Time for rest allowed Jewish servants.

12. Those servants among the Jews who had served fifty years had at least seventeen years rest in Sabbaths, feasts, &c. Ex. xx. 10; Deut. v. 14; xii. 17, 18; xvi. 11; Matt. xxv. 21, 23.

But nothing of this kind has ever been known among the Americans held in bondage by the Christians of this nation.

When they were set free, compensation was allowed them and not to their masters.

13. When Jewish servants went out free, they were to be liberally furnished with means to begin life with. Ex. xxi. 2, 4; Lev. xxv. 17; Deut. xv. 13, 14.

But in this land, if any poor slave goes free at all, by the consent of his master, he goes free with nothing but his poor worn-out body, and his master demands a price for his liberation!

Jewish servants held property.

14. They had the fruits of the rest years, and gleanings of harvests. Lev. xix. 9, 10; xxv. 6; Ex. xxiii. 11; 1 Sam. ix. 8; Matt. xviii. 25.

But here a slave can possess nothing but what is made by law to belong to his master.

They were endowed with authority.

15. Eligible to offices. 1 Chron. xv. 18; xvi. 5, 38; xxvi. 12, 14; Matt. xxv. 21; 2 Sam. ix. 9, 10; Neh. v. 15.

Not so in this nation. Here a slave cannot be a witness in a case where a white man is concerned. And in the city of New-York a free colored American, in the year 1836, could not obtain a license even to drive a cart. And in many parts of the country, colored Americans are not admitted to the elective franchise.

Jewish servants could not be made articles of traffic, 16. They could not be sold. Ex. xxi. 7, 8.

But here thousands of slaves are sold annually, from one State to another, and many of them by members and ministers of the same church to which the slaves themselves belong.

They were marriageable in the families of their

masters.

17. Jewish masters were obligated to provide for the marriage of maid servants, if they did not take them to themselves, or sons. Ex. xxi. 8.

But American slaveholders allow no legal marriages for their slaves, but they rather provide for their living in concubinage and adultery.

They were on a level with the children under age.

18. They could be incorporated into the family. Ex. xxi. 8, 9, by circumcision. Ex. xii. 43, 45; Lev. xxii. 10, 11; 1 Chron. ii. 34, 35, consequently could be heirs. Gen. xv. 3; Prov. xvii. 2; Mark xii. 7; Luke xx. 14.

But American slaves have no such privileges ;they are on a level with brutes, so far as rights are concerned-they can make no bargains of any

kind.

No impediments in the way to prevent the freedom of Jewish servants.

19. They could be redeemed, or redeem them. selves, at any time. Lev. xxv. 43.

American slaves have no such power. Here, laws have been enacted to prevent emancipation, even when the slaveholder is willing to confer it.

Thus we see, that the evils which are always, more or less, attendant upon American slavery, were not consequent upon the servitude allowed

among the Jews, such as slave prisons, slave markets, slave auctions, chains, iron yokes, shackles, whips, thumbscrews, &c. &c. Among the Jews there was no violent separation of parents and children, no parting of husbands and wives, no barbarous punishments, or any one thing in fact, which rendered Jewish servitude like American slavery.

CHAPTER IX.

SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT AGAINST
SLAVERY.

Slaveholding is Theft.

1. To claim, hold, and treat a human being as property, is felony against God and man. Ex. xx. 15; Deut. xxiv. 7. If it be theft to reduce a man to slavery, it must be equally so to keep him in this state.

About sixty thousand human beings are feloniously reduced to slavery in this country every year. As soon as they are born, they are claimed, seized, held, and treated as property.

Covetousness.

2. All slaveholding and slave dealing is covetousness, and as such, it is forbidden. Ex. xx. 17; Isa. lvii. 17; Jer. li. 13; Ezek. xxxiii. 31; Luke xii. 15; Col. iii. 5; 2 Pet. ii. 3.

The man who claims the body of his fellow man as his property, does, de facto, covet that which, in the very nature of things, must belong to his neighbor, and to which no circumstances can give him a just title.

Oppression.

3. Slavery is the very worst form of oppression. Oppression is the spoiling or taking of another's person or goods or the fruit of his labor, by constraint, violence or force; and this crime is committed when ever one human being offers any violence to the person, estate, or conscience of another. Prov. xiv. 31; xxviii. 3; Isa. xlix. 26; Jer. vii. 6; xxi. 12, 13; Hos. xii. 7; Amos iv. 1; Mic. ii. 2; Zach. vii. 10; Mal. iii. 5; Eccl. iv. 1; Ezek. xxii. 29; Amos iii. 9.

Manstealing.

4. Slavery is manstealing, and as such is forbidden, under the severest penalties. Ex. xxi. 16 ; Deut. xxiv. 7.

How has the present slaveholder come into the possession of the children whom he now holds as his slaves? Trey were never willed to him, nor did he purcha e them of another. How could he take possession of them, and part them from their parents without stealing them?

5.

Enslavers.

The law of God was made for enslavers. 1 Tim. i. 10. The word here rendered menstealers, signifies to enslave, to reduce to slavery to treat men as cattle.

Fraud and robbery.

6. Slavery is legalized wholesale fraud and robbery. Exek. xviii. 4; Mal. iii. 8, 9; Prov. xxi. 7; Isa. lxi. 8; Ezek. xxii. 29; Amos iii. 10; Nah. iii. 1; Mark x. 19; 1 Thes. iv. 6; Jer. xxii. 3 ; James v. 4.

Traffic in the persons of Men forbidden.

7. American slavery is condemned in all those places which forbid trading in the persons of men.

48

SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT AGAINST SLAVERY.

Ezek. xxvii. 13; Joel iii. 3, 6; Amos ii. 6; Zach. xi. 4, 5; Rev. xviii. 13.

It could not exist without the slave trade.

Christian kindness.

8. The exercise of that kindness and pity which are commanded in the Bible toward the poor, is utterly irreconcilable with slavery. Lev. xxv. 35; Job vi. 14; xxxi. 16; Psal. xli. 1; lxxxii. 3; Prov. xxii. 22; xxiv. 11; xxxi. 8; Isa. i. 16; and lviii. throughout; Jer. xxxiv. 10; Matt. xxv. 44; Heb. xiii. 3; 1 John iii. 17.

Duties of masters.

9. American slavery is condemned in the specific directions of the Apostle, to masters and servants. 1 Cor. vii. 21, 23; Eph. vi. 9; Col. iv. 1.

These precepts, if obeyed, would annihilate slavery at once, and forever.

Analogy of the gospel.

10. It is condemned in all those passages which represent the evils of sin by slavery, and gospel benefits by freedom. Gal. iv. 3, 7, 22, 31; v. 1, 13; Isa. Ixi. 1, 3; John viii. 32, 36.

The golden rule.

11. By the reciprocal and universal law of love which is binding on all men. Matt. v. 7; vii. 12; xxii. 37; John xv. 12, 17; Rom. xii. 9; 1 Cor. xiii. 28.

Spirit of the gospel.

12. Slavery cannot be reconciled with the spirit and design of the gospel. It will not exist surely in the millennial state. Gen. iii. 15, xxii, 18; Luke iv. 18; 1 Cor. iii. 17; Zeph. iii. 9; Matt. iii. 10. If it is condemned by the spirit of the gospel, the