“Answer.  No where we do find a trace of such a difference.  See Lev. xix. 33-36.”

“God says thou shalt not murder, steal, cheat, &c.  In every place the action itself is prohibited as being an abomination to God without respect to the PERSONS against whom it is committed.” ]

X. THE MOSAIC SYSTEM ENJOINED THE GREATEST AFFECTION AND KINDNESS TOWARDS SERVANTS, FOREIGN AS WELL AS JEWISH.

“The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.”  Lev. xix. 34.  “For the Lord your God * * REGARDETH NOT PERSONS.  He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and LOVETH THE STRANGER, in giving him food and raiment, LOVE YE THEREFORE THE STRANGER.”  Deut. x. 17, 19.  “Thou shalt neither vex a STRANGER nor oppress him.”  Ex. xxii. 21.  “Thou shalt not oppress a STRANGER, for ye know the heart of a stranger.”  Ex. xxiii. 9.  “If thy brother be waxen poor thou shalt relieve him, yea, though he be a STRANGER or a sojourner, that he may live with thee, take thou no usury of him or increase, but fear thy God.”  Lev. xxv. 35, 36.  Could this same stranger be taken by one that feared his God, and held as a slave, and robbed of time, earnings, and all his rights?

XI.  SERVANTS WERE PLACED UPON A LEVEL WITH THEIR MASTERS IN ALL CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS.  Num. xv. 15, 16, 29; ix. 14; Deut. i. 16, 17; Lev. xxiv. 22.  To these may be added that numerous class of passages which represents God as regarding alike the natural rights of all men, and making for all an equal provision.  Such as, 2 Chron. xix. 7; Prov. xxiv. 23, xxviii. 21; Job. xxxiv. 19, 2 Sam. xiv. 14; Acts x. 35; Eph. vi. 9.

Finally—­With such watchful jealousy did the Mosaic Institutes guard the rights of servants, as to make the mere fact of a servant’s escape from his master presumptive evidence that his master had oppressed him; and on that presumption, annulled his master’s authority over him, gave him license to go wherever he pleased, and commanded all to protect him.  Deut. xxiii. 15, 16.  As this regulation will be examined under a subsequent head, where its full discussion more appropriately belongs, we notice it here merely to point out its bearings on the topic under consideration.

THESE ARE REGULATIONS OF THAT MOSAIC SYSTEM WHICH IS CLAIMED BY SLAVEHOLDERS AS THE PROTOTYPE OF AMERICAN SLAVERY.

II.  WERE PERSONS MADE SERVANTS AGAINST THEIR WILLS?

We argue that they became servants of their own accord, because,