“Now,” said Mr. North, “I will tell you what I have been thinking of all this time.

“I will put you into bondage in Algiers or Tunis.  Somebody has bought you or captured you.  But by some means you escape to me at Gibraltar.  Now I will read ‘Philemon’ to you, and send you back to your Algerine master.  What objection can you make to this, as a believer in inspiration?”

I answered, “If I were a slave in my own country, and slavery existed in Algiers, you would need to consider the relation which existed between this country and Algiers.  If the governments had treaties with each other, the surrender of persons held to service in either of the countries would probably be provided for, and then you would have to consider whether you would obey what is called the ‘higher law,’ or yield me to the requisition of the proper authorities.  This brings up the question of the rendition of fugitive slaves, which we have just considered.

“But being free in my own country, and having been, therefore, unlawfully sold into Algerine Slavery, or having been captured, or stolen, you would, I trust, make proper resistance in my behalf.”

“But,” said Mr. North, “The ancestors of my fugitive friend Nesimus, were taken from freedom in their own land and were reduced to slavery.  Must he and his descendants be slaves forever for the sin of the original captors, or for the misfortune of his ancestors?”

“Birth in slavery long established makes all the difference in the world, Mr. North,” said I.  “If I am born in slavery, under a government ordaining slavery, that is a different case from that of one taken out of a passenger ship and sold as a slave.”

“Then if you and your wife,” said he, “were taken out of a passenger ship, and you should happen to have a child born in slavery, that child must remain a slave, even if you go free?”

“No, Sir,” said I; “the child born under such circumstances is as rightfully free as its parents.  But take this case:  I, being captured and held as a slave, my master gives me a wife, lawfully a slave.  Then, the child born of her is lawfully a slave.  You see the distinction.  God recognized it.  The condition of both is a limitation and qualification of natural rights.  So the lapse of time qualifies the right to collect debts, bring suits for libel, or slander, and for the right of way, or for the possession of land.  Will we live under law? or shall each man or any set of men set up laws for their own conscience?”

“Then,” said he, “If a slave-trader lands a cargo of slaves from Africa, at Florida, I have no right to buy them; they are not lawfully slaves.  Is that your belief?”

“Assuredly,” said I; “and if the fugitive whom I have supposed you to be sending back to the gentleman at New Orleans, were a fugitive from the cargo just imported from Africa, you would be sustained by the law of the land in delivering him from bondage; he was piratically taken; the laws would make him free, and punish his captors, if the laws were faithfully executed.”