most familiar character. Job protested before God, that he despised not the complaint of his man-servant or his maid-servant, when they contended against him; and gave, as his reason, that both master and slave were fashioned by the same hand.' The servant frequently had control of all his master's goods; and in default of children, became his nominated heir.3

1 Job 31: 13, 15.

2 Gen. 24: 10.

3 Gen. 15: 3; Prov. 17: 2. Our Saviour alludes to this in the parable of the wicked servants who slew the son-the only heir-that the inheritance might be theirs.

CHAPTER I.

SLAVERY AMONG THE JEWS.

THERE were, among the Jews, two distinct classes of slaves, distinguished by great difference of treatment and status, as well as by the duration of their bondage. The one class consisted of their Hebrew brethren; the other of strangers and heathen. The bondage of the first expired on the seventh year; unless 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 unto the judges; he shall also bring him unto the door or doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever." Thus the Hebrew servant became one of the other class, whose bondage was perpetual. On the seventh year, the Hebrew servant, when he went free, took with him his wife, if she came with him. But if his master had given him a wife, she and her children

'Exodus 21: 5, 6; Deut. 15: 16.

I am aware that abolitionists, including learned prelates in the British House of Lords, have explained the word "forever" to mean only until the year of Jubilee. I am not a sufficient Hebrew scholar to enter into this controversy or to pretend to decide the question. I would remark that the same argument is resorted to, by those contending for universal salvation, to meet and refute the orthodox doctrine of eternal punishment. The curious on this point are referred to Fletcher's Studies on Slavery; Priest's Bible Defence of Slavery, 136; Gill's Commentary ; Lev. 25: 44; Michaelis's Comm. on Mosaic Law, vol. ii, art. 127. This learned author supposes that even the Hebrew servant in some cases served till the year of Jubilee.

belonged to the master, and remained with him, while the man-servant went out by himself. He was not sent forth penniless, but was furnished "liberally out of the flock, and out of the floor, and out of the wine-press." This limitation upon the servitude of Hebrews did not, at least under the first law, apply to Hebrew women that had been purchased as concubines for the master or his son. If she ceased to please him, "then shall he let her be redeemed." If not, food, raiment, and marriage duty were not to be diminished; on failure of either, she was enfranchised.3

The Hebrew servants consisted of those that, from poverty, either sold themselves or their children, or were sold for debt or crime. If the Hebrew sold himself to a stranger, he was subject to be redeemed, either at his own instance or that of his near relatives, by paying the wages of a hired servant up to the year of Jubilee." If his master was a Hebrew, the right of redemption does not seem to have applied.

6

A marked difference was made in the law as to the status of a Hebrew servant and one bought from the heathen. He was not to serve as a bond-servant, but as a hired servant and a sojourner. He was not to be treated with rigor, but as a brother "waxen poor." He lost, in his bondage, only his liberty, none of his civil rights. He was still a citizen, and might acquire property of his own. Tiba, one of Saul's servants, possessed twenty slaves of his own.

In case of war, the

3 Exod. 21: 7-11.

4 Lev. 25: 39; 2 Kings 3 : 16–28, 4 : 1; Ex. 22 : 2; 2 Chron. 12 :8; Neh. 5:4, 5; Is. 50:1; Matt. 18: 25; Michaelis's Comm. vol. ii, 160,

et seq.

5 Lev. 25: 42, 47-51; 1 Kings 9 : 22; Neh. 5 : 5.

6 Lev. 25: 39, 40.

Lev. 25 39, 43.

8 Lev. 10: 49; Priest's Bible Defence of Slavery, 139. 9 2 Sam. 9: 10.

slaves "born in the house" were frequently armed and went forth to battle with their master.'

The condition of the other class, the bond-servants, bought from the stranger and the heathen, or the captives taken in war, was very different. They were pure slaves, considered as "a possession," and "an inheritance for their children after them," to inherit them for a possession. They were "bondmen forever." These were very numerous, and rigorous treatment of them was tacitly allowed. That many of them were Africans and of negro extraction, seems to admit of but little doubt. Josephus says, "King Solomon had many ships that lay upon the Sea of Tarsus. These he commanded to carry out all sorts of merchandise, to the remotest nations, by the sale of which silver and gold were brought to the king, and a great quantity of ivory, apes, and Ethiopians." These were doubtless sometimes taken captives in the wars of Israel,' and frequently obtained in exchange of goods, as there was undoubtedly a slave-trade at that time, in which the Jews sometimes engaged. This practice and trade are negatively proved by the prohibition to sell the Hebrew women that were

1 Lev. 25: 49.

2 Gen. 17:13; Exodus 12: 44-45; Deuter. 20: 14, 21: 10, 11; 1 Kings 9: 20-22; Michaelis's Comm. vol. ii, art. 123.

3 Lev. 25: 44, 45, 46.

am

4 Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, ch. 7, p. 293. In another edition translated "negroes." See 2 Chron. 9: 21 ; 1 Kings 10:21. I a aware of the strictures of Gliddon and others upon the common acceptation of the term "Ethiopians." I am inclined to believe that the term was applied to all black races, the Hindoo as well as the negro. See remarks of Abbé Grégoire on this subject, in his work De la Littérature des Nègres, ch. i.

5 See 2 Chron. 14:9; 1 Kings 9: 20, 22; Isaiah 20: 3, 4; 1 Chron. 9:2; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book III, ch. ii, p. 85. The Abbé Grégoire cites and approves a statement of J. Ch. Jahn, in his Archæologia Biblica, that the Hebrews had negro eunuchs. Littérature des Nègres, p. 7.

Joel 3:8; Ezek. 27: 13.

slaves, "unto a strange nation."

Among the Egyp

tians, with whom the Jews carried on a brisk commerce, we shall see there were numbers of negro slaves. Their existence among the latter nation, therefore, is a matter of no great surprise. 2

The negro among the Jews, as everywhere he is found, was of a proscribed race. He was even forbidden to approach the altar to offer the bread of his God.3

The treatment of this class of slaves, among the Hebrews, was extremely rigorous. Corporal chastisement was customary, and sometimes resulted in death. In such event, if the death was immediate, the master was punished; but if the slave lingered "a day or two," he was not punished: "For," said the law, "he is his money." If the slave was maimed by loss of an eye, or a tooth, the penalty was his enfranchisement. The slave sometimes escaped," in which event, the master had the right of recaption. This right seems to have extended to the territory of the neighboring nations, as was exemplified in the case of Shimei pursuing his fugitives into the territory, and even the house of the King of Gath. With the characteristic exclusiveness of the Jews, they denied this right to other nations, whose slaves sought refuge among them.3

The status of this class of servants was very different from that of the Hebrew servant. He was entitled to no civil rights; could make no complaint against his master, and could not be heard as a witness. He could not redeem himself, because he could acquire nothing.

1 Exodus 21: 8.

2 The curious are referred to a very ingenious argument by Rev. J. Priest, in his Bible Defence of Slavery, to prove that all the Canaanites were black, and that "heathen" refers entirely to the black race.

The flat-nosed must refer to the negro. Lev. 21: 18.

4 Exodus 21: 20, 22; see Michaelis's Comm. vol. iv, art. 277.

5 Exod. 21: 26, 27.

71 Kings 2: 39,

40.

61 Sam. 25: 10.

8 Deut. 23: 15, 16.