But by the second of these laws a still more astonishing fact is disclosed.  If the first effectually prevented all involuntary servitude, the last absolutely forbade even voluntary servitude being perpetual.  On the great day of atonement every fiftieth year the Jubilee trumpet was sounded throughout the land of Judea, and Liberty was proclaimed to all the inhabitants thereof.  I will not say that the servants’ chains fell off and their manacles were burst, for there is no evidence that Jewish servants ever felt the weight of iron chains, and collars, and handcuffs; but I do say that even the man who had voluntarily sold himself and the heathen who had been sold to a Hebrew master, were set free, the one as well as the other.  This law was evidently designed to prevent the oppression of the poor, and the possibility of such a thing as perpetual servitude existing among them.

Where, then, I would ask, is the warrant, the justification, or the palliation of American Slavery from Hebrew servitude?  How many of the southern slaves would now be in bondage according to the laws of Moses; Not one.  You may observe that I have carefully avoided using the term slavery when speaking of Jewish servitude; and simply for this reason, that no such thing existed among that people; the word translated servant does not mean slave, it is the same that is applied to Abraham, to Moses, to Elisha and the prophets generally. Slavery then never existed under the Jewish Dispensation at all, and I cannot but regard it as an aspersion on the character of Him who is “glorious in Holiness” for any one to assert that “God sanctioned, yea commanded slavery under the old dispensation.”  I would fain lift my feeble voice to vindicate Jehovah’s character from so foul a slander.  If slaveholders are determined to hold slaves as long as they can, let them not dare to say that the God of mercy and of truth ever sanctioned such a system of cruelty and wrong.  It is blasphemy against Him.

We have seen that the code of laws framed by Moses with regard to servants was designed to protect them as men and women, to secure to them their rights as human beings, to guard them from oppression and defend them from violence of every kind.  Let us now turn to the Slave laws of the South and West and examine them too.  I will give you the substance only, because I fear I shall trespass too much on your time, were I to quote them at length.

1. Slavery is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the slave’s earthly existence, and to all his descendants to the latest posterity.

2.  The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated; while the kind of labor, the amount of toil, the time allowed for rest, are dictated solely by the master.  No bargain is made, no wages given.  A pure despotism governs the human brute; and even his covering and provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend entirely on the master’s discretion[A].