter; we see laws +enacted to prevent the existence of chattelism among them, by +restricting the master's power, and securing the servant's freedom at +regular intervals, and the opposite doctrine of equality among men +asserted; we see the Israelites disobeying these commands, and adopting, +with the idolatry of their neighbors, their slavery also, and God's +fiery wrath denounced on them for it by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, +and fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar in the destruction and captivity of the +state. + + + NEW TESTAMENT. + + _Teachings of Christ._ + +Ages pass, the Jews are restored to their land, but the Roman eagle +overshadows it and all the civilized world. Despotism is enthroned; and +the idea that the world and its people are the property of Rome and its +citizens is questioned only in murmuring whispers. All the relations of +Roman life partake of this idea of absolutism; slavery is every where, +liberty nowhere. Then the glad tidings of Messiah's coming is announced +to an expectant world. Whom will he side with--the crushed and +despairing millions, or the aristocratic and haughty few? Will he adopt +and develop the idea of equality found in Jewish law, or the principle +now ascendant,--"Might makes right,"--the Roman slave law? Let him +answer. + +Standing in the synagogue at Nazareth, the home of his boyhood, amid his +expectant friends and relations, he reads (Luke 4:16-21) from Isaiah, +"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to +_preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the +broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of +sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach +the acceptable year of the Lord_. And he closed the book and sat down, +... and began to say to them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in +your ears." There is his commission and the constitution of his kingdom. +Can any thing be more explicit? + +Christ himself comes with glad tidings for the poor, to destroy slavery +and oppression, and establish liberty. Rejoice, ye poor, taught hitherto +that ye were made only for the service of the rich; there is glad +tidings for you. Rejoice, captives and slaves, "bruised" with the lash +and fetter; _God_ comes "to preach deliverance to the captives, liberty +to them that are bruised, and the acceptable year (the Jubilee) of the +Lord." + +How did he fulfill this commission and pledge? No code of laws and +dogmas, terse and dry, were issued by him for the government of his +kingdom; but the great principle was proclaimed of a common brotherhood +as children of God our Father, and of love to him as such. In his sermon +on the mount, the parables of the lost sheep and silver piece, the good +Samaritan, the prodigal son, the Pharisee and the publican; in his +private teachings to his disciples; and, above all, by his daily example +he taught and illustrated, as the leading characteristics of his +kingdom, love to God, the brotherhood of man, the rights of all, however +poor, degraded, or despised. More, he makes this idea of brotherhood +and equality even with himself, the great test in the judgment. Matt. +25:40, 45: "And the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say +unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." What will those who now boast of +their large churches, composed almost entirely of slaves, Christian +ministers, and church members, bought, sold, lashed, and treated like +cattle, answer the King in that great day? + +But to return: the result of such teachings was soon evident. "The +common people heard him gladly," hung on his steps and words by +thousands, and hailed him as deliverer; while Scribes and Pharisees, +priests and rulers, denounced him as "a friend of publicans and +sinners," only seeking popularity among the masses, to disturb the +public peace, and revolutionize the government. Mark, it was not simply +religious, but _political_ interference and teaching they charged him +with, and on this charge they finally compassed his death. + +In his private teachings to his disciples he strongly inculcated this +truth. Striving among themselves for the supremacy, he charges them, +Matt. 20:26-28, and many other places, "It shall not be so among you; +but whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as +the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to +give his life a ransom for many." The law thus explicitly laid down, and +in John 13 enforced by his example, is the very opposite of chattelism. +In his church, none were to claim supremacy over others, much less +_enslave_ them; none to despise labor and the laborer, much less condemn +others to it while themselves lived in idleness. + +Thus Christ, so far from sanctioning chattelism or property in man in +any shape or form, by precept and example taught the opposite, the +dignity of labor and the laborer, the common brotherhood of man, and +consequent equality, political and religious. Did his apostles indorse +this doctrine, or, fearing the result, did they side with the all +prevalent system of class legislation and slavery? + + _Teachings of the Apostles._ + +The result of their teaching in Judea is given in Acts 4:32-35--"And the +multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul; neither +said any of them _that aught of the things he possessed was his own_; +but they had all things common. Neither was there any among them that +lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and +brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at +the apostles' feet, and distribution was made to every man according as +he had need." They not only believed in "liberty, equality, and +fraternity," but practised its extreme--not only equality of rights, but +equality of property, among the brotherhood. + +But this was comparatively easy in Judea, where the principle of +equality was already partly recognized, and the existence of chattelism +prevented by the action of the Mosaic code. The apostles only fairly +came in conflict with the spirit of caste and slavery when, filled with +love and the Spirit, they entered heathen countries, "preaching the glad +tidings of the kingdom," and establishing every where the glorious +brotherhood of humanity, whose primary law is, "A new commandment I give +unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you. By this shall +men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John +13:34-5. And Paul expounds it to the Gentiles, 1 Cor. 12:13--"For by one +Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or +Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink +into one Spirit." Gal. 3:26-28: "Ye are all the children of God by faith +in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ +have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, _there is neither +bond nor free_, there is neither male nor female; _for ye are all one in +Christ Jesus_." Again, Col. 3:11, "There is neither Greek nor Jew, +circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free; +but Christ is all and in all." + +Can language be more express and conclusive than this? The distinctions +here dissolved by the waters of baptism, and blended into "one in Christ +Jesus," are not, as our southern brethren assert, simply religious, but +NATIONAL, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL--slavery, and the spirit of caste and +clan which upholds it, alike forbidden, and liberty, equality, and +fraternity, social, political, and religious, proclaimed as the rule of +Christ's kingdom. + +Principles like these came upon the world like the morning sunlight, +scattering the mists of superstitious ignorance, melting the icy pride +and selfishness of the mighty, permeating all classes and relations of +society with their secret influence, and blending all into one +harmonious brotherhood of love and peace. Apparently they were subject +as others to the laws of the state, but in secret were bound by stronger +ties, and governed by higher, nobler laws, than the world outside +dreamed of. + +Instead of the Roman law of marriage, regarding the wife as the +husband's slave, he must love her as himself; more, as Christ loved the +church. Instead of the tyranny on one side, and the retaliating +disobedience on the other, of the Roman parental relation, it became the +image of our heavenly Father's love, and our trusting obedience to him. +The relation of slave, "pro nullo, pro quadrupedo, pro mortuo," (as a +nobody, a quadruped, a dead man,) to his master, became the relation of +brethren, the one to render true and faithful service, Eph. 6:5, the +other never to threaten, Eph. 6:9, much less punish; not to regard them +as chattels, as under the Roman law, but to give them _just_ and _equal_ +compensation for their service, Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1, "knowing that ye +also have a Master in heaven," "neither is there respect of persons with +him." The legal deed of manumission was unnecessary; for as, when master +and slave land in England, they may remain connected as master and free +servant, _never_ as master and slave, so, on admission into the +brotherhood of the church, the waters of baptism, as shown above, +dissolved the relation of slavery, and substituted that of freemen and +brethren. + +Again, believers were members of Christ's body. He dwelt in them; and +therefore every indignity and injury done to them was done to him in +their person. To enslave, buy, and sell them was to enslave, buy, and +sell Christ himself. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of +these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Who, then, would dare hold +a brother Christian as a slave? What! make merchandise of the person of +Christ? Never! the cry of Judas would ring around them as they were +driven ignominiously from the church. + +"Why," it is objected, "did not the apostles preach immediate +emancipation, instead of indorsing slavery by defining its +duties--'Servants, obey your masters,' &c.? and Paul even sent back a +slave." 1. The primary object of the apostles was not simply "to preach +liberty to the captives;" this was but a branch of the tree planted "for +the healing of the nations." Their object was to sow the principles of +faith, love, justice, and equality, well knowing that, when these took +root and flourished, among the first fruit would be "liberty to all the +inhabitants of the land." 2. Had this been their great object, they took +the best and speediest plan for its accomplishment. Attacking the system +directly, the appearance of the Christian missionary would have been the +signal for servile war and untold bloodshed, the slave against the +master, the poor against the rich; and the heathen rulers, eager for a +pretext to crush them, would have denounced them as lighting the torch +of rebellion and war; and the further spread of the gospel would have +been drowned in the blood of its founders. But they took the very course +which God adopted among the Israelites in regard to servitude, not +directly prohibiting it, but inculcating principles of social equality +and progress, restricting the master's power, and protecting the +servant's rights, till, master and slave blended in one, the name of +slave was lost in that of Christian. 3. The relation and duties of +master and servant are defined by the apostles exactly as they might be +to-day in England or the free states--as those of men, _never_ as owner +and property; on the contrary, all ownership of man by other than God is +expressly denied. 1 Cor. 6:19, 20, "What! know ye not that your body is +the temple of the Holy Ghost in you, which ye have of God, and _ye are +not your own_? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in +your body and your spirit, _which are God's_." There the ownership is +clearly asserted; how can man claim it? "Render to Cesar the things that +are Cesar's, _and to God the things that are God's_," lest you be found +robbing God himself. Again, 1 Cor. 7:21, 23, "Art thou called, being a +servant? care not for it; but, if thou mayst be made free, (δύασαι +γενέσθαι, canst become free,) use it rather." What can be more explicit +than this? First, ownership of man is denied even to _himself_, much +more to _another_. Next, the exhortation to slaves is, if they _can +not_ get free from this great wrong, to bear it as such, but, if they +_can_, "use it rather;" and the reason given is followed by a rule of +action to be adopted wherever possible. Verse 23, "Ye are bought with a +price; BE NOT YE THE SERVANTS OF MEN." If this be not express +prohibition of chattelism, and command to slaves to free themselves from +it, then the language is totally contradictory and unintelligible. + +Contrast these laws of Paul with the laws of most of the southern +states, forbidding even the master to free his slaves, while states and +Congress unite in hounding back to whip and task the poor slave who +dares obey that command; nay, offer large rewards for men, even +Christian ministers, when attempting to obey it. "But Paul sent back +Onesimus to his master, and therefore sanctioned the sending back of +fugitives." We answer, there was no sending back at all. Paul, a +prisoner, could not send him back: a Jew, he was forbidden by his +religion to do so. Deut. 23:15. It was simply a recommendatory letter +sent with Onesimus, returning voluntarily to Colosse and his master. Let +us look at the letter. Verse 8 begins, "Wherefore, though I might be +much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet, for +love's sake, I rather beseech thee. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, +... _which in time past was to thee unprofitable_, but now profitable to +thee and to me; whom I have sent again, ... not now as a servant, but +above a servant, a brother beloved," &c. Here Onesimus is described as +having been, while heathen, an "unprofitable" trouble to his master, and +had either run away or been sent away by him. Converted at Rome, Paul +heard his story, and in his letter, instead of thinking he is doing +Philemon a favor, has to earnestly "beseech," almost command, his +reception as a favor to himself. Not one word of _property_ or _right_ +in him, save the right of love as one of the brotherhood. "NOT NOW AS A +SERVANT, but _above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me_, but +how much more to thee!" Onesimus had left the "slave" in his heathenism; +in Christ he became the "brother" of Philemon and Paul. Instead of +sanctioning chattelism, it positively denies it by affirming voluntary +service, the equality of men as brethren, to be loved as Christ +himself. + +Thus Christ and his apostles, so far from upholding chattelism in their +teachings, denounced the ownership of man by any but God, and inculcated +its opposite--love, liberty, equality, and fraternity--by precept and +example. And subsequent history showed the result. + +Christ said of the teachings of the Pharisees, "By their fruits ye shall +know them." Apply this test to the teachings of the apostles and the +primitive churches in regard to slavery. When they went forth, "darkness +covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" slavery sat enthroned +in might over Europe; and the cries of the oppressed millions had only +had a hearing on the battle or before the throne of God. + +When the Reformation came slavery had disappeared in Europe; and the +voice of the people was heard asserting their rights, feebly, indeed, at +first, but ever since growing stronger and stronger "as the voice of +many waters." What has caused this change? + +Historians, Protestant and Catholic, ascribe it to the influence of the +church, not by direct emancipatory decrees, but, following the example +of God through Moses, by gradually restricting the master's power, and +protecting the slave; by girdling the poison tree till it withered and +fell, though, sad to say, the ruins still disfigure too much field, of +the fair fields of Europe and America. + +No fact is more patent in history than the truth expressed by Paul to +the Corinthians: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY." +The whole tendency of the Bible and true Christianity, direct and +indirect, is to the liberty and advancement, never the slavery and +degradation, of man; and those who have attempted to shield the monster +curse of our country and age with the garb of the gospel may find too +late, when that awful voice shall ring in their ears, "Inasmuch as ye +have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it +unto me," that Christ came not only "to preach deliverance to the +captives" and "to set at liberty them that are bruised," but also "the +day of vengeance of our God." + + * * * * * + + AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, + 28 Cornhill, Boston. + + * * * * * + + + + + EXTRACT FROM MR. O'CONOR'S ARGUMENT + + _Before the New York Court of Appeals, on the "Lemmon + Slave Case."_ + + +"I submit most respectfully that the only desire I have manifested here +or elsewhere, in reference to the question, has been to draw the mind of +the court and the intelligent mind of the American people, to the true +question which underlies the whole conflict, and that is the question to +which my friend (W. W. Evarts, Esq.) has addressed the best, and, in my +judgment, the finest part of his very able argument. * * * My friend +denounces the institution of slavery as a monstrous injustice, as a sin, +as a violation of the law of God and of the law of man, of natural law +or natural justice; and in his argument in another place, he called your +attention to the enormity of the result claimed in this case, that these +eight persons--and not only they, but their posterity to the remotest +time--were, by your Honors' judgment, to be consigned to this shocking +condition of abject bondage and slavery. Why, how very small and minute +was that presentation of the subject! My friend must certainly have used +the microscope or reversed the telescope, when, in seeking to present +this question in a striking manner to your Honors' minds, he called your +attention to these _few_ persons and their posterity. Why, if your +Honors please, our territory embraces at the least estimate _three +millions of these human beings_, who, by our laws and institutions, as +now existing in these states, * * * are not only consigned to hopeless +bondage throughout their whole lives, but to a like condition is their +posterity consigned to the remotest times. * * * It is a question of the +mightiest magnitude. But the reason why I call your Honors' attention to +its magnitude is this: that you may contemplate it in the connection in +which my learned friend has presented it; that it is a SIN--a violation +of natural justice and the law of God; that it is a monstrous scheme of +iniquity for defrauding the laborer of his wages--one of those sins that +crieth aloud to heaven for vengeance; that it is a course of unbridled +rapine, fraud, and plunder, by which three millions and their posterity +are to be oppressed throughout all time. Now, is it a sin? Is this an +outrage against divine law and natural justice? _If it be_ such an +outrage, then I say it is a sin of the greatest magnitude, of the most +enormous and flagitious character that was ever presented to the human +mind. The man who does not shrink from it with horror is utterly +unworthy the name of a man. It is no trivial offence, that may be +tolerated with limitations and qualifications; that we can excuse +ourselves for supporting because we have made some kind of a bargain to +support it. The tongue of no human being is capable of depicting its +enormity; it is not in the power of the human heart to form a just +conception of its wickedness and cruelty. And what, I ask, is the +rational and necessary consequence, if we regard it to be thus sinful, +thus unjust, thus outrageous?" + + * * * + +Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, being much engaged in urging the sinfulness of +slavery, called one day at the house of Dr. Bellamy in Bethlem, +Connecticut, and while there pressed upon him the duty of liberating his +only slave. Dr. B., who was an acute and ingenious reasoner, defended +slaveholding by a variety of arguments, to which Dr. H. as ably replied. +At length Dr. Hopkins proposed to Dr. Bellamy practical obedience to the +golden rule. "Will you give your slave his freedom if he desires it?" +Dr. B. replied that the slave was faithful, judicious, trusted with +every thing, and would not accept freedom if offered. "Will you free him +if _he_ desires it?" repeated Dr. H. "Yes," answered Dr. Bellamy, "I +will." "Call him then." The man appeared. "Have you a good, kind +master?" asked Dr. Hopkins. "Oh! yes, very, very good." "And are you +happy?" "Yes, master, _very_ happy." "Would you be more happy if you +were free?" His face brightened. "Oh! yes, master, a great deal more +happy." "_From this moment_," said Dr. Bellamy, "_you are free_." + + + + +[Transcriber's Note, Continued.--The following minor errors have been +corrected: the word "in" missing before "spite" on p. 1 ("and spite of +all compromises ..."), a superfluous quotation mark on p. 5 (""That he +had men-servants ..."), a missing "d" in "praised" on p. 17 ("is praise +as acting"), "is" used for "in" on p. 25 ("now existing is these states +..."), an accent error in the Greek on p. 22 ("δὑασαι" to "δύασαι") and +two transposed letters on p. 6 ("עַנַר" to "נַעַר"). Also note that the +author used Ashkenazic pronunciation for his transliteration, and that +it would not be considered accurate by modern standards. Alternative +transliterations are: + + 1. auvadh--avad + 2. evedh--eved + 3. saukir--sakhir + 4. aumau--ama + 5. shiphechau--shifḥa + 6. kaunau--kana + 7. naar--na'ar + 8. Yovāl--Yovel] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible?, by Isaac Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE *** + +***** This file should be named 24600-0.txt or 24600-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/0/24600/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, S. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? + +Author: Isaac Allen + +Release Date: February 13, 2008 [EBook #24600] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, S. Drawehn and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from scans of public domain works at the +University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr">Transcriber's Note: This e-text includes UTF-8 Greek and Hebrew characters +with diacritical marks. If they do not display correctly, you may need to install an additional font. +There are several available online as free downloads. Otherwise, use the ASCII version. +<br /><br /> +Hovering your cursor over <ins class="correction" title="TN: original reads '...'">dotted grey lines</ins> will reveal corrections made to the original text. +<br /><br /> +For more information on the Hebrew, see the <a href="#tn_cont">end of this text</a>. +<br /> +</div> + +<p class='tractnum'>No. 45.</p> + +<h1>IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY<br /> +THE BIBLE?</h1> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><!-- Page 1 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span> +If there is one subject which, above all others, may be regarded as of +national interest at the present time, it is the subject of Slavery. +Wherever we go, north or south, east or west, at the fireside, in the +factory, the rail-car or the steamboat, in the state legislatures or the +national Congress, this "ghost that will not down" obtrudes itself. The +strife has involved press, pulpit, and forum alike, <ins class="correction" title="TN: original reads 'and spite of'">and in spite of</ins> all +compromises by political parties, and the desperate attempts at +non-committal by religious bodies, it only grows wider and deeper.</p> + +<p>But the distinctive feature of this, as compared with other questions of +national import, is, that here both parties draw their principal +arguments from the Bible as a common armory of weapons for attack and +defense. On the one side, it is claimed that slavery, as it exists in +the United States, is not a moral evil; that it is an innocent and +lawful relation, as much as that of parent and child, husband and wife, +or any other in society; that the right to buy, sell, and hold men for +purposes of gain, was given by express permission of God, and sanctioned +by Christ and his apostles; that this right is founded on the golden +rule; and says Dr. Shannon of Bacon College, Ky., "I hardly know which +is most unaccountable, the profound ignorance of the Bible, or the +sublimity of cool impudence and infidelity manifested by those who +profess to be Christians; and yet dare affirm that the Book of God gives +no sanction to slaveholding." All these affirmations are fairly summed +up thus: "As slavery was practiced by the patriarchs, received sanction +and legality from God in the Mosaic law, and was not denounced by Christ +and his apostles, it must have been right. If right then, it is so +still; therefore Southern slavery is right."</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it is contended that chattel slavery<!-- Page 2 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +is nowhere warranted or sanctioned by the Bible, but is totally opposed both to its +spirit and teachings.</p> + +<p>It will be the object of the present discussion to determine which of +these opinions is correct.<br /><br /></p> + + +<h3>SLAVERY DEFINED.</h3> + +<p>What, then, is chattel slavery as understood in American law?</p> + +<p>1. It is not the relation of wife or child. In one sense a man may be +said to "possess" these; but he can not buy or sell them. These are +natural relations; and he who violates them for the sake of gain is +branded by all as barbarous and criminal.</p> + +<p>2. Not the relation of apprentice or minor. This is temporary, having +for its primary object, not the good of the master or guardian, but that +of the apprentice or minor, his education and preparation for acting his +part as a free and independent member of society; but chattelism is +<i>life</i> bondage, for the <i>sole</i> good of the master.</p> + +<p>3. Not the relation of service by contract. Here a bond or agreement is +implied, and therefore reciprocal rights, and the mutual power of +dissolution on failure of either in the terms of mutual agreement; but +chattelism ignores and denies the ability of the slave to <i>make a +contract</i>.</p> + +<p>4. Not serfdom or villeinage. The serf or villein was attached to the +glebe or soil, and could not be severed from it, deprived of his family, +or sold to another as a chattel; being retained as part of the +indivisible feudal community. But the chattel slave is a "thing" +incapable of family relations, and may be sold when, where, or how the +master pleases.</p> + +<p>Chattelism is none of these relations; its principle is "property in +man." Its definition is thus given in the law of Louisiana, (Civil Code, +art. 35:) "A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to whom he +belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, +his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, acquire nothing, but what +must belong to his master."</p> + +<p>South Carolina says, (Prince's Digest, 446,) "Slaves shall be deemed, +sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law, to be chattels personal in +the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, +administrators, and<!-- Page 3 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> assigns, to all intents, purposes, and +constructions whatsoever."</p> + +<p>Judge Ruffin, giving the opinion of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, +(case of State <i>v.</i> Mann,) says a slave is "one doomed in <i>his own +person</i> and <i>his posterity</i> to live without knowledge, and without the +capacity to make any thing his own, and to toil that another may reap +the fruits."</p> + +<p>We now come to the point at issue: Does the Bible sanction this system?</p> + + +<h3>OLD TESTAMENT.</h3> + +<h4>1. <i>Hebrew Terms.</i></h4> + +<p>The Hebrew terms used in reference to this subject are <span class="heb">עָבַד</span>, +<i>auvadh</i>, "to serve;" the noun, <span class="heb">עֶבֶד</span>, <i>evedh</i>, "servant" or +"bondman," one contracting service for a term of years; <span class="heb">שָּׂכִיר</span>, +<i>saukir</i>, a "hired servant" daily or weekly; <span class="heb">אָמָה</span>, <i>aumau</i>, and +<span class="heb">שִׁפְחָה</span>, <i>shiphechau</i>, "maid-servant" or "handmaid;" but there is <i>no</i> +term in Hebrew synonymous with our word <i>slave</i>, for all the terms +applied to servants are, as we shall show, equally applicable and +applied to free persons.</p> + +<p>The verb <span class="heb">עָבַד</span>, <i>auvadh</i>, according to Gesenius, signifies primarily, +to labor; then, to labor for one's self, for hire, or compulsory labor +as a captive or prisoner of war. Gen. 2:5, 15; 3:23; 29:15. Ex. 20:9; +21:2. Next, national servitude as tributary to others; as Sodom and the +cities of the plain to Chedorlaomer, Gen. 14:4; Esau to Jacob, Gen. +25:23; the Israelites in Canaan to surrounding nations, Moabites, +Philistines, and others, Judg. 3:8; Jer. 27:7, 9. Next, national and +personal servitude or serfdom, as of the Israelites in Egypt. Lastly, +the service of God or idols, Judg. 3:7, &c. From these and similar +passages we see that neither the generic nor specific meaning of the +term, taken in its connections, implies chattel slavery, but labor, +voluntary, hired, or compulsory, as of tributary nations or prisoners of +war, whose claim to regain, if possible, their freedom and rights, is +ever admitted and acted on; showing that freedom is the normal state of +man, subjection and compulsory servitude the abnormal and unnatural.<!-- Page 4 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>But it is objected that, though the proper meaning of the verb "to +serve" does not imply chattel slavery, it is certain that the derived +noun <span class="heb">עֶבֶד</span>, <i>evedh</i>, translated "servant" and "bondman" in our +version, is frequently used to designate involuntary servitude, the +service of one "bought with money," and therefore a chattel slave. We +reply, By far the most frequent use of this term, as is well known, +represents either the common deferential mode of address of inferiors to +superiors, or equals to equals, used then and to-day in the East, or the +political subordination of inferior to superior rank invariably existing +in Eastern governments. Otherwise we have Jacob saying to Esau, "The +children which God hath graciously given thy" <i>slave</i>; and Joseph's +brethren saying to him, "Thou saidst to thy <i>slaves</i>, Bring him down to +me." "When we came up to thy <i>slave</i> my father." Saul's officers and +soldiers are his slaves, David is Jonathan's, and <i>vice versa</i>; Abigail, +David's wife, is his slave; his people, officers, and even embassadors +are all his slaves; all are slaves to each other, and none are masters, +unless it be the king.</p> + +<p>How, then, can we properly define the meaning and status of the term +"servant" in any particular passage? We answer, only by the context and +the usage of the particular time and place, so far as known.</p> + + +<h4>2. <i>The Curse of Canaan.</i></h4> + +<p>We first meet with the term "servant" in the oft-disputed passage, Gen. +9:25-27: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his +brethren.... Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his +servant." ... Now, as we have no state of servitude in the context or +the usage of the times with which to compare this, and as only Canaan +and his descendants are included in the curse, we must look to their +subsequent history for the fulfillment of the prophecy, and the kind of +servitude there implied.</p> + +<p>We find the descendants of Canaan and their land defined in Gen. +10:15-20. They were not the Africans, as some ignorantly assert, but the +Canaanites, who dwelt in Canaan, and were there destroyed by the +Israelites, or rendered tributaries, except the Gibeonites, who were +doomed to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water,"<!-- Page 5 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> the serfs of the +temple service. Josh. 9:23, 27. There is not one word of buying and +selling <i>individuals</i>—no chattelism, or any sanction of it; there is a +performing of the service of the temple, or paying tribute, but never +slaves or chattels. Canaan thus became the servant (not slave) of Shem; +and when afterward Israel was oppressed and rendered tributary to other +nations, the Canaanites became thus not only "servants," but "servants +of servants."</p> + + +<h4>3. <i>Patriarchal Servitude.</i></h4> + +<p>The next example of the word "servant" brings us to that epoch in +relation to which the Harmony Presbytery of South Carolina says, +"Slavery has existed from the days of those good old slaveholders +Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (who are now in the kingdom of heaven,) to +the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his master +Philemon, and wrote a Christian and paternal letter to this slaveholder, +which we find still stands in the canon of the Scriptures."</p> + +<p>The account we have of Abraham's servants is briefly as follows: <ins class="correction" title="TN: original reads "That">That</ins> +he had men-servants and maid-servants, Gen. 12:16; 14:14; 17:27, (not +<i>slaves</i>, for we have shown above by numerous passages that to give such +a definition to the term "servant" is false and absurd, unless sustained +by the context or the usage of the times;) that they numbered some two +thousand persons, (reckoning by the number of fighting men among them, +generally one in five of the population,) were trained and accustomed to +arms, Gen. 14:14; could inherit property, Gen. 15:3, 4; in religious +ordinances were perfectly equal with the master, Gen. 17:10-14; had +entire control not only over the property, but also the heirs of the +household, Gen. 24:2-10; lastly, they were invariably considered as +<i>men</i>, not slaves or chattels. Gen. 24:30, 32. "And the <i>man</i> (servant +of Abraham) came into the house, and he ungirded his camels, and gave +straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the +<i>men's</i> feet that were with him."</p> + +<p>"But," it is objected, "some of these servants were 'bought with money;' +therefore they must have been possessed as 'chattel slaves.'" This +conclusion depends<!-- Page 6 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> partly +on the meaning of the Hebrew verb <span class="heb">קָנָה</span>, +<i>kaunau</i>, "to buy;" and asserts that whenever this term is applied to +persons, it implies the relation of chattel slavery. The primary +definition of the verb, given by Gesenius, is, to erect; then, 1. To +found or create; 2. To get, gain, obtain, acquire, possess; 3. To get by +purchase, to buy.</p> + +<p>Let us see the meaning of this term, applied to persons in other +passages. In Gen. 31:15, Rachel and Leah say of their father, "He hath +<i>sold</i> us, and quite devoured also our money," referring to Jacob's long +service for them; were they chattels? Gen. 47:23, Joseph <i>bought</i> the +Egyptians; were they chattels? Ex. 21:2, "If thou <i>buy</i> a Hebrew +servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out +free, for nothing;" was he a chattel? Ruth 4:10, "Ruth the Moabitess +have I <i>purchased</i> this day to be my <i>wife</i>;" was she a chattel? These +passages clearly show that the simple application of the term "bought +with money" does <i>not</i> imply property and possession as a chattel.</p> + +<p>The phrase "bought with money" relates, in the case of wives, to the +dowry usual in Eastern countries; in the case of servants, to the ransom +paid for captives in war, and paid by the individual on adoption into +the tribe; or to an equivalent paid as hire of time and labor for a +limited period, either to parents for their children as apprentices, +&c., or to the individual himself, as Jacob to Laban. Gen. 31:41, "Thus +have I been twenty years <i>in thy house</i>; I served thee fourteen years +for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle, and thou hast +changed my wages ten times." Thus Abraham could acquire a claim on the +service of a man during life by purchase from himself; could acquire the +allegiance of a man and his family, and all born in it, by contract, not +to be broken but by mutual agreement; and in a few years have a vast +household under his authority, "born in his house," and "bought with +money," yet not one of them a slave.</p> + +<p>Another general proof already alluded to is, that the terms <span class="heb">עֶבֶד</span>, +"servant," and <span class="heb">נַעַר</span>, <i>naar</i>, "young man," are applied synonymously +and equally to servants and free persons. Gen. 14:24, Abraham calls his +servants young men, and again in Gen. 17:23, 27. So in Job 1:15-19, the +term <ins class="correction" title="TN: original reads 'עַנַר'"><span class="heb">נַעַר</span></ins> +is applied alike to Job's servants and sons. +<!-- Page 7 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> Also in +Judg. 7:10; 19:3, 11, 19; 1 Sam. 9:3, 5, 10, 22, and numerous other +places, these terms are applied indiscriminately to servants, showing +that they were always regarded as men, never as chattels.</p> + +<p>But we are not left to conjecture in regard to the status or condition +of Abraham's servants; we will bring proofs showing that it could not +have been chattel slavery.</p> + +<p>Two of the fundamental characteristics of chattelism are, The status of +the mother decides that of the child, and The slave, being property, can +not inherit or possess property. Was this the condition of "servants" in +patriarchal society? If so, then these characteristics brand them as +chattels; but on the contrary, if no record is found of their being +sold, (the buying we have already reasonably accounted for;) if the +children of these servants were reckoned free, if they and their +children could inherit property, then even American slave law and custom +declare them free persons, and not chattels personal.</p> + +<p>Take the case of Hagar. We read, Gen. 16:1, she was an Egyptian +"handmaid, maid-servant," perhaps one of those referred to in Gen. +12:16. Abraham, at Sarah's instigation, makes her his concubine. The +usual bickering of Eastern harems ensues. Hagar leaves the tribe, is +sent back by the angel, Ishmael is born, and this son of a slave (?) is +regarded not only as free, but heir of the house of Abraham. Years pass, +and the wild, reckless Ishmael is seen ridiculing Isaac, his puny +brother and coheir. At the sight, all the mother and the aristocrat +again rise up in Sarah, and she cries out to Abraham, "Cast out this +bondwoman and her son, for he shall not be heir with my son, even +Isaac;" and Abraham, so far from regarding them as chattels personal, +and selling them south, sends off the wild boy to be the wild, free +Arab, "whose hand will be against every man, and every man's hand +against his."</p> + +<p>Take the case of Bilhah and Zilpah, given by Laban (Gen. 29:24, 29,) as +handmaids (<span class="heb">אָמָה</span>) to his daughters Leah and Rachel. Gen. 30:4-14. +They become Jacob's concubines, and bear him four sons—Dan, Naphtali, +Gad, and Asher. Here the case is plain; the mothers are "servants," they +have children, and these, instead of being (as in similar cases daily at +the South)<!-- Page 8 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> "reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels personal," are +recognized as free and equal with the other sons, Reuben, Judah, &c., +and become, like them, heads of tribes in Israel. In these cases,—and +they are all which relate to the point at issue,—either the status of +these servants <i>did</i> or <i>did not</i> decide that of their children. If it +<i>did</i>, then, by the laws of chattelism, the children being free prove +the mother (though servant) to be free; if it <i>did not</i>, then the mother +was held only by feudal allegiance, while the children were always free. +In either case the conditions of chattelism did not exist; they were not +slaves, but free persons in the same condition as members of wandering +Arab and Tartar tribes to this day.</p> + +<p>Did the second fundamental condition of chattelism mentioned above +exist? The slave, being property, can not possess or inherit property. +In Gen. 15:3 we find Abraham complaining to the Lord, "Behold, to me +thou hast given no seed, and lo, <i>one born in my house</i> is my heir!" The +same term is used here as in speaking of Abraham's other servants; and +yet this "servant" is declared by Abraham his acknowledged heir. Here +there is a manifest contradiction of the conditions of a chattel slave. +They can not inherit property; this man could; therefore he was not a +slave. It is an entirely gratuitous assumption to assert that Abraham's +dependents were slaves; for similar cases occur daily in nomadic tribes, +as formerly they did in Scottish clans. If the chief has no child +capable of succeeding him in office, he chooses from his dependents some +tried and trusty warrior, and adopts him as lieutenant or henchman, to +succeed him as heir or chief. Just so Abraham, then nearly eighty years +old, despairing of a son to take his place as chief of the tribe, +adopted some young warrior (perhaps a leader in the battle of Hobah) as +his heir, with the proviso of resigning in favor of a son if any be +born. But in the case of Jacob's four sons the conclusion is +self-evident—children of "servants" or "handmaids," yet recognized as +free like the other sons, sharing the property of the father equally +with them;—the conditions of a state of chattelism did not exist.</p> + +<p>These things prove conclusively that the term "servant" never meant +<i>slave</i> in patriarchal families; that the<!-- Page 9 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> term "bought with money" +referred only to feudal allegiance or service for a time agreed on by +both parties. These servants could possess and inherit property; their +children were free; they were trained to the use of arms; in religious +matters master and servant were alike and equal; and they were always +considered and called <i>men</i>, never slaves or chattels,—all which are +directly contrary to the principles and express enactments of American +slave law, and are the characteristics of free persons even at the +South. Add to this the significant fact that not one word is said in the +patriarchal records of <i>selling</i> any of these servants, (the only act +mentioned of selling a human being is that of Joseph by his brethren, so +bitterly reprobated and repented of by them soon after,) though +frequently bought; that no fugitive law existed, in fact could not exist +in a wandering tribe,—and the natural conclusion is, that they were not +slaves, but free men and women; and therefore the records of patriarchal +society conclusively deny the existence of chattel slaves or slavery as +one of its institutions.</p> + +<p>Years pass, and we find the Israelites reduced to a servile condition as +the serfs of the Egyptians. God, in his purposes, allowed them to remain +thus for a time, and then, instead of sanctioning even this modified +form of slavery, demanded their instant release; and on refusal, with +terrible judgments on their oppressors, he led forth that army of +fugitive slaves, and drowned their pursuers in the Red Sea.</p> + + +<h4>4. <i>Mosaic Laws.</i></h4> + +<p>We come next to the sanction and authority of chattel slavery claimed to +exist in the laws and economy of these people just escaped from bondage, +and framed by him who had shown his displeasure against slavery by +nearly destroying a nation of slaveholders for holding and catching +slaves. The arguments for this claim are—1. That the term "servant" or +"bondman" used in the Mosaic law means chattel slavery; 2. That in +certain cases the Hebrews might hold their brethren as slaves for ever; +3. They might buy slaves from the heathen around, and hold them for +ever. These positions, we admit, have some plausibility, and have +doubtless had great weight in producing the opinion that chattelism is +sanctioned by the<!-- Page 10 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> Bible. We propose to consider the condition of the +classes of servants referred to in their order.</p> + +<p>1. <i>Hebrew servants.</i> These were of four kinds—servants under contract +or indenture for six years, probably from one sabbatic year to another: +servants held till the year of jubilee, or "for ever:" children born in +the house, or hired out by their parents: convicted thieves; and +afterward, though sanctioned by no law, debtors.</p> + +<p>In respect to the first of these classes, the law is found in Ex. +21:2-6; Deut. 15:12-18. "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall +he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out <i>free</i>, for nothing." Here +the term "buy" can only be applied to the <i>service</i>, sold by the servant +for six years, (or perhaps to the sabbatic seventh year, as daily or +weekly service ended with the Sabbath,) for it is applied to a state +which no ingenuity whatever can construe as chattelism.</p> + +<p>The second class of Hebrew servants is mentioned Ex. 21:5, 6. "If the +servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I +will not go out free; then his master shall bring him to the judges: he +shall also bring him to the door or to the door-post, and he shall bore +his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever." Deut. +15:17, the same law adds, "And also to thy maid-servant shalt thou do +likewise." But in Lev. 25:39, 40, 53, it is expressly enacted that one +who served longer than six years was not to be treated or considered as +an <span class="heb">עֶבֶד</span>, <i>evedh</i>, one contracting for a term of years, but as a +<span class="heb">שָּׂכִיר</span>, <i>saukir</i>, a hired servant, to be well treated and compensated +for his services. "Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant, +but as a hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee." The +servant must plainly say, "<i>I will not</i> go out;" it must be <i>voluntary</i> +service; but chattelism is involuntary, forced, and directly contrary to +the case before us. "He shall serve <i>him</i> for ever," not his sons after +him, not giving the right of transfer or sale of service to a third +person, "<i>He</i> shall serve," not his wife or children, but himself, till +death, or his master's death, or the jubilee. This, then, was not +chattelism, for it was <i>voluntary</i>, <i>without purchase</i> or sale, <i>ending +with the life of the servant, the master, or the year of release—the +jubilee</i>.<!-- Page 11 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>The third class of servants—children—appear during minority to have +been, as now in all Eastern countries, entirely at the service or +control of their parents, and might by them be hired out, Neh. 5:2-6, +but, when of age, were of course independent of parental acts and +control. John 9:21. That the offspring of servants in patriarchal times +were free we have already proved; that they were so among the Israelites +is shown by the case of Abimelech, the son of a maid-servant, Judg. +9:18, yet free as his brethren, and afterward king of Israel; also of +Sheshan. 1 Chr. 2:34, 35. No service, indeed, could be recognized or +demanded, in Jewish law, of grown persons, except as the result of +contract or crime.</p> + +<p>In respect to the fourth class, it is plain from the language used that +only sufficient service could be required of them to cancel the +obligation of restitution. Ex. 22:3. "He should make full restitution; +if he have nothing, then he shall be <i>sold</i> for his theft;" in case of +debt, Matt. 18:34, "till he should pay all that was due to him."</p> + +<p>2. <i>Servants obtained from the heathen.</i> These were, first, captives. +From the account of the first taking of captives by the Israelites, Num. +31:7-47, we learn, verse 7, that they marched into Midian, slew all the +males, and seized the women, children, flocks, and herds. On their +return Moses reprimanded them for disobeying God's command by preserving +the grown women; and thereupon they killed all but the virgins and +children, reserving them for adoption into the families of the nation. +In Deut. 20:14 and 21:10-14, we have these commands and regulations +given, with an express prohibition of the enslavement of these captives, +in case of repudiation by the captors. "It shall be, if thou have no +delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou +shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of +her, because thou hast humbled her." Now, all slaveholding tribes and +nations, when they seize captives for slaves, aim to obtain as many +strong and vigorous men as possible; must it not, therefore, fairly be +inferred from this regulation that God, by prohibiting instead of +sanctioning the most productive mode of slave-making,—the enslavement +of prisoners<!-- Page 12 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> of war,—did not intend, but positively prohibited, the +Israelites from becoming a slaveholding nation?</p> + +<p>Secondly, "bought with money." The law referring to these is Lev. 25:44, +46. "Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids which thou shalt have shall be +of the heathen round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and +bondmaids.... And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children +after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen +for ever." As we have already stated, the Hebrews had but two terms for +"servant"—the generic term <i>evedh</i>, one under contract for a term of +years, and <i>saukir</i>, one hired by the day, week, or year. Now, the term +here translated "bondman" is the generic <span class="heb">עֶבֶד</span>, <i>evedh</i>, elsewhere +translated "servant," and therefore should have been thus translated +here, unless a different rendering is required by the context. The more +literal reading of the Hebrew is, "And thy men-servants and thy +maid-servants which shall be to thee from the nations around you, of +them shall ye procure the man-servant and maid-servant." What, then, was +the difference between the Hebrew and heathen <i>evedh</i>?</p> + +<p>This. The Hebrew could only be an <i>evedh</i>, a servant by contract, for +six years, Ex. 21:2—"Six years shall he serve, but in the seventh <i>he +shall go out free</i>;" (longer service could not be contracted for, but +<i>must be</i> voluntary, Ex. 21:5;) or as a hired servant or sojourner till +the jubilee, but <i>never</i> beyond. Lev. 25:10, 39-41. But a heathen could +bind himself as an <i>evedh</i> for longer than six years; and thus his +service, unlike the Hebrew, could be "bought" as "an inheritance for +your children after you," but, like the Hebrew voluntary "for ever" +servants, they were bondmen for the longest time known by the law—till +death or the jubilee.</p> + +<p>Is it objected that the terms "buy," "possession," "for ever," are used, +and indicate chattelism? We answer, All admit the Hebrew was not a +chattel; for his service expired at the seventh year, the death of +himself or his master. "<i>He</i> shall serve <i>him</i> for ever;" but, if both +lived on, this service, though voluntary, as has been shown, expired +with all such claims at the jubilee. Since the same terms, and, as we +shall show directly, the<!-- Page 13 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> jubilee, applied equally to both, if it does +not prove the one a chattel, it does not the other; therefore both are +equally voluntary contractors. The service, and not the bodies, were +bought; and both were equally free at the jubilee.</p> + +<p>Two objects were accomplished by this law. 1st. To permit the Hebrews to +obtain that assistance in tilling the land, which otherwise they would +not have been allowed to do. 2d. To increase the numbers of the +commonwealth, since the Hebrews, in obedience to the Abrahamic covenant, +Gen. 17:10-14; Ex. 12:44-49, were bound to circumcise these indented +servants "bought with money," thus making them part of the household +during their period of service, and also naturalized citizens of the +state, members of the congregation, partakers of all the rites and +privileges common to the mass of the people. Ex. 12:44-9. Num. 15:15-30, +"One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for +the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your +generations; <i>as ye are, so shall the stranger be</i> before the Lord." +Lev. 19:34, "The stranger that dwelleth among you shall be as one born +among you, and <i>thou shalt love him as thyself</i>." In accordance with the +frequently-repeated injunction of this law of equality, they were +invariably recognized as citizens, and alike with Hebrew servants, were +amenable to, and received protection from, the laws of the state.</p> + +<p>In further proof of this, and in direct opposition to chattelism, is the +fact, that the laws regulating the relation of master and servant are +each and all enacted for the benefit and protection of the servant, and +not one for that of the master. Again, when property is spoken of, oxen, +sheep, &c., the term <i>owner</i> is always used, <i>master</i> never; when +servants and masters are spoken of, <i>master</i> is always used, <i>owner</i> +never. Ex. 21:29, "The ox shall be stoned, and his <i>owner</i> also shall be +put to death," Ex. 21:34, If an ox or ass fall into a pit left +uncovered, "the <i>owner</i> of the pit shall make it good, and give money to +the <i>owner</i> of them." But, Deut. 25:15, "Thou shall not deliver to his +<i>master</i> the servant which is escaped from his <i>master</i> unto thee."</p> + +<p>The inference from all this is plain. No such thing as<!-- Page 14 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> property in man +is recognized in the Mosaic law; but God, finding polygamy and the law +of serfdom existing among the Israelites, did not see fit to abolish +them at once, but so hampered and hedged them about by restrictive +statutes as gradually and finally to abolish them altogether.</p> + + +<h4>5. <i>Restrictive Laws.</i></h4> + +<p>But lest oppression should trample upon the rights of the laboring +classes, and aim at their enslavement,—which actually happened +afterward, and was one of the principal items of God's indictment (Jer. +22:3; 34:8-22) against the Jews prior to their destruction by +Nebuchadnezzar,—three special enactments were made to prevent such +iniquity, and break up any attempt at chattel slavery in the nation.</p> + +<p><i>First. The law against kidnaping.</i>—Ex. 21:16, "He that stealeth a man +and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put +to death." Thus the one great means of obtaining slaves is forbidden. He +who (no matter where) seizes a human being, (no matter whom,) and +reduces him to involuntary servitude, shall die; for he seeks to take +away the rights and privileges of freedom, all that goes to make up +life; seeks to make property of man, to extinguish the man in the +chattel.</p> + +<p>"But," it is said, "this only refers to stealing slaves." Mark the +logic: a man could seize and enslave another with impunity; but if, +afterward, the father, brother, or friend of the enslaved should attempt +to rescue him, he must die! Glorious argument for slaveholders and +slave-catchers! It is also said this refers to Hebrews, not strangers. +Let God answer. Lev. 24:22, "Ye shall have one manner of law, as well +for the stranger as for one of your own country; for I am the Lord your +God." This is his interpretation of the breadth of the law given in the +preceding verse, "He that killeth a man, he shall be put to death." The +law, therefore, is unrestricted and universal; Hebrew or heathen, he +that killeth a <i>man</i> and he that stealeth a <i>man</i> shall alike die; thus +putting slavery and murder on the same footing, as equally criminal. +Now, if God sanctioned slavery, why did he make such an inconsistent law +as this forbidding it?<!-- Page 15 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Second. The law concerning fugitives.</i>—Deut. 23:15, 16, "Thou shalt +not deliver to his master the servant which is escaped from his master +unto thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which +he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt +not oppress him."</p> + +<p>There is no equivocation here; "<i>thou shalt not deliver</i> unto his +master." It is imperative; they were to receive him among them as a +citizen, and, if need be, protect him from his master; mark, not a +"heathen" or "Hebrew," servant, but the "servant," heathen or Hebrew, +whoever should fly from the ill treatment or injustice of a hard master. +Compare for a moment the Hebrew and American fugitive laws. The Hebrew +says, "Thou <i>shalt not</i> deliver to his master the servant that is +escaped." The American says, "Thou <i>shalt</i> deliver him up to his master, +or be fined one thousand dollars, and suffer six months' imprisonment." +The Hebrew says, "He shall <i>dwell</i> with thee ... thou shalt <i>not +oppress</i> him." The American law says, "The commissioner who tries the +case shall get five dollars if he fails, and ten if he succeeds in +'delivering to his master' the fugitive, on the simple affidavit of the +former that he is his slave."</p> + +<p>What are the deductions from this law of Moses? The return of stray +<i>property</i> is expressly commanded in Deut. 22:1-3; the return of +<i>servants</i> is expressly forbidden here; the servant could leave a hard +master at any time, and the state could not compel him to return: it did +not recognize the condition of forced, but only voluntary servitude, and +thus rendered the existence of chattelism impossible.</p> + +<p><i>The third great protective law was that of the Jubilee.</i>—Lev. +25:10-55, "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim <span class="smcap">liberty</span> +throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a +jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and +ye shall return every man to his family." ... Here the expression is +emphatic, no reservations are made, no restrictions allowed. As the +sound of <span class="heb">יוֹבֵל, יוֹבֵל</span>, <ins class="correction" title="TN: original not +in italics"><i>Yovāl, Yovāl</i></ins>, sounded through the land, and was echoed back +from hill and village, from hamlet and town, the cry was taken up, and +borne along by the laboring thousands of Israel, many of whom had been +toiling under contract for years, by the<!-- Page 16 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> unfortunate debtor, and +those whom poverty had compelled to part with "the old house at home," +all returned, all were free. "Liberty, liberty!"</p> + +<p>It is vain to assume that the benefits of the Jubilee were restricted to +a particular class. To what class? Not the six years' servants; they +were freed in the seventh. Not to debtors; there <i>was no law</i> compelling +them to serve at all; therefore they could only serve voluntarily to pay +their debts. Not to thieves; they could only be compelled to make +restitution of the thing stolen, or its value; that paid, they were +free. The only other classes to whom the law could apply were "all the +inhabitants of the land" who served the longest time, the Hebrew "for +ever" servants, and the heathen servants, thus preventing the +possibility of the rise and growth of a servile class, the curse of any +country. In this way only can we account for the fact that Jewish +history never mentions the existence of a large servile class, or a +servile insurrection in Israel, so common and disastrous an occurrence +in the history of ancient slaveholding communities.</p> + +<p>Some object here, that the term "inhabitants" implies "all the Hebrews," +and excludes the strangers, Canaanites, &c.; but by admitting that "all +the Hebrews" were freed at the Jubilee, they admit that those who, in +Ex. 21:6, are servants "for ever," are also freed, and thus to serve +"for ever" only implies till the Jubilee. If, then, "for ever" means +only till the Jubilee in one case, it means no more in the other. And if +we show that the strangers and Canaanites <i>were</i> considered "inhabitants +of the land," then the Jubilee referred to Hebrew and stranger alike, +and both were free. In Ex. 34:12, 15, "Take heed to thyself, lest thou +make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest;" +and Lev. 18:25; Num. 33:52-55, Moses calls the heathen "the inhabitants +of the land;" and as he was likely to understand the meaning of the term +pretty well, he either refers in the Jubilee law to Hebrews, Canaanites, +and all, or he meant Canaanites and heathen alone, which is still more +decisive. Again, in 2 Sam. 11:2-27; 23:39, we find one of these +strangers, Uriah the <i>Hittite</i>, not only an "inhabitant" of Jerusalem, +but one of David's best officers, and his wife becoming queen of Israel +and mother of Solomon; and in 2 Sam. 24:18-25, another, Araunah<!-- Page 17 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> the +Jebusite is a householder, and more, is <ins class="correction" title="TN: original reads 'praise'">praised</ins> as acting like a king +toward king David, who bought property of him whereon to build an altar; +and yet, forsooth, they were not inhabitants!</p> + +<p>But, as if to prevent equivocation, Moses defines the phrase "all the +inhabitants;" "Ye shall return <i>every man</i> to his possession, and ye +shall return <i>every man</i> to his family." Not every Hebrew, but every +<i>man</i>, the same generic term as in the law against killing or stealing +"a man;" it is unqualified and universal. Thus with one blow this noble +law strikes down the two principal sources of social +oppression—monopoly of land and monopoly of labor. All who had by +poverty been compelled to part with the old farm and homestead received +it back; all claims of service against any person, however mean and +humble, were canceled; and the land and its inhabitants were again free +as God had made them.</p> + +<p>These accumulated arguments, each separately weighty and forcible, but +collectively insurmountable, we think prove conclusively that the form +of servitude among the Israelites was not chattel slavery, and that +there is no sanction or authority for it in the Mosaic laws and +regulations.</p> + +<p>Thus in Jewish history we see the Israelites groaning under Egyptian +bondage, and God's arm outstretched to rescue them when fugitives, and +punish their pursuers—a warning to all such thereafter; we see laws +enacted to prevent the existence of chattelism among them, by +restricting the master's power, and securing the servant's freedom at +regular intervals, and the opposite doctrine of equality among men +asserted; we see the Israelites disobeying these commands, and adopting, +with the idolatry of their neighbors, their slavery also, and God's +fiery wrath denounced on them for it by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, +and fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar in the destruction and captivity of the +state.</p> + + +<h3>NEW TESTAMENT.</h3> + +<h4><i>Teachings of Christ.</i></h4> + +<p>Ages pass, the Jews are restored to their land, but the Roman eagle +overshadows it and all the civilized world. Despotism is enthroned; and +the idea that the world and<!-- Page 18 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> its people are the property of Rome and its +citizens is questioned only in murmuring whispers. All the relations of +Roman life partake of this idea of absolutism; slavery is every where, +liberty nowhere. Then the glad tidings of Messiah's coming is announced +to an expectant world. Whom will he side with—the crushed and +despairing millions, or the aristocratic and haughty few? Will he adopt +and develop the idea of equality found in Jewish law, or the principle +now ascendant,—"Might makes right,"—the Roman slave law? Let him +answer.</p> + +<p>Standing in the synagogue at Nazareth, the home of his boyhood, amid his +expectant friends and relations, he reads (Luke 4:16-21) from Isaiah, +"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to +<i>preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the +broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of +sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach +the acceptable year of the Lord</i>. And he closed the book and sat down, +... and began to say to them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in +your ears." There is his commission and the constitution of his kingdom. +Can any thing be more explicit?</p> + +<p>Christ himself comes with glad tidings for the poor, to destroy slavery +and oppression, and establish liberty. Rejoice, ye poor, taught hitherto +that ye were made only for the service of the rich; there is glad +tidings for you. Rejoice, captives and slaves, "bruised" with the lash +and fetter; <i>God</i> comes "to preach deliverance to the captives, liberty +to them that are bruised, and the acceptable year (the Jubilee) of the +Lord."</p> + +<p>How did he fulfill this commission and pledge? No code of laws and +dogmas, terse and dry, were issued by him for the government of his +kingdom; but the great principle was proclaimed of a common brotherhood +as children of God our Father, and of love to him as such. In his sermon +on the mount, the parables of the lost sheep and silver piece, the good +Samaritan, the prodigal son, the Pharisee and the publican; in his +private teachings to his disciples; and, above all, by his daily example +he taught and illustrated, as the leading characteristics of his +kingdom, love to God, the brotherhood of man, the rights of all, however +poor, degraded, or despised. More, he<!-- Page 19 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> makes this idea of brotherhood +and equality even with himself, the great test in the judgment. Matt. +25:40, 45: "And the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say +unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." What will those who now boast of +their large churches, composed almost entirely of slaves, Christian +ministers, and church members, bought, sold, lashed, and treated like +cattle, answer the King in that great day?</p> + +<p>But to return: the result of such teachings was soon evident. "The +common people heard him gladly," hung on his steps and words by +thousands, and hailed him as deliverer; while Scribes and Pharisees, +priests and rulers, denounced him as "a friend of publicans and +sinners," only seeking popularity among the masses, to disturb the +public peace, and revolutionize the government. Mark, it was not simply +religious, but <i>political</i> interference and teaching they charged him +with, and on this charge they finally compassed his death.</p> + +<p>In his private teachings to his disciples he strongly inculcated this +truth. Striving among themselves for the supremacy, he charges them, +Matt. 20:26-28, and many other places, "It shall not be so among you; +but whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as +the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to +give his life a ransom for many." The law thus explicitly laid down, and +in John 13 enforced by his example, is the very opposite of chattelism. +In his church, none were to claim supremacy over others, much less +<i>enslave</i> them; none to despise labor and the laborer, much less condemn +others to it while themselves lived in idleness.</p> + +<p>Thus Christ, so far from sanctioning chattelism or property in man in +any shape or form, by precept and example taught the opposite, the +dignity of labor and the laborer, the common brotherhood of man, and +consequent equality, political and religious. Did his apostles indorse +this doctrine, or, fearing the result, did they side with the all +prevalent system of class legislation and slavery?</p> + + +<h4><i>Teachings of the Apostles.</i></h4> + +<p>The result of their teaching in Judea is given in Acts 4:32-35—"And the +multitude of them that believed<!-- Page 20 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> were of one heart and one soul; neither +said any of them <i>that aught of the things he possessed was his own</i>; +but they had all things common. Neither was there any among them that +lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and +brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at +the apostles' feet, and distribution was made to every man according as +he had need." They not only believed in "liberty, equality, and +fraternity," but practised its extreme—not only equality of rights, but +equality of property, among the brotherhood.</p> + +<p>But this was comparatively easy in Judea, where the principle of +equality was already partly recognized, and the existence of chattelism +prevented by the action of the Mosaic code. The apostles only fairly +came in conflict with the spirit of caste and slavery when, filled with +love and the Spirit, they entered heathen countries, "preaching the glad +tidings of the kingdom," and establishing every where the glorious +brotherhood of humanity, whose primary law is, "A new commandment I give +unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you. By this shall +men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John +13:34-5. And Paul expounds it to the Gentiles, 1 Cor. 12:13—"For by one +Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or +Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink +into one Spirit." Gal. 3:26-28: "Ye are all the children of God by faith +in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ +have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, <i>there is neither +bond nor free</i>, there is neither male nor female; <i>for ye are all one in +Christ Jesus</i>." Again, Col. 3:11, "There is neither Greek nor Jew, +circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free; +but Christ is all and in all."</p> + +<p>Can language be more express and conclusive than this? The distinctions +here dissolved by the waters of baptism, and blended into "one in Christ +Jesus," are not, as our southern brethren assert, simply religious, but +<span class="smcap">national, political, and social</span>—slavery, and the spirit of caste and +clan which upholds it, alike forbidden, and liberty, equality, and +fraternity, social, political, and religious, proclaimed as the rule of +Christ's kingdom.<!-- Page 21 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>Principles like these came upon the world like the morning sunlight, +scattering the mists of superstitious ignorance, melting the icy pride +and selfishness of the mighty, permeating all classes and relations of +society with their secret influence, and blending all into one +harmonious brotherhood of love and peace. Apparently they were subject +as others to the laws of the state, but in secret were bound by stronger +ties, and governed by higher, nobler laws, than the world outside +dreamed of.</p> + +<p>Instead of the Roman law of marriage, regarding the wife as the +husband's slave, he must love her as himself; more, as Christ loved the +church. Instead of the tyranny on one side, and the retaliating +disobedience on the other, of the Roman parental relation, it became the +image of our heavenly Father's love, and our trusting obedience to him. +The relation of slave, "pro nullo, pro quadrupedo, pro mortuo," (as a +nobody, a quadruped, a dead man,) to his master, became the relation of +brethren, the one to render true and faithful service, Eph. 6:5, the +other never to threaten, Eph. 6:9, much less punish; not to regard them +as chattels, as under the Roman law, but to give them <i>just</i> and <i>equal</i> +compensation for their service, Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1, "knowing that ye +also have a Master in heaven," "neither is there respect of persons with +him." The legal deed of manumission was unnecessary; for as, when master +and slave land in England, they may remain connected as master and free +servant, <i>never</i> as master and slave, so, on admission into the +brotherhood of the church, the waters of baptism, as shown above, +dissolved the relation of slavery, and substituted that of freemen and +brethren.</p> + +<p>Again, believers were members of Christ's body. He dwelt in them; and +therefore every indignity and injury done to them was done to him in +their person. To enslave, buy, and sell them was to enslave, buy, and +sell Christ himself. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of +these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Who, then, would dare hold +a brother Christian as a slave? What! make merchandise of the person of +Christ? Never! the cry of Judas would ring around them as they were +driven ignominiously from the church.</p> + +<p>"Why," it is objected, "did not the apostles preach<!-- Page 22 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> immediate +emancipation, instead of indorsing slavery by defining its +duties—'Servants, obey your masters,' &.? and Paul even sent back a +slave." 1. The primary object of the apostles was not simply "to preach +liberty to the captives;" this was but a branch of the tree planted "for +the healing of the nations." Their object was to sow the principles of +faith, love, justice, and equality, well knowing that, when these took +root and flourished, among the first fruit would be "liberty to all the +inhabitants of the land." 2. Had this been their great object, they took +the best and speediest plan for its accomplishment. Attacking the system +directly, the appearance of the Christian missionary would have been the +signal for servile war and untold bloodshed, the slave against the +master, the poor against the rich; and the heathen rulers, eager for a +pretext to crush them, would have denounced them as lighting the torch +of rebellion and war; and the further spread of the gospel would have +been drowned in the blood of its founders. But they took the very course +which God adopted among the Israelites in regard to servitude, not +directly prohibiting it, but inculcating principles of social equality +and progress, restricting the master's power, and protecting the +servant's rights, till, master and slave blended in one, the name of +slave was lost in that of Christian. 3. The relation and duties of +master and servant are defined by the apostles exactly as they might be +to-day in England or the free states—as those of men, <i>never</i> as owner +and property; on the contrary, all ownership of man by other than God is +expressly denied. 1 Cor. 6:19, 20, "What! know ye not that your body is +the temple of the Holy Ghost in you, which ye have of God, and <i>ye are +not your own</i>? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your +body and your spirit, <i>which are God's</i>." There the ownership is clearly +asserted; how can man claim it? "Render to Cesar the things that are +Cesar's, <i>and to God the things that are God's</i>," lest you be found +robbing God himself. Again, 1 Cor. 7:21, 23, "Art thou called, being a +servant? care not for it; but, if thou mayst be made free, (<ins class="correction" title="TN: original reads 'δὑασαι'">δύασαι</ins> γενέσθαι, canst become free,) use it rather." What can be more explicit +than this? First, ownership of man is denied even to <i>himself</i>, much +more to <i>another</i>. Next, the exhortation to slaves is, if they <i>can</i><!-- Page 23 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +<i>not</i> get free from this great wrong, to bear it as such, but, if they +<i>can</i>, "use it rather;" and the reason given is followed by a rule of +action to be adopted wherever possible. Verse 23, "Ye are bought with a +price; <span class="smcap">be not ye the servants of men</span>." If this be not express +prohibition of chattelism, and command to slaves to free themselves from +it, then the language is totally contradictory and unintelligible.</p> + +<p>Contrast these laws of Paul with the laws of most of the southern +states, forbidding even the master to free his slaves, while states and +Congress unite in hounding back to whip and task the poor slave who +dares obey that command; nay, offer large rewards for men, even +Christian ministers, when attempting to obey it. "But Paul sent back +Onesimus to his master, and therefore sanctioned the sending back of +fugitives." We answer, there was no sending back at all. Paul, a +prisoner, could not send him back: a Jew, he was forbidden by his +religion to do so. Deut. 23:15. It was simply a recommendatory letter +sent with Onesimus, returning voluntarily to Colosse and his master. Let +us look at the letter. Verse 8 begins, "Wherefore, though I might be +much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet, for +love's sake, I rather beseech thee. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, +... <i>which in time past was to thee unprofitable</i>, but now profitable to +thee and to me; whom I have sent again, ... not now as a servant, but +above a servant, a brother beloved," &c. Here Onesimus is described as +having been, while heathen, an "unprofitable" trouble to his master, and +had either run away or been sent away by him. Converted at Rome, Paul +heard his story, and in his letter, instead of thinking he is doing +Philemon a favor, has to earnestly "beseech," almost command, his +reception as a favor to himself. Not one word of <i>property</i> or <i>right</i> +in him, save the right of love as one of the brotherhood. "<span class="smcap">Not now as a +servant</span>, but <i>above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me</i>, but +how much more to thee!" Onesimus had left the "slave" in his heathenism; +in Christ he became the "brother" of Philemon and Paul. Instead of +sanctioning chattelism, it positively denies it by affirming voluntary +service, the equality of men as brethren, to be loved as Christ +himself.<!-- Page 24 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus Christ and his apostles, so far from upholding chattelism in their +teachings, denounced the ownership of man by any but God, and inculcated +its opposite—love, liberty, equality, and fraternity—by precept and +example. And subsequent history showed the result.</p> + +<p>Christ said of the teachings of the Pharisees, "By their fruits ye shall +know them." Apply this test to the teachings of the apostles and the +primitive churches in regard to slavery. When they went forth, "darkness +covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" slavery sat enthroned +in might over Europe; and the cries of the oppressed millions had only +had a hearing on the battle or before the throne of God.</p> + +<p>When the Reformation came slavery had disappeared in Europe; and the +voice of the people was heard asserting their rights, feebly, indeed, at +first, but ever since growing stronger and stronger "as the voice of +many waters." What has caused this change?</p> + +<p>Historians, Protestant and Catholic, ascribe it to the influence of the +church, not by direct emancipatory decrees, but, following the example +of God through Moses, by gradually restricting the master's power, and +protecting the slave; by girdling the poison tree till it withered and +fell, though, sad to say, the ruins still disfigure too much field, of +the fair fields of Europe and America.</p> + +<p>No fact is more patent in history than the truth expressed by Paul to +the Corinthians: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is <span class="smcap">liberty</span>." +The whole tendency of the Bible and true Christianity, direct and +indirect, is to the liberty and advancement, never the slavery and +degradation, of man; and those who have attempted to shield the monster +curse of our country and age with the garb of the gospel may find too +late, when that awful voice shall ring in their ears, "Inasmuch as ye +have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it +unto me," that Christ came not only "to preach deliverance to the +captives" and "to set at liberty them that are bruised," but also "the +day of vengeance of our God."</p> + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> + +<p class="center"> +AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,<br /> +<span class="smcap">28 Cornhill, Boston.</span> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p><!-- Page 25 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="EXTRACT_FROM_MR_OCONORS_ARGUMENT" id="EXTRACT_FROM_MR_OCONORS_ARGUMENT"></a>EXTRACT FROM MR. O'CONOR'S ARGUMENT</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Before the New York Court of Appeals, on the "Lemmon <br />Slave Case."</i></p> + + +<p>"I submit most respectfully that the only desire I have manifested here +or elsewhere, in reference to the question, has been to draw the mind of +the court and the intelligent mind of the American people, to the true +question which underlies the whole conflict, and that is the question to +which my friend (W. W. Evarts, Esq.) has addressed the best, and, in my +judgment, the finest part of his very able argument. * * * My friend +denounces the institution of slavery as a monstrous injustice, as a sin, +as a violation of the law of God and of the law of man, of natural law +or natural justice; and in his argument in another place, he called your +attention to the enormity of the result claimed in this case, that these +eight persons—and not only they, but their posterity to the remotest +time—were, by your Honors' judgment, to be consigned to this shocking +condition of abject bondage and slavery. Why, how very small and minute +was that presentation of the subject! My friend must certainly have used +the microscope or reversed the telescope, when, in seeking to present +this question in a striking manner to your Honors' minds, he called your +attention to these <i>few</i> persons and their posterity. Why, if your +Honors please, our territory embraces at the least estimate <i>three +millions of these human beings</i>, who, by our laws and institutions, as +now existing <ins class="correction" title="TN: original reads 'is these states'">in these states</ins>, * * * are not only consigned to hopeless +bondage throughout their whole lives, but to a like condition is their +posterity consigned to the remotest times. * * * It is a question of the +mightiest magnitude. But the reason why I call your Honors' attention to +its magnitude is this: that you may contemplate it in the connection in +which my learned friend has presented it; that it is a <span class="smcap">sin</span>—a violation +of natural justice and the law of God; that it is a monstrous scheme of +iniquity for defrauding the laborer of his wages—one of those sins that +crieth aloud to<!-- Page 26 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> heaven for vengeance; that it is a course of unbridled +rapine, fraud, and plunder, by which three millions and their posterity +are to be oppressed throughout all time. Now, is it a sin? Is this an +outrage against divine law and natural justice? <i>If it be</i> such an +outrage, then I say it is a sin of the greatest magnitude, of the most +enormous and flagitious character that was ever presented to the human +mind. The man who does not shrink from it with horror is utterly +unworthy the name of a man. It is no trivial offence, that may be +tolerated with limitations and qualifications; that we can excuse +ourselves for supporting because we have made some kind of a bargain to +support it. The tongue of no human being is capable of depicting its +enormity; it is not in the power of the human heart to form a just +conception of its wickedness and cruelty. And what, I ask, is the +rational and necessary consequence, if we regard it to be thus sinful, +thus unjust, thus outrageous?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, being much engaged in urging the sinfulness of +slavery, called one day at the house of Dr. Bellamy in Bethlem, +Connecticut, and while there pressed upon him the duty of liberating his +only slave. Dr. B., who was an acute and ingenious reasoner, defended +slaveholding by a variety of arguments, to which Dr. H. as ably replied. +At length Dr. Hopkins proposed to Dr. Bellamy practical obedience to the +golden rule. "Will you give your slave his freedom if he desires it?" +Dr. B. replied that the slave was faithful, judicious, trusted with +every thing, and would not accept freedom if offered. "Will you free him +if <i>he</i> desires it?" repeated Dr. H. "Yes," answered Dr. Bellamy, "I +will." "Call him then." The man appeared. "Have you a good, kind +master?" asked Dr. Hopkins. "Oh! yes, very, very good." "And are you +happy?" "Yes, master, <i>very</i> happy." "Would you be more happy if you +were free?" His face brightened. "Oh! yes, master, a great deal more +happy." "<i>From this moment</i>," said Dr. Bellamy, "<i>you are free</i>."</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + + +<div class="tr"> +<a name="tn_cont" id="tn_cont">Transcriber's Note, Continued.</a>--The +author used Ashkenazic pronunciation for the transliteration of the Hebrew words in this text. Please note that +his transliteration would not be considered accurate by modern standards. Alternative +transliterations are:<br /> + + 1. auvadh--avad<br /> + 2. evedh--eved<br /> + 3. saukir--sakhir<br /> + 4. aumau--ama<br /> + 5. shiphechau--shifḥa<br /> + 6. kaunau--kana<br /> + 7. naar--na'ar<br /> + 8. Yovāl--Yovel</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible?, by Isaac Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE *** + +***** This file should be named 24600-h.htm or 24600-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/0/24600/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, S. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? + +Author: Isaac Allen + +Release Date: February 13, 2008 [EBook #24600] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, S. Drawehn and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from scans of public domain works at the +University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note.--Italics in the original are rendered as +_underscores_. The letter 'a' with a macron is shown as [=a]. Greek +characters in the original have been transliterated and appear as ++word+. Transliterated Hebrew words appear as #WORD#, using the author's +own transliteration throughout. (For more on the Hebrew, and a list of +errata, see the end of this document.)] + + + + + No. 45. + + IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY + THE BIBLE? + + +If there is one subject which, above all others, may be regarded as of +national interest at the present time, it is the subject of Slavery. +Wherever we go, north or south, east or west, at the fireside, in the +factory, the rail-car or the steamboat, in the state legislatures or the +national Congress, this "ghost that will not down" obtrudes itself. The +strife has involved press, pulpit, and forum alike, and in spite of all +compromises by political parties, and the desperate attempts at +non-committal by religious bodies, it only grows wider and deeper. + +But the distinctive feature of this, as compared with other questions of +national import, is, that here both parties draw their principal +arguments from the Bible as a common armory of weapons for attack and +defense. On the one side, it is claimed that slavery, as it exists in +the United States, is not a moral evil; that it is an innocent and +lawful relation, as much as that of parent and child, husband and wife, +or any other in society; that the right to buy, sell, and hold men for +purposes of gain, was given by express permission of God, and sanctioned +by Christ and his apostles; that this right is founded on the golden +rule; and says Dr. Shannon of Bacon College, Ky., "I hardly know which +is most unaccountable, the profound ignorance of the Bible, or the +sublimity of cool impudence and infidelity manifested by those who +profess to be Christians; and yet dare affirm that the Book of God gives +no sanction to slaveholding." All these affirmations are fairly summed +up thus: "As slavery was practiced by the patriarchs, received sanction +and legality from God in the Mosaic law, and was not denounced by Christ +and his apostles, it must have been right. If right then, it is so +still; therefore Southern slavery is right." + +On the other hand, it is contended that chattel slavery is nowhere +warranted or sanctioned by the Bible, but is totally opposed both to its +spirit and teachings. + +It will be the object of the present discussion to determine which of +these opinions is correct. + + + SLAVERY DEFINED. + +What, then, is chattel slavery as understood in American law? + +1. It is not the relation of wife or child. In one sense a man may be +said to "possess" these; but he can not buy or sell them. These are +natural relations; and he who violates them for the sake of gain is +branded by all as barbarous and criminal. + +2. Not the relation of apprentice or minor. This is temporary, having +for its primary object, not the good of the master or guardian, but that +of the apprentice or minor, his education and preparation for acting his +part as a free and independent member of society; but chattelism is +_life_ bondage, for the _sole_ good of the master. + +3. Not the relation of service by contract. Here a bond or agreement is +implied, and therefore reciprocal rights, and the mutual power of +dissolution on failure of either in the terms of mutual agreement; but +chattelism ignores and denies the ability of the slave to _make a +contract_. + +4. Not serfdom or villeinage. The serf or villein was attached to the +glebe or soil, and could not be severed from it, deprived of his family, +or sold to another as a chattel; being retained as part of the +indivisible feudal community. But the chattel slave is a "thing" +incapable of family relations, and may be sold when, where, or how the +master pleases. + +Chattelism is none of these relations; its principle is "property in +man." Its definition is thus given in the law of Louisiana, (Civil Code, +art. 35:) "A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to whom he +belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, +his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, acquire nothing, but what +must belong to his master." + +South Carolina says, (Prince's Digest, 446,) "Slaves shall be deemed, +sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law, to be chattels personal in +the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, +administrators, and assigns, to all intents, purposes, and +constructions whatsoever." + +Judge Ruffin, giving the opinion of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, +(case of State _v._ Mann,) says a slave is "one doomed in _his own +person_ and _his posterity_ to live without knowledge, and without the +capacity to make any thing his own, and to toil that another may reap +the fruits." + +We now come to the point at issue: Does the Bible sanction this system? + + + OLD TESTAMENT. + + 1. _Hebrew Terms._ + +The Hebrew terms used in reference to this subject are #AUVADH#, +_auvadh_, "to serve;" the noun, #EVEDH#, _evedh_, "servant" or +"bondman," one contracting service for a term of years; #SAUKIR#, +_saukir_, a "hired servant" daily or weekly; #AUMAU#, _aumau_, and +#SHIPHECHAU#, _shiphechau_, "maid-servant" or "handmaid;" but there is _no_ +term in Hebrew synonymous with our word _slave_, for all the terms +applied to servants are, as we shall show, equally applicable and +applied to free persons. + +The verb #AUVADH#, _auvadh_, according to Gesenius, signifies primarily, +to labor; then, to labor for one's self, for hire, or compulsory labor +as a captive or prisoner of war. Gen. 2:5, 15; 3:23; 29:15. Ex. 20:9; +21:2. Next, national servitude as tributary to others; as Sodom and the +cities of the plain to Chedorlaomer, Gen. 14:4; Esau to Jacob, Gen. +25:23; the Israelites in Canaan to surrounding nations, Moabites, +Philistines, and others, Judg. 3:8; Jer. 27:7, 9. Next, national and +personal servitude or serfdom, as of the Israelites in Egypt. Lastly, +the service of God or idols, Judg. 3:7, &c. From these and similar +passages we see that neither the generic nor specific meaning of the +term, taken in its connections, implies chattel slavery, but labor, +voluntary, hired, or compulsory, as of tributary nations or prisoners of +war, whose claim to regain, if possible, their freedom and rights, is +ever admitted and acted on; showing that freedom is the normal state of +man, subjection and compulsory servitude the abnormal and unnatural. + +But it is objected that, though the proper meaning of the verb "to +serve" does not imply chattel slavery, it is certain that the derived +noun #EVEDH#, _evedh_, translated "servant" and "bondman" in our +version, is frequently used to designate involuntary servitude, the +service of one "bought with money," and therefore a chattel slave. We +reply, By far the most frequent use of this term, as is well known, +represents either the common deferential mode of address of inferiors to +superiors, or equals to equals, used then and to-day in the East, or the +political subordination of inferior to superior rank invariably existing +in Eastern governments. Otherwise we have Jacob saying to Esau, "The +children which God hath graciously given thy" _slave_; and Joseph's +brethren saying to him, "Thou saidst to thy _slaves_, Bring him down to +me." "When we came up to thy _slave_ my father." Saul's officers and +soldiers are his slaves, David is Jonathan's, and _vice versa_; Abigail, +David's wife, is his slave; his people, officers, and even embassadors +are all his slaves; all are slaves to each other, and none are masters, +unless it be the king. + +How, then, can we properly define the meaning and status of the term +"servant" in any particular passage? We answer, only by the context and +the usage of the particular time and place, so far as known. + + 2. _The Curse of Canaan._ + +We first meet with the term "servant" in the oft-disputed passage, Gen. +9:25-27: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his +brethren.... Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his +servant." ... Now, as we have no state of servitude in the context or +the usage of the times with which to compare this, and as only Canaan +and his descendants are included in the curse, we must look to their +subsequent history for the fulfillment of the prophecy, and the kind of +servitude there implied. + +We find the descendants of Canaan and their land defined in Gen. +10:15-20. They were not the Africans, as some ignorantly assert, but the +Canaanites, who dwelt in Canaan, and were there destroyed by the +Israelites, or rendered tributaries, except the Gibeonites, who were +doomed to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water," the serfs of the +temple service. Josh. 9:23, 27. There is not one word of buying and +selling _individuals_--no chattelism, or any sanction of it; there is a +performing of the service of the temple, or paying tribute, but never +slaves or chattels. Canaan thus became the servant (not slave) of Shem; +and when afterward Israel was oppressed and rendered tributary to other +nations, the Canaanites became thus not only "servants," but "servants +of servants." + + 3. _Patriarchal Servitude._ + +The next example of the word "servant" brings us to that epoch in +relation to which the Harmony Presbytery of South Carolina says, +"Slavery has existed from the days of those good old slaveholders +Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (who are now in the kingdom of heaven,) to +the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his master +Philemon, and wrote a Christian and paternal letter to this slaveholder, +which we find still stands in the canon of the Scriptures." + +The account we have of Abraham's servants is briefly as follows: That +he had men-servants and maid-servants, Gen. 12:16; 14:14; 17:27, (not +_slaves_, for we have shown above by numerous passages that to give such +a definition to the term "servant" is false and absurd, unless sustained +by the context or the usage of the times;) that they numbered some two +thousand persons, (reckoning by the number of fighting men among them, +generally one in five of the population,) were trained and accustomed to +arms, Gen. 14:14; could inherit property, Gen. 15:3, 4; in religious +ordinances were perfectly equal with the master, Gen. 17:10-14; had +entire control not only over the property, but also the heirs of the +household, Gen. 24:2-10; lastly, they were invariably considered as +_men_, not slaves or chattels. Gen. 24:30, 32. "And the _man_ (servant +of Abraham) came into the house, and he ungirded his camels, and gave +straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the +_men's_ feet that were with him." + +"But," it is objected, "some of these servants were 'bought with money;' +therefore they must have been possessed as 'chattel slaves.'" This +conclusion depends partly on the meaning of the Hebrew verb #KAUNAU# +_kaunau_, "to buy;" and asserts that whenever this term is applied to +persons, it implies the relation of chattel slavery. The primary +definition of the verb, given by Gesenius, is, to erect; then, 1. To +found or create; 2. To get, gain, obtain, acquire, possess; 3. To get by +purchase, to buy. + +Let us see the meaning of this term, applied to persons in other +passages. In Gen. 31:15, Rachel and Leah say of their father, "He hath +_sold_ us, and quite devoured also our money," referring to Jacob's long +service for them; were they chattels? Gen. 47:23, Joseph _bought_ the +Egyptians; were they chattels? Ex. 21:2, "If thou _buy_ a Hebrew +servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out +free, for nothing;" was he a chattel? Ruth 4:10, "Ruth the Moabitess +have I _purchased_ this day to be my _wife_;" was she a chattel? These +passages clearly show that the simple application of the term "bought +with money" does _not_ imply property and possession as a chattel. + +The phrase "bought with money" relates, in the case of wives, to the +dowry usual in Eastern countries; in the case of servants, to the ransom +paid for captives in war, and paid by the individual on adoption into +the tribe; or to an equivalent paid as hire of time and labor for a +limited period, either to parents for their children as apprentices, +&c., or to the individual himself, as Jacob to Laban. Gen. 31:41, "Thus +have I been twenty years _in thy house_; I served thee fourteen years +for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle, and thou hast +changed my wages ten times." Thus Abraham could acquire a claim on the +service of a man during life by purchase from himself; could acquire the +allegiance of a man and his family, and all born in it, by contract, not +to be broken but by mutual agreement; and in a few years have a vast +household under his authority, "born in his house," and "bought with +money," yet not one of them a slave. + +Another general proof already alluded to is, that the terms #EVEDH#, +"servant," and #NAAR#, _naar_, "young man," are applied synonymously +and equally to servants and free persons. Gen. 14:24, Abraham calls his +servants young men, and again in Gen. 17:23, 27. So in Job 1:15-19, the +term #NAAR# is applied alike to Job's servants and sons. Also in +Judg. 7:10; 19:3, 11, 19; 1 Sam. 9:3, 5, 10, 22, and numerous other +places, these terms are applied indiscriminately to servants, showing +that they were always regarded as men, never as chattels. + +But we are not left to conjecture in regard to the status or condition +of Abraham's servants; we will bring proofs showing that it could not +have been chattel slavery. + +Two of the fundamental characteristics of chattelism are, The status of +the mother decides that of the child, and The slave, being property, can +not inherit or possess property. Was this the condition of "servants" in +patriarchal society? If so, then these characteristics brand them as +chattels; but on the contrary, if no record is found of their being +sold, (the buying we have already reasonably accounted for;) if the +children of these servants were reckoned free, if they and their +children could inherit property, then even American slave law and custom +declare them free persons, and not chattels personal. + +Take the case of Hagar. We read, Gen. 16:1, she was an Egyptian +"handmaid, maid-servant," perhaps one of those referred to in Gen. +12:16. Abraham, at Sarah's instigation, makes her his concubine. The +usual bickering of Eastern harems ensues. Hagar leaves the tribe, is +sent back by the angel, Ishmael is born, and this son of a slave (?) is +regarded not only as free, but heir of the house of Abraham. Years pass, +and the wild, reckless Ishmael is seen ridiculing Isaac, his puny +brother and coheir. At the sight, all the mother and the aristocrat +again rise up in Sarah, and she cries out to Abraham, "Cast out this +bondwoman and her son, for he shall not be heir with my son, even +Isaac;" and Abraham, so far from regarding them as chattels personal, +and selling them south, sends off the wild boy to be the wild, free +Arab, "whose hand will be against every man, and every man's hand +against his." + +Take the case of Bilhah and Zilpah, given by Laban (Gen. 29:24, 29,) as +handmaids (#AUMAU#) to his daughters Leah and Rachel. Gen. 30:4-14. +They become Jacob's concubines, and bear him four sons--Dan, Naphtali, +Gad, and Asher. Here the case is plain; the mothers are "servants," they +have children, and these, instead of being (as in similar cases daily at +the South) "reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels personal," are +recognized as free and equal with the other sons, Reuben, Judah, &c., +and become, like them, heads of tribes in Israel. In these cases,--and +they are all which relate to the point at issue,--either the status of +these servants _did_ or _did not_ decide that of their children. If it +_did_, then, by the laws of chattelism, the children being free prove +the mother (though servant) to be free; if it _did not_, then the mother +was held only by feudal allegiance, while the children were always free. +In either case the conditions of chattelism did not exist; they were not +slaves, but free persons in the same condition as members of wandering +Arab and Tartar tribes to this day. + +Did the second fundamental condition of chattelism mentioned above +exist? The slave, being property, can not possess or inherit property. +In Gen. 15:3 we find Abraham complaining to the Lord, "Behold, to me +thou hast given no seed, and lo, _one born in my house_ is my heir!" The +same term is used here as in speaking of Abraham's other servants; and +yet this "servant" is declared by Abraham his acknowledged heir. Here +there is a manifest contradiction of the conditions of a chattel slave. +They can not inherit property; this man could; therefore he was not a +slave. It is an entirely gratuitous assumption to assert that Abraham's +dependents were slaves; for similar cases occur daily in nomadic tribes, +as formerly they did in Scottish clans. If the chief has no child +capable of succeeding him in office, he chooses from his dependents some +tried and trusty warrior, and adopts him as lieutenant or henchman, to +succeed him as heir or chief. Just so Abraham, then nearly eighty years +old, despairing of a son to take his place as chief of the tribe, +adopted some young warrior (perhaps a leader in the battle of Hobah) as +his heir, with the proviso of resigning in favor of a son if any be +born. But in the case of Jacob's four sons the conclusion is +self-evident--children of "servants" or "handmaids," yet recognized as +free like the other sons, sharing the property of the father equally +with them;--the conditions of a state of chattelism did not exist. + +These things prove conclusively that the term "servant" never meant +_slave_ in patriarchal families; that the term "bought with money" +referred only to feudal allegiance or service for a time agreed on by +both parties. These servants could possess and inherit property; their +children were free; they were trained to the use of arms; in religious +matters master and servant were alike and equal; and they were always +considered and called _men_, never slaves or chattels,--all which are +directly contrary to the principles and express enactments of American +slave law, and are the characteristics of free persons even at the +South. Add to this the significant fact that not one word is said in the +patriarchal records of _selling_ any of these servants, (the only act +mentioned of selling a human being is that of Joseph by his brethren, so +bitterly reprobated and repented of by them soon after,) though +frequently bought; that no fugitive law existed, in fact could not exist +in a wandering tribe,--and the natural conclusion is, that they were not +slaves, but free men and women; and therefore the records of patriarchal +society conclusively deny the existence of chattel slaves or slavery as +one of its institutions. + +Years pass, and we find the Israelites reduced to a servile condition as +the serfs of the Egyptians. God, in his purposes, allowed them to remain +thus for a time, and then, instead of sanctioning even this modified +form of slavery, demanded their instant release; and on refusal, with +terrible judgments on their oppressors, he led forth that army of +fugitive slaves, and drowned their pursuers in the Red Sea. + + 4. _Mosaic Laws._ + +We come next to the sanction and authority of chattel slavery claimed to +exist in the laws and economy of these people just escaped from bondage, +and framed by him who had shown his displeasure against slavery by +nearly destroying a nation of slaveholders for holding and catching +slaves. The arguments for this claim are--1. That the term "servant" or +"bondman" used in the Mosaic law means chattel slavery; 2. That in +certain cases the Hebrews might hold their brethren as slaves for ever; +3. They might buy slaves from the heathen around, and hold them for +ever. These positions, we admit, have some plausibility, and have +doubtless had great weight in producing the opinion that chattelism is +sanctioned by the Bible. We propose to consider the condition of the +classes of servants referred to in their order. + +1. _Hebrew servants._ These were of four kinds--servants under contract +or indenture for six years, probably from one sabbatic year to another: +servants held till the year of jubilee, or "for ever:" children born in +the house, or hired out by their parents: convicted thieves; and +afterward, though sanctioned by no law, debtors. + +In respect to the first of these classes, the law is found in Ex. +21:2-6; Deut. 15:12-18. "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall +he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out _free_, for nothing." Here +the term "buy" can only be applied to the _service_, sold by the servant +for six years, (or perhaps to the sabbatic seventh year, as daily or +weekly service ended with the Sabbath,) for it is applied to a state +which no ingenuity whatever can construe as chattelism. + +The second class of Hebrew servants is mentioned Ex. 21:5, 6. "If the +servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I +will not go out free; then his master shall bring him to the judges: he +shall also bring him to the door or to the door-post, and he shall bore +his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever." Deut. +15:17, the same law adds, "And also to thy maid-servant shalt thou do +likewise." But in Lev. 25:39, 40, 53, it is expressly enacted that one +who served longer than six years was not to be treated or considered as +an #EVEDH#, _evedh_, one contracting for a term of years, but as a +#SAUKIR#, _saukir_, a hired servant, to be well treated and compensated +for his services. "Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant, +but as a hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee." The +servant must plainly say, "_I will not_ go out;" it must be _voluntary_ +service; but chattelism is involuntary, forced, and directly contrary to +the case before us. "He shall serve _him_ for ever," not his sons after +him, not giving the right of transfer or sale of service to a third +person, "_He_ shall serve," not his wife or children, but himself, till +death, or his master's death, or the jubilee. This, then, was not +chattelism, for it was _voluntary_, _without purchase_ or sale, _ending +with the life of the servant, the master, or the year of release--the +jubilee_. + +The third class of servants--children--appear during minority to have +been, as now in all Eastern countries, entirely at the service or +control of their parents, and might by them be hired out, Neh. 5:2-6, +but, when of age, were of course independent of parental acts and +control. John 9:21. That the offspring of servants in patriarchal times +were free we have already proved; that they were so among the Israelites +is shown by the case of Abimelech, the son of a maid-servant, Judg. +9:18, yet free as his brethren, and afterward king of Israel; also of +Sheshan. 1 Chr. 2:34, 35. No service, indeed, could be recognized or +demanded, in Jewish law, of grown persons, except as the result of +contract or crime. + +In respect to the fourth class, it is plain from the language used that +only sufficient service could be required of them to cancel the +obligation of restitution. Ex. 22:3. "He should make full restitution; +if he have nothing, then he shall be _sold_ for his theft;" in case of +debt, Matt. 18:34, "till he should pay all that was due to him." + +2. _Servants obtained from the heathen._ These were, first, captives. +From the account of the first taking of captives by the Israelites, Num. +31:7-47, we learn, verse 7, that they marched into Midian, slew all the +males, and seized the women, children, flocks, and herds. On their +return Moses reprimanded them for disobeying God's command by preserving +the grown women; and thereupon they killed all but the virgins and +children, reserving them for adoption into the families of the nation. +In Deut. 20:14 and 21:10-14, we have these commands and regulations +given, with an express prohibition of the enslavement of these captives, +in case of repudiation by the captors. "It shall be, if thou have no +delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou +shalt not sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of +her, because thou hast humbled her." Now, all slaveholding tribes and +nations, when they seize captives for slaves, aim to obtain as many +strong and vigorous men as possible; must it not, therefore, fairly be +inferred from this regulation that God, by prohibiting instead of +sanctioning the most productive mode of slave-making,--the enslavement +of prisoners of war,--did not intend, but positively prohibited, the +Israelites from becoming a slaveholding nation? + +Secondly, "bought with money." The law referring to these is Lev. 25:44, +46. "Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids which thou shalt have shall be +of the heathen round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and +bondmaids.... And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children +after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen +for ever." As we have already stated, the Hebrews had but two terms for +"servant"--the generic term _evedh_, one under contract for a term of +years, and _saukir_, one hired by the day, week, or year. Now, the term +here translated "bondman" is the generic #EVEDH#, _evedh_, elsewhere +translated "servant," and therefore should have been thus translated +here, unless a different rendering is required by the context. The more +literal reading of the Hebrew is, "And thy men-servants and thy +maid-servants which shall be to thee from the nations around you, of +them shall ye procure the man-servant and maid-servant." What, then, was +the difference between the Hebrew and heathen _evedh_? + +This. The Hebrew could only be an _evedh_, a servant by contract, for +six years, Ex. 21:2--"Six years shall he serve, but in the seventh _he +shall go out free_;" (longer service could not be contracted for, but +_must be_ voluntary, Ex. 21:5;) or as a hired servant or sojourner till +the jubilee, but _never_ beyond. Lev. 25:10, 39-41. But a heathen could +bind himself as an _evedh_ for longer than six years; and thus his +service, unlike the Hebrew, could be "bought" as "an inheritance for +your children after you," but, like the Hebrew voluntary "for ever" +servants, they were bondmen for the longest time known by the law--till +death or the jubilee. + +Is it objected that the terms "buy," "possession," "for ever," are used, +and indicate chattelism? We answer, All admit the Hebrew was not a +chattel; for his service expired at the seventh year, the death of +himself or his master. "_He_ shall serve _him_ for ever;" but, if both +lived on, this service, though voluntary, as has been shown, expired +with all such claims at the jubilee. Since the same terms, and, as we +shall show directly, the jubilee, applied equally to both, if it does +not prove the one a chattel, it does not the other; therefore both are +equally voluntary contractors. The service, and not the bodies, were +bought; and both were equally free at the jubilee. + +Two objects were accomplished by this law. 1st. To permit the Hebrews to +obtain that assistance in tilling the land, which otherwise they would +not have been allowed to do. 2d. To increase the numbers of the +commonwealth, since the Hebrews, in obedience to the Abrahamic covenant, +Gen. 17:10-14; Ex. 12:44-49, were bound to circumcise these indented +servants "bought with money," thus making them part of the household +during their period of service, and also naturalized citizens of the +state, members of the congregation, partakers of all the rites and +privileges common to the mass of the people. Ex. 12:44-9. Num. 15:15-30, +"One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for +the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your +generations; _as ye are, so shall the stranger be_ before the Lord." +Lev. 19:34, "The stranger that dwelleth among you shall be as one born +among you, and _thou shalt love him as thyself_." In accordance with the +frequently-repeated injunction of this law of equality, they were +invariably recognized as citizens, and alike with Hebrew servants, were +amenable to, and received protection from, the laws of the state. + +In further proof of this, and in direct opposition to chattelism, is the +fact, that the laws regulating the relation of master and servant are +each and all enacted for the benefit and protection of the servant, and +not one for that of the master. Again, when property is spoken of, oxen, +sheep, &c., the term _owner_ is always used, _master_ never; when +servants and masters are spoken of, _master_ is always used, _owner_ +never. Ex. 21:29, "The ox shall be stoned, and his _owner_ also shall be +put to death," Ex. 21:34, If an ox or ass fall into a pit left +uncovered, "the _owner_ of the pit shall make it good, and give money to +the _owner_ of them." But, Deut. 25:15, "Thou shall not deliver to his +_master_ the servant which is escaped from his _master_ unto thee." + +The inference from all this is plain. No such thing as property in man +is recognized in the Mosaic law; but God, finding polygamy and the law +of serfdom existing among the Israelites, did not see fit to abolish +them at once, but so hampered and hedged them about by restrictive +statutes as gradually and finally to abolish them altogether. + + 5. _Restrictive Laws._ + +But lest oppression should trample upon the rights of the laboring +classes, and aim at their enslavement,--which actually happened +afterward, and was one of the principal items of God's indictment (Jer. +22:3; 34:8-22) against the Jews prior to their destruction by +Nebuchadnezzar,--three special enactments were made to prevent such +iniquity, and break up any attempt at chattel slavery in the nation. + +_First. The law against kidnaping._--Ex. 21:16, "He that stealeth a man +and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put +to death." Thus the one great means of obtaining slaves is forbidden. He +who (no matter where) seizes a human being, (no matter whom,) and +reduces him to involuntary servitude, shall die; for he seeks to take +away the rights and privileges of freedom, all that goes to make up +life; seeks to make property of man, to extinguish the man in the +chattel. + +"But," it is said, "this only refers to stealing slaves." Mark the +logic: a man could seize and enslave another with impunity; but if, +afterward, the father, brother, or friend of the enslaved should attempt +to rescue him, he must die! Glorious argument for slaveholders and +slave-catchers! It is also said this refers to Hebrews, not strangers. +Let God answer. Lev. 24:22, "Ye shall have one manner of law, as well +for the stranger as for one of your own country; for I am the Lord your +God." This is his interpretation of the breadth of the law given in the +preceding verse, "He that killeth a man, he shall be put to death." The +law, therefore, is unrestricted and universal; Hebrew or heathen, he +that killeth a _man_ and he that stealeth a _man_ shall alike die; thus +putting slavery and murder on the same footing, as equally criminal. +Now, if God sanctioned slavery, why did he make such an inconsistent law +as this forbidding it? + +_Second. The law concerning fugitives._--Deut. 23:15, 16, "Thou shalt +not deliver to his master the servant which is escaped from his master +unto thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which +he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt +not oppress him." + +There is no equivocation here; "_thou shalt not deliver_ unto his +master." It is imperative; they were to receive him among them as a +citizen, and, if need be, protect him from his master; mark, not a +"heathen" or "Hebrew," servant, but the "servant," heathen or Hebrew, +whoever should fly from the ill treatment or injustice of a hard master. +Compare for a moment the Hebrew and American fugitive laws. The Hebrew +says, "Thou _shalt not_ deliver to his master the servant that is +escaped." The American says, "Thou _shalt_ deliver him up to his master, +or be fined one thousand dollars, and suffer six months' imprisonment." +The Hebrew says, "He shall _dwell_ with thee ... thou shalt _not +oppress_ him." The American law says, "The commissioner who tries the +case shall get five dollars if he fails, and ten if he succeeds in +'delivering to his master' the fugitive, on the simple affidavit of the +former that he is his slave." + +What are the deductions from this law of Moses? The return of stray +_property_ is expressly commanded in Deut. 22:1-3; the return of +_servants_ is expressly forbidden here; the servant could leave a hard +master at any time, and the state could not compel him to return: it did +not recognize the condition of forced, but only voluntary servitude, and +thus rendered the existence of chattelism impossible. + +_The third great protective law was that of the Jubilee._--Lev. +25:10-55, "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim LIBERTY +throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a +jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and +ye shall return every man to his family." ... Here the expression is +emphatic, no reservations are made, no restrictions allowed. As the +sound of #YOVAL, YOVAL#, Yov[=a]l, Yov[=a]l, sounded through the land, +and was echoed back from hill and village, from hamlet and town, the cry +was taken up, and borne along by the laboring thousands of Israel, many +of whom had been toiling under contract for years, by the unfortunate +debtor, and those whom poverty had compelled to part with "the old house +at home," all returned, all were free. "Liberty, liberty!" + +It is vain to assume that the benefits of the Jubilee were restricted to +a particular class. To what class? Not the six years' servants; they +were freed in the seventh. Not to debtors; there _was no law_ compelling +them to serve at all; therefore they could only serve voluntarily to pay +their debts. Not to thieves; they could only be compelled to make +restitution of the thing stolen, or its value; that paid, they were +free. The only other classes to whom the law could apply were "all the +inhabitants of the land" who served the longest time, the Hebrew "for +ever" servants, and the heathen servants, thus preventing the +possibility of the rise and growth of a servile class, the curse of any +country. In this way only can we account for the fact that Jewish +history never mentions the existence of a large servile class, or a +servile insurrection in Israel, so common and disastrous an occurrence +in the history of ancient slaveholding communities. + +Some object here, that the term "inhabitants" implies "all the Hebrews," +and excludes the strangers, Canaanites, &c.; but by admitting that "all +the Hebrews" were freed at the Jubilee, they admit that those who, in +Ex. 21:6, are servants "for ever," are also freed, and thus to serve +"for ever" only implies till the Jubilee. If, then, "for ever" means +only till the Jubilee in one case, it means no more in the other. And if +we show that the strangers and Canaanites _were_ considered "inhabitants +of the land," then the Jubilee referred to Hebrew and stranger alike, +and both were free. In Ex. 34:12, 15, "Take heed to thyself, lest thou +make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest;" +and Lev. 18:25; Num. 33:52-55, Moses calls the heathen "the inhabitants +of the land;" and as he was likely to understand the meaning of the term +pretty well, he either refers in the Jubilee law to Hebrews, Canaanites, +and all, or he meant Canaanites and heathen alone, which is still more +decisive. Again, in 2 Sam. 11:2-27; 23:39, we find one of these +strangers, Uriah the _Hittite_, not only an "inhabitant" of Jerusalem, +but one of David's best officers, and his wife becoming queen of Israel +and mother of Solomon; and in 2 Sam. 24:18-25, another, Araunah the +Jebusite is a householder, and more, is praised as acting like a king +toward king David, who bought property of him whereon to build an altar; +and yet, forsooth, they were not inhabitants! + +But, as if to prevent equivocation, Moses defines the phrase "all the +inhabitants;" "Ye shall return _every man_ to his possession, and ye +shall return _every man_ to his family." Not every Hebrew, but every +_man_, the same generic term as in the law against killing or stealing +"a man;" it is unqualified and universal. Thus with one blow this noble +law strikes down the two principal sources of social oppression--monopoly +of land and monopoly of labor. All who had by poverty been compelled +to part with the old farm and homestead received it back; all claims of +service against any person, however mean and humble, were canceled; and +the land and its inhabitants were again free as God had made them. + +These accumulated arguments, each separately weighty and forcible, but +collectively insurmountable, we think prove conclusively that the form +of servitude among the Israelites was not chattel slavery, and that +there is no sanction or authority for it in the Mosaic laws and +regulations. + +Thus in Jewish history we see the Israelites groaning under Egyptian +bondage, and God's arm outstretched to rescue them when fugitives, and +punish their pursuers--a warning to all such thereafter; we see laws +enacted to prevent the existence of chattelism among them, by +restricting the master's power, and securing the servant's freedom at +regular intervals, and the opposite doctrine of equality among men +asserted; we see the Israelites disobeying these commands, and adopting, +with the idolatry of their neighbors, their slavery also, and God's +fiery wrath denounced on them for it by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, +and fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar in the destruction and captivity of the +state. + + + NEW TESTAMENT. + + _Teachings of Christ._ + +Ages pass, the Jews are restored to their land, but the Roman eagle +overshadows it and all the civilized world. Despotism is enthroned; and +the idea that the world and its people are the property of Rome and its +citizens is questioned only in murmuring whispers. All the relations of +Roman life partake of this idea of absolutism; slavery is every where, +liberty nowhere. Then the glad tidings of Messiah's coming is announced +to an expectant world. Whom will he side with--the crushed and +despairing millions, or the aristocratic and haughty few? Will he adopt +and develop the idea of equality found in Jewish law, or the principle +now ascendant,--"Might makes right,"--the Roman slave law? Let him +answer. + +Standing in the synagogue at Nazareth, the home of his boyhood, amid his +expectant friends and relations, he reads (Luke 4:16-21) from Isaiah, +"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to +_preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the +broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of +sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach +the acceptable year of the Lord_. And he closed the book and sat down, +... and began to say to them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in +your ears." There is his commission and the constitution of his kingdom. +Can any thing be more explicit? + +Christ himself comes with glad tidings for the poor, to destroy slavery +and oppression, and establish liberty. Rejoice, ye poor, taught hitherto +that ye were made only for the service of the rich; there is glad +tidings for you. Rejoice, captives and slaves, "bruised" with the lash +and fetter; _God_ comes "to preach deliverance to the captives, liberty +to them that are bruised, and the acceptable year (the Jubilee) of the +Lord." + +How did he fulfill this commission and pledge? No code of laws and +dogmas, terse and dry, were issued by him for the government of his +kingdom; but the great principle was proclaimed of a common brotherhood +as children of God our Father, and of love to him as such. In his sermon +on the mount, the parables of the lost sheep and silver piece, the good +Samaritan, the prodigal son, the Pharisee and the publican; in his +private teachings to his disciples; and, above all, by his daily example +he taught and illustrated, as the leading characteristics of his +kingdom, love to God, the brotherhood of man, the rights of all, however +poor, degraded, or despised. More, he makes this idea of brotherhood +and equality even with himself, the great test in the judgment. Matt. +25:40, 45: "And the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say +unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." What will those who now boast of +their large churches, composed almost entirely of slaves, Christian +ministers, and church members, bought, sold, lashed, and treated like +cattle, answer the King in that great day? + +But to return: the result of such teachings was soon evident. "The +common people heard him gladly," hung on his steps and words by +thousands, and hailed him as deliverer; while Scribes and Pharisees, +priests and rulers, denounced him as "a friend of publicans and +sinners," only seeking popularity among the masses, to disturb the +public peace, and revolutionize the government. Mark, it was not simply +religious, but _political_ interference and teaching they charged him +with, and on this charge they finally compassed his death. + +In his private teachings to his disciples he strongly inculcated this +truth. Striving among themselves for the supremacy, he charges them, +Matt. 20:26-28, and many other places, "It shall not be so among you; +but whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as +the Son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to +give his life a ransom for many." The law thus explicitly laid down, and +in John 13 enforced by his example, is the very opposite of chattelism. +In his church, none were to claim supremacy over others, much less +_enslave_ them; none to despise labor and the laborer, much less condemn +others to it while themselves lived in idleness. + +Thus Christ, so far from sanctioning chattelism or property in man in +any shape or form, by precept and example taught the opposite, the +dignity of labor and the laborer, the common brotherhood of man, and +consequent equality, political and religious. Did his apostles indorse +this doctrine, or, fearing the result, did they side with the all +prevalent system of class legislation and slavery? + + _Teachings of the Apostles._ + +The result of their teaching in Judea is given in Acts 4:32-35--"And the +multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul; neither +said any of them _that aught of the things he possessed was his own_; +but they had all things common. Neither was there any among them that +lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and +brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at +the apostles' feet, and distribution was made to every man according as +he had need." They not only believed in "liberty, equality, and +fraternity," but practised its extreme--not only equality of rights, but +equality of property, among the brotherhood. + +But this was comparatively easy in Judea, where the principle of +equality was already partly recognized, and the existence of chattelism +prevented by the action of the Mosaic code. The apostles only fairly +came in conflict with the spirit of caste and slavery when, filled with +love and the Spirit, they entered heathen countries, "preaching the glad +tidings of the kingdom," and establishing every where the glorious +brotherhood of humanity, whose primary law is, "A new commandment I give +unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you. By this shall +men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John +13:34-5. And Paul expounds it to the Gentiles, 1 Cor. 12:13--"For by one +Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or +Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink +into one Spirit." Gal. 3:26-28: "Ye are all the children of God by faith +in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ +have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, _there is neither +bond nor free_, there is neither male nor female; _for ye are all one in +Christ Jesus_." Again, Col. 3:11, "There is neither Greek nor Jew, +circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free; +but Christ is all and in all." + +Can language be more express and conclusive than this? The distinctions +here dissolved by the waters of baptism, and blended into "one in Christ +Jesus," are not, as our southern brethren assert, simply religious, but +NATIONAL, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL--slavery, and the spirit of caste and +clan which upholds it, alike forbidden, and liberty, equality, and +fraternity, social, political, and religious, proclaimed as the rule of +Christ's kingdom. + +Principles like these came upon the world like the morning sunlight, +scattering the mists of superstitious ignorance, melting the icy pride +and selfishness of the mighty, permeating all classes and relations of +society with their secret influence, and blending all into one +harmonious brotherhood of love and peace. Apparently they were subject +as others to the laws of the state, but in secret were bound by stronger +ties, and governed by higher, nobler laws, than the world outside +dreamed of. + +Instead of the Roman law of marriage, regarding the wife as the +husband's slave, he must love her as himself; more, as Christ loved the +church. Instead of the tyranny on one side, and the retaliating +disobedience on the other, of the Roman parental relation, it became the +image of our heavenly Father's love, and our trusting obedience to him. +The relation of slave, "pro nullo, pro quadrupedo, pro mortuo," (as a +nobody, a quadruped, a dead man,) to his master, became the relation of +brethren, the one to render true and faithful service, Eph. 6:5, the +other never to threaten, Eph. 6:9, much less punish; not to regard them +as chattels, as under the Roman law, but to give them _just_ and _equal_ +compensation for their service, Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1, "knowing that ye +also have a Master in heaven," "neither is there respect of persons with +him." The legal deed of manumission was unnecessary; for as, when master +and slave land in England, they may remain connected as master and free +servant, _never_ as master and slave, so, on admission into the +brotherhood of the church, the waters of baptism, as shown above, +dissolved the relation of slavery, and substituted that of freemen and +brethren. + +Again, believers were members of Christ's body. He dwelt in them; and +therefore every indignity and injury done to them was done to him in +their person. To enslave, buy, and sell them was to enslave, buy, and +sell Christ himself. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of +these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Who, then, would dare hold +a brother Christian as a slave? What! make merchandise of the person of +Christ? Never! the cry of Judas would ring around them as they were +driven ignominiously from the church. + +"Why," it is objected, "did not the apostles preach immediate +emancipation, instead of indorsing slavery by defining its +duties--'Servants, obey your masters,' &c.? and Paul even sent back a +slave." 1. The primary object of the apostles was not simply "to preach +liberty to the captives;" this was but a branch of the tree planted "for +the healing of the nations." Their object was to sow the principles of +faith, love, justice, and equality, well knowing that, when these took +root and flourished, among the first fruit would be "liberty to all the +inhabitants of the land." 2. Had this been their great object, they took +the best and speediest plan for its accomplishment. Attacking the system +directly, the appearance of the Christian missionary would have been the +signal for servile war and untold bloodshed, the slave against the +master, the poor against the rich; and the heathen rulers, eager for a +pretext to crush them, would have denounced them as lighting the torch +of rebellion and war; and the further spread of the gospel would have +been drowned in the blood of its founders. But they took the very course +which God adopted among the Israelites in regard to servitude, not +directly prohibiting it, but inculcating principles of social equality +and progress, restricting the master's power, and protecting the +servant's rights, till, master and slave blended in one, the name of +slave was lost in that of Christian. 3. The relation and duties of +master and servant are defined by the apostles exactly as they might be +to-day in England or the free states--as those of men, _never_ as owner +and property; on the contrary, all ownership of man by other than God is +expressly denied. 1 Cor. 6:19, 20, "What! know ye not that your body is +the temple of the Holy Ghost in you, which ye have of God, and _ye are +not your own_? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in +your body and your spirit, _which are God's_." There the ownership is +clearly asserted; how can man claim it? "Render to Cesar the things that +are Cesar's, _and to God the things that are God's_," lest you be found +robbing God himself. Again, 1 Cor. 7:21, 23, "Art thou called, being a +servant? care not for it; but, if thou mayst be made free, (+dynasai +genesthai+, canst become free,) use it rather." What can be more +explicit than this? First, ownership of man is denied even to _himself_, +much more to _another_. Next, the exhortation to slaves is, if they +_can not_ get free from this great wrong, to bear it as such, but, if +they _can_, "use it rather;" and the reason given is followed by a rule +of action to be adopted wherever possible. Verse 23, "Ye are bought with +a price; BE NOT YE THE SERVANTS OF MEN." If this be not express +prohibition of chattelism, and command to slaves to free themselves from +it, then the language is totally contradictory and unintelligible. + +Contrast these laws of Paul with the laws of most of the southern +states, forbidding even the master to free his slaves, while states and +Congress unite in hounding back to whip and task the poor slave who +dares obey that command; nay, offer large rewards for men, even +Christian ministers, when attempting to obey it. "But Paul sent back +Onesimus to his master, and therefore sanctioned the sending back of +fugitives." We answer, there was no sending back at all. Paul, a +prisoner, could not send him back: a Jew, he was forbidden by his +religion to do so. Deut. 23:15. It was simply a recommendatory letter +sent with Onesimus, returning voluntarily to Colosse and his master. Let +us look at the letter. Verse 8 begins, "Wherefore, though I might be +much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet, for +love's sake, I rather beseech thee. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, +... _which in time past was to thee unprofitable_, but now profitable to +thee and to me; whom I have sent again, ... not now as a servant, but +above a servant, a brother beloved," &c. Here Onesimus is described as +having been, while heathen, an "unprofitable" trouble to his master, and +had either run away or been sent away by him. Converted at Rome, Paul +heard his story, and in his letter, instead of thinking he is doing +Philemon a favor, has to earnestly "beseech," almost command, his +reception as a favor to himself. Not one word of _property_ or _right_ +in him, save the right of love as one of the brotherhood. "NOT NOW AS A +SERVANT, but _above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me_, but +how much more to thee!" Onesimus had left the "slave" in his heathenism; +in Christ he became the "brother" of Philemon and Paul. Instead of +sanctioning chattelism, it positively denies it by affirming voluntary +service, the equality of men as brethren, to be loved as Christ +himself. + +Thus Christ and his apostles, so far from upholding chattelism in their +teachings, denounced the ownership of man by any but God, and inculcated +its opposite--love, liberty, equality, and fraternity--by precept and +example. And subsequent history showed the result. + +Christ said of the teachings of the Pharisees, "By their fruits ye shall +know them." Apply this test to the teachings of the apostles and the +primitive churches in regard to slavery. When they went forth, "darkness +covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" slavery sat enthroned +in might over Europe; and the cries of the oppressed millions had only +had a hearing on the battle or before the throne of God. + +When the Reformation came slavery had disappeared in Europe; and the +voice of the people was heard asserting their rights, feebly, indeed, at +first, but ever since growing stronger and stronger "as the voice of +many waters." What has caused this change? + +Historians, Protestant and Catholic, ascribe it to the influence of the +church, not by direct emancipatory decrees, but, following the example +of God through Moses, by gradually restricting the master's power, and +protecting the slave; by girdling the poison tree till it withered and +fell, though, sad to say, the ruins still disfigure too much field, of +the fair fields of Europe and America. + +No fact is more patent in history than the truth expressed by Paul to +the Corinthians: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY." +The whole tendency of the Bible and true Christianity, direct and +indirect, is to the liberty and advancement, never the slavery and +degradation, of man; and those who have attempted to shield the monster +curse of our country and age with the garb of the gospel may find too +late, when that awful voice shall ring in their ears, "Inasmuch as ye +have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it +unto me," that Christ came not only "to preach deliverance to the +captives" and "to set at liberty them that are bruised," but also "the +day of vengeance of our God." + + * * * * * + + AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, + 28 Cornhill, Boston. + + * * * * * + + + + + EXTRACT FROM MR. O'CONOR'S ARGUMENT + + _Before the New York Court of Appeals, on the "Lemmon + Slave Case."_ + + +"I submit most respectfully that the only desire I have manifested here +or elsewhere, in reference to the question, has been to draw the mind of +the court and the intelligent mind of the American people, to the true +question which underlies the whole conflict, and that is the question to +which my friend (W. W. Evarts, Esq.) has addressed the best, and, in my +judgment, the finest part of his very able argument. * * * My friend +denounces the institution of slavery as a monstrous injustice, as a sin, +as a violation of the law of God and of the law of man, of natural law +or natural justice; and in his argument in another place, he called your +attention to the enormity of the result claimed in this case, that these +eight persons--and not only they, but their posterity to the remotest +time--were, by your Honors' judgment, to be consigned to this shocking +condition of abject bondage and slavery. Why, how very small and minute +was that presentation of the subject! My friend must certainly have used +the microscope or reversed the telescope, when, in seeking to present +this question in a striking manner to your Honors' minds, he called your +attention to these _few_ persons and their posterity. Why, if your +Honors please, our territory embraces at the least estimate _three +millions of these human beings_, who, by our laws and institutions, as +now existing in these states, * * * are not only consigned to hopeless +bondage throughout their whole lives, but to a like condition is their +posterity consigned to the remotest times. * * * It is a question of the +mightiest magnitude. But the reason why I call your Honors' attention to +its magnitude is this: that you may contemplate it in the connection in +which my learned friend has presented it; that it is a SIN--a violation +of natural justice and the law of God; that it is a monstrous scheme of +iniquity for defrauding the laborer of his wages--one of those sins that +crieth aloud to heaven for vengeance; that it is a course of unbridled +rapine, fraud, and plunder, by which three millions and their posterity +are to be oppressed throughout all time. Now, is it a sin? Is this an +outrage against divine law and natural justice? _If it be_ such an +outrage, then I say it is a sin of the greatest magnitude, of the most +enormous and flagitious character that was ever presented to the human +mind. The man who does not shrink from it with horror is utterly +unworthy the name of a man. It is no trivial offence, that may be +tolerated with limitations and qualifications; that we can excuse +ourselves for supporting because we have made some kind of a bargain to +support it. The tongue of no human being is capable of depicting its +enormity; it is not in the power of the human heart to form a just +conception of its wickedness and cruelty. And what, I ask, is the +rational and necessary consequence, if we regard it to be thus sinful, +thus unjust, thus outrageous?" + + * * * + +Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, being much engaged in urging the sinfulness of +slavery, called one day at the house of Dr. Bellamy in Bethlem, +Connecticut, and while there pressed upon him the duty of liberating his +only slave. Dr. B., who was an acute and ingenious reasoner, defended +slaveholding by a variety of arguments, to which Dr. H. as ably replied. +At length Dr. Hopkins proposed to Dr. Bellamy practical obedience to the +golden rule. "Will you give your slave his freedom if he desires it?" +Dr. B. replied that the slave was faithful, judicious, trusted with +every thing, and would not accept freedom if offered. "Will you free him +if _he_ desires it?" repeated Dr. H. "Yes," answered Dr. Bellamy, "I +will." "Call him then." The man appeared. "Have you a good, kind +master?" asked Dr. Hopkins. "Oh! yes, very, very good." "And are you +happy?" "Yes, master, _very_ happy." "Would you be more happy if you +were free?" His face brightened. "Oh! yes, master, a great deal more +happy." "_From this moment_," said Dr. Bellamy, "_you are free_." + + + + +[Transcriber's Note, Continued.--The following minor errors have been +corrected: the word "in" missing before "spite" on p. 1 ("and spite of +all compromises ..."), a superfluous quotation mark on p. 5 (""That he +had men-servants ..."), a missing "d" in "praised" on p. 17 ("is praise +as acting"), "is" used for "in" on p. 25 ("now existing is these states +..."), and on p. 6, where the first two characters of #NAAR# were +transposed. Also note that the author used Ashkenazic pronunciation for +his transliteration, and that it would not be considered accurate by +modern standards. Alternative transliterations are: + + 1. auvadh--avad + 2. evedh--eved + 3. saukir--sakhir + 4. aumau--ama + 5. shiphechau--shifcha + 6. kaunau--kana + 7. naar--na'ar + 8. Yov[=a]l--Yovel] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible?, by Isaac Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE *** + +***** This file should be named 24600.txt or 24600.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/0/24600/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, S. Drawehn and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from scans of public domain works at the +University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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