Not so in this nation. Here a slave cannot be a witness in a case where a white man is concerned. And in the city of New-York a free colored American, in the year 1836, could not obtain a license even to drive a cart. And in many parts of the country, colored Americans are not admitted to the elective franchise.

Jewish servants could not be made articles of

16.

traffic.

They could not be sold. Ex. xxi. 7, 8. But here thousands of slaves are sold annually, from one State to another, and many of them by members and ministers of the same church to which the slaves themselves belong.

They were marriageable in the families of their masters.

17. Jewish masters were obligated to provide for the marriage of maid servants, if he did not take them to himself, or his sons. Ex. xxi. 8.

But American slaveholders allow no legal marriages for their slaves, but they rather provide for their living in concubinage and adultery."

They were on a level with the children under age.

18. They could be incorporated into the family. Ex. xxi. 8, 9, by circumcision Ex. xii. 43, 45; Lev. xxii. 10, 11; 1 Chron. ii. 34, 35, consequently could be heirs. Gen. xv. 3; Prov. xvii. 2; Mark xii. 7; Luke xx. 14.

But American slaves have no such privileges ;

they are on a level with brutes, so far as rights are concerned-they can make no bargains of any

kind.

No impediments in the way to prevent the freedom of Jewish servants.

19. They could be redeemed, or redeem them. selves, at any time. Lev. xxv. 48.

American slaves have no such power. Here, laws have been enacted to prevent emancipation, even when the slaveholder is willing to confer it.

Thus we see, that the evils which are always, more or less, attendant upon American slavery, were not consequent upon the servitude allowed among the Jews, such as slave prisons, slave markets, slave auctions, chains, iron yokes, shackles, whips, thumbscrews, &c. &c. Among the Jews there was no violent separation of parents and children, no parting of husbands and wives, no barbarous punishments, or any one thing in fact, which rendered Jewish servitude like American slavery.

CHAPTER VIII.

SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT AGAINST SLAVERY. Slaveholding is Theft.

1. To claim, hold, and treat a human being as

Ex. xx.

property, is felony against God and man. 15; Deut. xxiv. 7. If it be theft to reduce a man

to slavery, it must be equally so to keep him in this

state.

About sixty thousand human beings are feloniously reduced to slavery in this country every year. As soon as they are born, they are claimed, seized, held, and treated as property.

Coveteousness.

2. All slaveholding and slave dealing is coveteousness, and as such, it is forbidden. Ex. xx. 17; Isa. lvii. 17; Jer, li. 13; Ezek. xxxii. 31; Luke xii. 15; Col. iii. 5; 2 Pet. ii. 3.

The man who claims the body of his fellow man as his property, does, de facto, covet that which, in the very nature of things, must belong to his neighbor, and to which no circumstances can give him a just title.

Oppression.

3. Slavery is the very worst form of oppression. Oppression is the spoiling or taking of another's person or goods or the fruit of his labor, by constraint, violence or force; and this crime is committed when ever one human being offers any violence to the person, estate, or conscience of another. Prov. xiv. 31; xxviii. 3; Isa. xlix. 26; Jer. vii. 6; xxi. 12, 13; Hos. xii. 7; Amos iv. 1; Mic. ii. 2 ;— Zach. vii. 10; Mal. iii. 5; Eccl. iv. 1; Ezek. xxii. 29; Amos iii. 9.

Manstealing.

4. Slavery is manstealing, and as such is forbidden, under the severest penalties. Ex. xxi. 16; Deut. xxiv. 7.

How has the present slaveholder come into the possessson of the children whom he now holds as his slaves? They were never willed to him, nor did he purchase them of another. How could he take possession of them, and part them from their parents without stealing them?

Enslavers.

5. The law of God was made for enslavers. 1 Tim. i. 10. The word here rendered menstealers, signifies to enslave, to reduce to slavery, to treat men as cattle.

Fraud and robbery.

6. Slavery is legalized wholesale fraud and robbery, Ezek. xviii. 4; Mal. iii. 8, 9. Prov. xxi. 7; Isa. Ixi. 8; Ezek. xxi. 29; Amos iii. 10; Nah. iii. 1; Mark x, 19; 1 Thes. iv. 6; Jer. xxii. 3; James v. 4.

Traffic in the persons of Men forbidden.

7. American slavery is condemned in all those places which forbid trading in the persons of men. Ezek. xxvii. 13; Joel iii. 3, 6 ; Amos ii. 6; Zach. xi. 4, 5; Rev. xviii. 13.

It could not exist without the slave trade.

Christian kindness.

8. The exercise of that kindness and piety which are commanded in the Bible toward the poor, is utterly irreconcilable with slavery. Lev. xxv, 35; Job vi. 14; xxxi. 16; Psal. xli. 1; lxxxii. 3 ; Prov. xxii. 22; xxiv. 11; xxxi. 8; Isa. i. 16; and

Iviii. throughout; Jer. xxxiv. 10; Matt. xxv. 44; Heb. xiii. 3; 1 John iii. 17.

Duties of masters.

9. American slavery is condemned in the specific directions of the Apostle, to masters and servants. 1 Cor. vii. 21, 23; Eph. vi. 9; Col. iv. 1.

These precepts, if obeyed, would annihilate slavery at once, and forever.

Analogy of the gospel.

10. It is condemned in all those passages which represent the evils of sin by slavery, and gospel benefits by freedom. Gal. iv. 3, 7, 22, 31; v. 1, 13; Isa. lxi. 1, 3; John viii. 32, 36,

The golden rule.

11. By the reciprocal and universal law of love which is binding on all men. Matt. v. 7; vii. 12; xxii. 37; John xv. 12, 17; Rom. xii. 9; 1 Cor. xiii. 28.

Spirit of the gospel.

12. Slavery cannot be reconciled with the spirit and design of the gospel. It will not exist surely in the millennial state. Gen. iii. 15, 22, 18; Luke iv. 18; 1 Cor. iii. 17; Zeph. iii. 9; Matt. iii. 10.

If it is condemned by the spirit of the gospel, the precepts of the gospel must be against it, of course, because the spirit of the gospel is learned from its precepts.