at Sarah, that princess as her name signifies, baking
cakes upon the hearth. If the servants they had
were like Southern slaves, would they have performed
such comparatively menial offices for themselves?
Hear too the plaintive lamentation of Abraham when
he feared he should have no son to bear his name down
to posterity. “Behold thou hast given me
no seed, &c., one born in my house
is mine
heir.” From this it appears that one of
his
servants was to inherit his immense estate.
Is this like Southern slavery? I leave it to
your own good sense and candor to decide. Besides,
such was the footing upon which Abraham was with
his
servants, that he trusted them with arms. Are
slaveholders willing to put swords and pistols into
the hands of their slaves? He was as a father
among his servants; what are planters and masters
generally among theirs? When the institution of
circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded
thus; “He that is eight days old shall be circumcised
among you,
every man-child in your generations;
he that is born in the house, or bought with money
of any stranger which is not of thy seed.”
And to render this command with regard to his
servants
still more impressive it is repeated in the very next
verse; and herein we may perceive the great care which
was taken by God to guard the
rights of servants
even under this “dark dispensation.”
What too was the testimony given to the faithfulness
of this eminent patriarch. “For I know
him that he will command his children and his
household
after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord
to do justice and judgment.” Now my dear
friends many of you believe that circumcision has
been superseded by baptism in the Church;
Are you
careful to have
all that are born in your house
or bought with money of any stranger, baptized?
Are
you as faithful as Abraham to command
your
household to keep the way of the Lord? I leave
it to your own consciences to decide. Was patriarchal
servitude then like American Slavery?
But I shall be told, God sanctioned Slavery, yea commanded
Slavery under the Jewish Dispensation. Let us
examine this subject calmly and prayerfully.
I admit that a species of servitude was permitted
to the Jews, but in studying the subject I have been
struck with wonder and admiration at perceiving how
carefully the servant was guarded from violence, injustice
and wrong. I will first inform you how these
servants became servants, for I think this a very important
part of our subject. From consulting Horne, Calmet
and the Bible, I find there were six different ways
by which the Hebrews became servants legally.
1. If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might
sell himself, i.e. his services, for six years,
in which case he received the purchase money
himself. Lev. xxv, 39.
2. A father might sell his children as servants,
i.e. his daughters, in which circumstance
it was understood the daughter was to be the wife
or daughter-in-law of the man who bought her, and the
father received the price. In other words,
Jewish women were sold as white women were
in the first settlement of Virginia—as wives,
not as slaves. Ex. xxi, 7.