Volume I Part 34 (1/2)
V. ALL WERE REQUIRED TO PRESENT OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES. Deut. xvi. 16, 17; 2 Chron. xv. 9-11; Numb. ix. 13, 14. Beside this, ”every man” from twenty years old and above, was required to pay a tax of half a shekel at the taking of the census; this is called ”an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for their souls.” Ex. x.x.x. 12-16. See also Ex.
x.x.xiv. 20. Servants must have had permanently the means of _acquiring_ property to meet these expenditures.
VI. SERVANTS WHO WENT OUT AT THE SEVENTH YEAR, WERE ”FURNISHED LIBERALLY.” Deut. xv. 10-14. ”Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine press, of that wherewith the Lord thy G.o.d hath blessed thee, thou shalt give him.”[A]
If it be said that the servants from the Strangers did not receive a like bountiful supply, we answer, neither did the most honorable cla.s.s of _Israelitish_ servants, the free-holders; and for the same reason, _they did not go out in the seventh year,_ but continued until the jubilee. If the fact that the Gentile servants did not receive such a _gratuity_ proves that they were robbed of their _earnings_, it proves that the most valued cla.s.s of _Hebrew_ servants were robbed of theirs also; a conclusion too stubborn for even pro-slavery masticators, however unscrupulous.
[Footnote A: The comment of Maimonides on this pa.s.sage is as follows--”'Thou shalt furnish him liberally,' &c. That is to say, _'Loading, ye shall load him,'_ likewise every one of his family with as much as he can take with him--abundant benefits. And if it be avariciously asked, 'How much must I give him?' I say unto _you, not less than thirty shekels,_ which is the valuation of a servant, as declared in Ex. xxi. 32.”--Maimonides, Hilcoth Obedim, Chap. ii. Sec.
3.]
VII. SERVANTS WERE BOUGHT. In other words, they received compensation in advance.[A] Having shown, under a previous head, that servants _sold themselves_, and of course received the compensation for themselves, except in cases where parents hired out the time of their children till they became of age,[B] a mere reference to the fact is all that is required for the purposes of this argument. As all the strangers in the land were required to pay an annual tribute to the government, the Israelites might often ”buy” them as family servants, by stipulating with them to pay their annual tribute. This a.s.sumption of their obligations to the government might cover the whole of the servant's time of service, or a part of it, at the pleasure of the parties.
[Footnote A: But, says the objector, if servants received their pay in advance, and if the Israelites were forbidden to surrender the fugitive to his master, it would operate practically as a bounty offered to all servants who would leave their master's service encouraging them to make contracts, get their pay in advance and then run away, thus cheating their masters out of their money as well as their own services.--We answer, the prohibition, Deut xxiii. 15. 16, ”Thou shalt not deliver unto his master,” &c., sets the servant free from his _authority_ and of course, from all those liabilities of injury, to which _as his servant_, he was subjected, but not from the obligation of legal contracts. If the servant had received pay in advance, and had not rendered an equivalent for this ”value received,” he was not absolved from his obligation to do so, but he was absolved from all obligations to pay his master in _that particular way_, that is, _by working for him as his servant_.]
[Footnote B: Among the Israelites, girls became of age at twelve, and boys at thirteen years.]
VIII. THE RIGHT OF SERVANTS TO COMPENSATION IS RECOGNISED IN Ex. xxi.
27. ”And if he smite out his man-servant's, or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.” This regulation is manifestly based upon the _right_ of the servant to the _use_ of himself and all this powers, faculties and personal conveniences, and consequently his just claim for remuneration, upon him, who should however _unintentionally_, deprive him of the use even of the least of them. If the servant had a right to his _tooth_ and the use _of_ it, upon the same principle, he had a right to the rest of his body and the use of it. If he had a right to the _fraction_, and if it was his to hold, to use, and to have pay for; he had a right to the _sum total_, and it was his to hold, to use, and to have pay for.
IX. WE FIND MASTERS AT ONE TIME HAVING A LARGE NUMBER OF SERVANTS, AND AFTERWARDS NONE, WITH NO INTIMATION IN ANY CASE THAT THEY WERE SOLD. The wages of servants would enable them to set up in business for themselves. Jacob, after being Laban's servant for twenty-one years, became thus an independent herdsman, and had many servants. Gen. x.x.x.
43; x.x.xii. 16. But all these servants had left him before he went down into Egypt, having doubtless acquired enough to commence business for themselves. Gen. xlv. 10, 11; xlvi. 1-7, 32. The case of Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, who had twenty servants, has been already mentioned.
X. G.o.d'S TESTIMONY TO THE CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM. Gen. xviii. 19. ”For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep THE WAY OF THE LORD TO DO JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT.” G.o.d here testifies that Abraham taught his servants ”the way of the Lord.”
What was the ”way of the Lord” respecting the payment of wages where service was rendered? ”Wo unto him that useth this neighbor's service WITHOUT WAGES!” Jer. xxii. 13. ”Masters, give unto your servants that which is JUST AND EQUAL.” Col. iv. 1. ”Render unto all their DUES.” Rom.
xiii. 7. ”The laborer is WORTHY of HIS HIRE.” Luke x. 7. How did Abraham teach his servants to ”_do justice_” to others? By doing injustice to _them_? Did he exhort them to ”render to all their dues” by keeping back _their own_? Did he teach them that ”the laborer was worthy of his hire”
by robbing them of _theirs_? Did he beget in them a reverence for honesty by pilfering all their time and labor? Did he teach them ”not to defraud” others ”in any matter” by denying _them_ ”what was just and equal?” If each of Abraham's pupils under such a catechism did not become a very _Aristides_ in justice, then ill.u.s.trious examples, patriarchal dignity, and _practical_ lessons, can make but slow headway against human perverseness!
XI. SPECIFIC PRECEPTS OF THE MOSAIC LAW ENFORCING GENERAL PRINCIPLES.
Out of many, we select the following: (1.) ”Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.” Deut. xxv. 4. Here is a general principle applied to a familiar case. The ox representing all domestic animals. Isa. x.x.x. 24. A _particular_ kind of service, _all_ kinds; and a law requiring an abundant provision for the wants of an animal ministering to man in a _certain_ way,--a general principle of treatment covering all times, modes, and instrumentalities of service. The object of the law was; not merely to enjoin tenderness towards brutes, but to inculcate the duty of rewarding those who serve us; and if such care be enjoined, by G.o.d, both for the ample sustenance and present enjoyment of _a brute_, what would be a meet return for the services of _man?_--MAN with his varied wants, exalted nature and immortal destiny! Paul says expressly, that this principle lies at the bottom of the statute. 1 Cor.
ix. 9, 10, ”For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth G.o.d take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for OUR sakes? that he that ploweth should plow in HOPE, and that he that thresheth in hope should be PARTAKER OF HIS HOPE.” In the context, Paul innumerates the four grand divisions of labor among the Jews in ill.u.s.tration of the principle that the laborer, whatever may be the service he performs, is ent.i.tled to a _reward_. The priests, Levites and all engaged in sacred things--the military, those who tended flocks and herds, and those who cultivated the soil. As the latter employment engaged the great body of the Israelites, the Apostle amplifies his ill.u.s.tration under that head by much detail--and enumerates the five great departments of agricultural labor among the Jews--vine-dressing, plowing, sowing, reaping and thres.h.i.+ng, as the representatives of universal labor. In his epistle to Timothy. 1 Tim. v. 18. Paul quotes again this precept of the Mosaic law, and connects with it the declaration of our Lord. Luke x. 7. ”The laborer is worthy of his hire,”--as both inculcating the _same_ doctrine, that he who labors, whatever the employment, or whoever the laborer, is ent.i.tled to a reward. The Apostle thus declares the principle of right respecting the performance of service for others, and the rule of duty towards those who perform it, to be the same under both dispensations. (2.) ”If thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him, YEA THOUGH HE BE A STRANGER or a SOJOURNER that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase, but fear thy G.o.d. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.” Lev. xxv. 35-37. Now, we ask, by what process of pro-slavery legerdemain, this regulation can be made to harmonize with the doctrine of WORK WITHOUT PAY? Did G.o.d declare the poor stranger ent.i.tled to RELIEF, and in the same breath, authorize them to ”use his service without wages;” force him to work and ROB HIM OF HIS EARNINGS?
IV.--WERE MASTERS THE PROPRIETORS OF SERVANTS AS LEGAL PROPERTY?
This topic has been unavoidably somewhat antic.i.p.ated, in the foregoing discussion, but a variety of additional considerations remain to be noticed.
I. 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_. Children were sometimes taken (without legal authority) for the debts of a father. 2 Kings iv. 1; Job xxiv. 9; Isa. l. 1; Matt.
xviii. 25. Creditors took from debtors property of all kinds, to satisfy their demands. Job xxiv. 3, cattle are taken; Prov. xxii. 27, household furniture; Lev. xxv. 25-28, the productions of the soil; Lev. xxv.
27-30, houses; Ex. xxii. 26, 27; Deut. xxiv. 10-13; Matt. v. 40, clothing; but _servants_ were taken in _no instance_. 2. _Servants were never given as pledges_. _Property_ of all sorts was pledged for value received; household furniture, clothing, cattle, money, signets, personal ornaments, &c., but no servants. 3. _Servants were not put into the hands of others, or consigned to their keeping_. The precept giving directions how to proceed in a case where property that has life is delivered to another ”to keep,” and ”it die or be hurt or driven away,”
enumerates oxen, a.s.ses, sheep or ”any _beast_,” but not ”_servants_.”
Ex. xxii. 10. 4. _All lost property was to be restored_. Oxen, a.s.ses, sheep, raiment, and ”all lost things,” are specified--servants _not_.
Deut. xxii 1-3. Besides, the Israelites were forbidden to return the runaway servant. Deut. xxiii, 15. 5. _Servants were not sold_. When by flagrant misconduct, unfaithfulness or from whatever cause, they had justly forfeited their privilege of members.h.i.+p in an Israelitish family, they were not sold, but _expelled_ from the household. Luke xvi. 2-4; 2 Kings v. 20, 27; Gen. xxi. 14. 6 _The Israelites never received servants as tribute_. At different times all the nations round about them were their tributaries and paid them annually large amounts. They received property of all kinds in payment of tribute. Gold, silver, bra.s.s, iron, precious stone, and vessels, armor, spices, raiment, harness, horses, mules, sheep, goats, &c., are in various places enumerated, but _servants_, never. 7. _The Israelites never gave away their servants as presents_. They made costly presents, of great variety. Lands, houses, all kinds of domestic animals, beds, merchandize, family utensils, precious metals, grain, honey, b.u.t.ter, cheese, fruits, oil, wine, raiment, armor, &c., are among their recorded _gifts_. Giving presents to superiors and persons of rank, was a standing usage. 1 Sam. x. 27; 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 Pilezer, 2 Kings vi. 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. Abigail the wife of Nabal to David, 1 Sam. xxv. 18. David to the elders of Judah, 1 Sam. x.x.x. 26. Jehoshaphat to his sons, 2. Chron. xxi.
3. The Israelites to David, 1. Chron. xii. 39, 40. Shobi Machir and Barzillai to David, 2 Sam. xvii. 28, 29. But no servants were given as presents, though it was a prevailing fas.h.i.+on in the surrounding nations.
Gen. xii. 16, xx. 14. In the last pa.s.sage we are told that Abimelech king of the Philistines ”took sheep and oxen and men servants and women servants and gave them unto Abraham.” Not long after this Abraham made Abimelech a present, the same kind with that which he had received from him except that he gave him _no servants_. ”And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them unto Abimelech.” Gen. xxi. 27. It may be objected that Laban ”GAVE” handmaids to his daughters, Jacob's wives. Without enlarging on the nature of the polygamy then prevalent, suffice it to say that the handmaids of wives were 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 1 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 slaveholder and patriarch,” Saint Laban, would have been a forecloser to all argument. Ah! we remember his jealousy for _religion_--his holy indignation when he found that his ”G.o.dS” were stolen! How he mustered his clan, and plunged over the desert in hot pursuit seven days by forced marches; how he ransacked a whole caravan, sifting the contents of every tent, little heeding such small matters as domestic privacy, or female seclusion, for lo! the zeal of his ”IMAGES” had eaten him up! No wonder that slavery, in its Bible-navigation, drifting dismantled before the free gusts, should scud under the lee of such a pious worthy to haul up and refit; invoking his protection, and the benediction, of his ”G.o.dS!” Again, it may be objected that, servants were enumerated in inventories of property. If that proves _servants_ property, it proves _wives_ property. ”Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's WIFE, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his a.s.s, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.” Ex. xx. 17. In inventories of mere property, if servants are included, it is in such a way as to show that they are not regarded as property. Eccl. ii. 7, 8. But when the design is to show, not merely the wealth, but the _greatness_ and _power_ of any one, servants are spoken of, as well as property. In a word, if _riches_ alone are spoken of, no mention is made of servants; if _greatness_, servants and property. Gen. xiii. 2, 5. ”And Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” Yet we are told, in the verse preceding, that he came up out of Egypt ”with _all_ that he had.”
”And Lot also had flocks, and herds, and tents.” In the seventh verse servants are mentioned, ”And there was a strife between the HERDMEN of Abraham's cattle and the HERDMEN of Lot's cattle.” It is said of Isaac.
”And the man waxed _great_, and went forward, and grew until he became _very great_. For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and _great store of servants_.” In immediate connection with this we find Abimelech the king of the Philistines saying to him. ”Thou art much _mightier_ than we.” Shortly after this avowal, Isaac is waited upon by a deputation consisting of Abimelech, Phicol the chief captain of his army, and Ahuzzath, who says to him ”Let there be now an oath betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt _do us no hurt_.” Gen. xxvi. 13, 14, 16, 26, 28, 29.--A plain concession of the _power_ which Isaac had both for aggression and defence in his ”great store of _servants_;” that is, of willing and affectionate adherents to him as a just and benevolent prince. When Hamor and Shechem speak to the Hivites of the _riches_ of Abraham and his sons, they say, ”Shall not their _cattle_ and their _substance_ and _every beast of theirs_ be ours?” Gen. x.x.xiv. 23. See also Josh. xxii. 8; Gen. x.x.xiv. 23; Job.
xlii. 12; 2 Chron. xxi. 3; x.x.xii. 27-29; Job. i. 3-5; Deut. viii. 12-17; Gen. xxiv. 35; xxvi. 13; x.x.x. 43. Jacob's wives say to him, ”All the _riches_ which G.o.d has taken from our father that is ours and our children's.” Then follows an inventory of property--”All his cattle,”
”all his goods,” ”the cattle of his getting.” His numerous servants are not included with his property. Comp. Gen. x.x.x. 43, with Gen. x.x.xi.
16-18. When Jacob sent messengers to Esau, wis.h.i.+ng to impress him with an idea of his state and sway, he bade them tell him not only of his RICHES, but of his GREATNESS; that he had ”oxen, and a.s.ses, and flocks, and men-servants, and maid-servants.” Gen. x.x.xii. 4, 5. Yet in the present which he sent, there were no servants; though he manifestly selected the _most valuable_ kinds of property. Gen. x.x.xii. 14, 15; see also Gen. x.x.xvi. 6, 7; x.x.xiv. 23. As flocks and herds were the staples of wealth, a large number of servants presupposed large possessions of cattle, which would require many herdsmen. When Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt it is repeatedly a.s.serted that they took _all that they had_. ”Their cattle and their goods which they had gotten in the land of Canaan,” ”Their flocks and their herds” are mentioned, but no _servants_. And as we have besides a full catalogue of the _household_, we know that he took with him no servants. That Jacob _had_ many servants before his migration into Egypt, we learn from Gen, x.x.x. 43; x.x.xii. 5, 16, 19. That he was not the _proprietor_ of these servants as his property is a probable inference from the fact that he did not take them with him, since we are expressly told that he did take all his _property_. Gen. xlv. 10; xlvi. 1, 32; xlvii. 1. When servants are spoken of in connection with _mere property_, the terms used to express the latter do not include the former. The Hebrew word _mikne_, is an ill.u.s.tration. It is derived from _kana_, to procure, to buy, and its meaning is, a _possession, wealth, riches_. It occurs more than forty times in the Old Testament, and is applied always to _mere property_, generally to domestic animals, but never to servants. In some instances, servants are mentioned in distinction from the _mikne_. ”And Abraham took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their SUBSTANCE that they had gathered; and the souls that they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan.” Gen. xii. 5. Many will have it, that these _souls_ were a part of Abraham's _substance_ (notwithstanding the pains here taken to separate them from it)--that they were slaves taken with him in his migration as a part of his family effects. Who but slaveholders, either actually or in heart, would torture into the principle and practice of slavery, such a harmless phrase as ”_the souls that they had gotten?_” Until the African slave trade breathed its haze into the eyes of the church and smote her with palsy and decay, commentators saw no slavery in, ”The souls that they had gotten.” In the Targum of Onkelos[A] it is rendered, ”The souls whom they had brought to obey the law in Haran.” In the Targum of Jonathan, ”The souls whom they had made proselytes in Haran.” In the Targum of Jerusalem, ”The souls proselyted in Haran.” Jarchi, the prince of Jewish commentators, ”The souls whom they had brought under the Divine wings.”