V.—­WERE MASTERS THE PROPRIETORS OF SERVANTS AS THEIR LEGAL PROPERTY?

The discussion of this topic has been already somewhat anticipated under the preceding heads; but a variety of considerations, not within the range of our previous inquiries, remain to be noticed.

1. Servants were not subjected to the uses, nor liable to the contingencies of property.

(1.) They were never taken in payment for their masters’ debts, though children were sometimes taken (without legal authority) for the debts of a father. 2 Kings iv. 1; Job xxiv. 9; Isaiah l. 1; Matt. xviii. 25.

Cases are recorded to which creditors took from debtors property of all kinds, to satisfy their demands.  In Job xxiv. 3, cattle are taken; in Prov. xxii 27, household furniture; in Lev. xxv. 25-28, the productions of the soil; in Lev. xxv. 27-30, houses; in Exodus xxii. 26-29, and Deut. xxiv. 10-13, and Matt. v. 40, clothing; but servants were taken in no instance.

(2.) Servants were never given as pledges. Property of all sorts was given and held in pledge.  We find in the Bible, household furniture, clothing, cattle, money, signets, and personal ornaments, with divers other articles of property, used as pledges for value received.  But no servants.

(3.) All lost PROPERTY was to be restored. “Oxen, asses, sheep, raiment, and whatsoever lost things,” are specified—­servant not.  Deut. xxii. 13.  Besides, the Israelites were expressly forbidden to take back the runaway servant to his master.  Deut. xxiii. 15.

(4.) The Israelites never gave away their servants as presents.  They made princely presents of great variety.  Lands, houses, all kinds of animals, merchandize, family utensils, precious metals, and grain, armor, &c. are among their recorded gifts.  Giving presents to superiors and persons of rank when visiting them, and at other times, was a standing usage. 1 Sam. x. 27; 1 Sam. xvi. 20; 2 Chron. xvii. 5.  Abraham to Abimelech, Gen. xxi. 27; Jacob to the viceroy of Egypt.  Gen. xliii. 11; Joseph to his brethren and father, Gen. xlv. 22, 23; Benhadad to Elisha, 2 Kings viii. 8, 9; Ahaz to Tiglath Pileser, 2 Kings xvi. 8; Solomon to the Queen of Sheba, 1 Kings, x. 13; Jeroboam to Ahijah, 1 Kings xiv. 3; Asa to Benhadad, 1 Kings xv. 18, 19.  But no servants were given as presents—­though that was a prevailing fashion in the surrounding nations.  Gen. xii. 16; Gen. xx. 14.

OBJECTION 1. Laban GAVE handmaids to his daughters, Jacob’s wives.  Without enlarging on the nature of the polygamy then prevalent, it is enough to say that the handmaids of wives, at that time, were themselves regarded as wives, though of inferior dignity and authority.  That Jacob so regarded his handmaids, is proved by his curse upon Reuben, (Gen. xlix. 4, and Chron. v. 1) also by the equality of their children with those of Rachel and Leah.  But had it been otherwise—­had Laban given them as articles of property, then, indeed, the example of this “good old patriarch and slaveholder,” Saint Laban, would have been a fore-closer to all argument.