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.  A Hebrew, whose father was still alive, and who on that account had not inherited his patrimonial estate, might sell himself, i.e., his services, for six years, in which case he received the purchase money himself.  Ex. xxi, 2.

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, 7-11.

3.  Thieves not able to make restitution for their thefts, were sold for the benefit of the injured person.  Ex. xxii, 3.

4.  They might be born in servitude.  Ex. xxi, 4.

5.  If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might sell himself; but in such a case he was to serve, not as a bondsman, whose term of service was only six years, nor was he to serve as a hired servant, who received his wages every evening, nor yet as a sojourner or temporary resident in the family, but he was to serve his master until the year of Jubilee[A].  Lev. xxv, 39, 40.

[Footnote A:  If the reader will leave out the italicised words—­But and And, in the 40th verse—­he will find that I am fully authorized in the meaning I have attached to it.  But and And are not in the original Hebrew; have been introduced by the translators, and entirely destroy the true sense of the passage.]

6.  If a Hebrew had sold himself to a rich Gentile, he might be redeemed by one of his brethren at any time the money was offered; and he who redeemed him, was not to take advantage of the favor thus conferred, and rule over him with rigor.  Lev. xxv, 47-55.

Before going into an examination of the laws by which these servants were protected, I would just ask whether American slaves have become slaves in any of the ways in which the Hebrews became servants.  Did they sell themselves into slavery and receive the purchase money into their own hands?  No!  No!  Did they steal the property of another, and were they sold to make restitution for their crimes?  No!  Did their present masters, as an act of kindness, redeem them from some heathen tyrant to whom they