Volume I Part 34 (2/2)

Jerome, one of the most learned of the Christian fathers, ”The persons whom they had proselyted.” The Persian version, the Vulgate, the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Samaritan all render it, ”All the wealth which they had gathered, and the souls which they had made in Haran.” Menochius, a commentator who wrote before our present translation of the Bible, renders it, ”Quas de idolatraria converterant.” ”Those whom they had converted from idolatry.” Paulus f.a.gius,[B] ”Quas inst.i.tuerant in religione.” ”Those whom they had established in religion.” Luke Francke, a German commentator who lived two centuries ago, ”Quas legi subjicerant.”--”Those whom they had brought to obey the law.” The same distinction is made between _persons_ and property, in the enumeration of Esau's household and the inventory of his effects. ”And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the _persons_ of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his _substance_ which he had got in the land of Canaan, and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob. For their _riches_ were more than that they might dwell together; and the land could not bear them because of their _cattle_.” Gen. x.x.xvi. 6, 7.

[Footnote A: The Targums are Chaldee paraphrases of parts of the Old Testament. The Targum of Onkelos is, for the most part, a very accurate and faithful translation of the original, and was probably made at about the commencement of the Christian era. The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, bears about the same date. The Targum of Jerusalem was probably about five hundred years later. The Israelites, during their captivity in Babylon, lost, as a body, their own language. These translations into the Chaldee, the language which they acquired in Babylon, were thus called for by the necessity of the case.]

[Footnote B: This eminent Hebrew scholar was invited to England to superintend the translation of the Bible into English, under the patronage of Henry the Eighth. He had hardly commenced the work when he died. This was nearly a century before the date of our present translation.]

II. THE CONDITION AND SOCIAL ESTIMATION OF SERVANTS MAKE THE DOCTRINE THAT THEY WERE COMMODITIES, AN ABSURDITY. As the head of a Jewish family possessed the same power over his wife, children, and grandchildren (if they were in his family) as over his servants, if the latter were articles of property, the former were equally such. If there were nothing else in the Mosaic Inst.i.tutes or history establis.h.i.+ng the social equality of the servants with their masters and their master's wives and children, those precepts which required that they should be guests at all the public feasts, and equal partic.i.p.ants in the family and social rejoicings, would be quite sufficient to settle the question. Deut. xii.

12, 18; xvi. 10, 11, 13, 14. Ex. xii. 43, 44. St. Paul's testimony in Gal. iv. 1, shows the condition of servants: ”Now I say unto you, that the heir, so long as he is a child, DIFFERETH NOTHING FROM A SERVANT, though he be lord of all.” That the interests of Abraham's servants were identified with those of their master's family, and that the utmost confidence was reposed in them, is shown in their being armed. Gen. xiv.

14, 15. When Abraham's servant went to Padanaram, the young Princess Rebecca did not disdain to say to him. ”Drink, MY LORD,” as ”she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.” Laban, the brother of Rebecca, ”ungirded his camels, and brought him water to wash his feet, and the men's feet that were with him!” In the arrangements of Jacob's household on his journey from Padanaram to Canaan, we find his two maid servants treated in the same manner and provided with the same accommodations as Rachel and Leah. Each of them had a separate tent appropriated to her use. Gen. x.x.xi. 33. The social equality of servants with their masters and other members of their master's families, is an obvious deduction from Ex. xxi. 7, 10, from which we learn that the sale of a young Jewish female as a servant, was also _betrothed as a wife_, either to her master, or to one of his sons. In 1 Sam. ix. is an account of a festival in the city of Zuph, at which Samuel presided. None but those bidden, sat down at the feast, and only ”about thirty persons”

were invited. Quite a select party!--the elite of the city. Saul and his servant had just arrived at Zuph, and _both_ of them, at Samuel's solicitation, accompany him as invited guests. ”And Samuel took Saul and his SERVANT, and brought THEM into the PARLOR (!) and made THEM sit in the CHIEFEST SEATS among those that were bidden.” A _servant_ invited by the chief judge, ruler, and prophet in Israel, to dine publicly with a select party, in company with his master, who was at the same time anointed King of Israel! and this servant introduced by Samuel into the PARLOR, and a.s.signed, with his master, to the _chiefest seat_ at the table! This was ”_one_ of the servants” of Kish, Saul's father; not the steward or the chief of them--not at all a _picked_ man, but ”_one_ of the servants;” _any_ one that could be most easily spared, as no endowments specially rare would be likely to find scope in looking after a.s.ses. David seems to have been for a time in all respects a servant in Saul's family. He ”_stood before him_.” ”And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, let David, I pray thee, _stand before me_.” He was Saul's personal servant, went on his errands, played on the harp for his amus.e.m.e.nt, bore his armor for him, and when he wished to visit his parents, asked permission of Jonathan, Saul's son. Saul also calls him ”my servant.” 1 Sam. xvi. 21-23; xviii. 5; xx. 5, 6; xxii. 8. Yet David sat with the king at meat, married his daughter, and lived on terms of the closest intimacy with the heir apparent of the throne. Abimelech, who was first elected king of Shechem, and afterwards reigned over all Israel, _was the son of a_ MAID-SERVANT. His mother's family seems to have been of much note in the city of Shechem, where her brothers manifestly held great sway. Judg. ix. 1-6, 18. Jarha, an Egyptian, the servant of Sheshan, married his daughter. Tobiah, ”the servant” and an Ammonite married the daughter of Shecaniah one of the chief men among the Jews in Jerusalem and was the intimate a.s.sociate of Sanballat the governor of the Samaritans. We find Elah, the King of Israel, at a festive entertainment, in the house of Arza, his steward, or head servant, with whom he seems to have been on terms of familiarity. 1 Kings xvi. 8, 9.

See also the intercourse between Gideon and his servants. Judg. vi. 27, and vii. 10, 11. The Levite of Mount Ephraim and his servant. Judg. xx.

3, 9, 11, 13, 19, 21, 22. King Saul and his servant Doeg, one of his herdmen. 1 Sam. xx. 1, 7; xxii. 9, 18, 22. King David and Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth. 2 Sam. xvi. 1-4. Jonathan and his servant. 1 Sam. xiv. 1-14. Elisha and his servant, Gehazi. 2 Kings iv. v. vi. Also between Joram king of Israel and the servant of Elisha. 2 Kings viii. 4, 5, and between Naaman ”the Captain of the host of the king of Syria” and the same person. 2 Kings v. 21-23. The fact stated under a previous head that servants were always invited guests at public and social festivals, is in perfect keeping with the foregoing exemplifications of the prevalent estimation in which servants were held by the Israelites.

Probably no one of the Old Testament patriarchs had more servants than Job; ”This man was the greatest man of all the men of the east.” Job, i.

3. We are not left in the dark as to the condition of his servants.

After a.s.serting his integrity, his strict justice, honesty, and equity, in his dealings with his fellow men, and declaring ”I delivered the poor,” ”I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame,” ”I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out,” * *

* he says ”If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or my maid-servant when they CONTENDED with me * * * then let mine arm fall from the shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.” Job.

xxix. 12, 15, 16; x.x.xi. 13, 22. The language employed in this pa.s.sage is the phraseology applied in judicial proceedings to those who implead one another, and whether it be understood literally or figuratively, shows that whatever difference existed between Job and his servants in other respects, so far as _rights_ are concerned, they were on equal ground with him, and that in the matter of daily intercourse, there was not the least restraint on their _free speech_ in calling in question all his transactions with them, and that the relations and claims of both parties were adjudicated on the principles of equity and reciprocal right. ”If I _despised_ the cause of my man-servant,” &c. In other words, if I treated it lightly, as though servants were not men, had not rights, and had not a claim for just dues and just estimation as human beings. ”When they _contended_ with me,” that is, when they plead their rights, claimed what was due to them, or questioned the justice of any of my dealings with them.

In the context Job virtually affirms as the ground of his just and equitable treatment of his servants, that they had the same rights as he had, and were, as human beings, ent.i.tled to equal consideration with himself. By what language could he more forcibly utter his conviction of the oneness of their common origin and of the ident.i.ty of their common nature, necessities, attribute and rights? As soon as he has said, ”If I did despise the cause of my man-servant,” &c., he follows it up with ”What then shall I do when G.o.d raiseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb, make _him_? and did not one fas.h.i.+on us in the womb.” In the next verse Job glories in the fact that he has not ”_withheld from the poor their desire_.” Is it the ”desire” of the poor to be _compelled_ by the rich to work for them, and without _pay_?

III. THE CASE OF THE GIBEONITES. The condition of the inhabitants of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim, under the Hebrew commonwealth, is quoted in triumph by the advocates of slavery; and truly they are right welcome to all the crumbs that can be gleaned from it. Milton's devils made desperate s.n.a.t.c.hes at fruit that turned to ashes on their lips. The spirit of slavery raves under tormenting gnawings, and casts about in blind phrenzy for something to ease, or even to mock them. But for this, it would never have clutched at the Gibeonites, for even the incantations of the demon cauldron could not extract from their case enough to tantalize starvation's self. But to the question. What was the condition of the Gibeonites under the Israelites? 1. _It was voluntary_. Their own proposition to Joshua was to become servants. Josh. ix. 8, 11. It was accepted, but the kind of service which they should perform, was not specified until their gross imposition came to light; they were then a.s.signed to menial offices in the Tabernacle. 2. _They were not domestic servants in the families of the Israelites_. They still resided in their own cities, cultivated their own fields, tended their flocks and herds, and exercised the functions of a _distinct_, though not independent community. They were subject to the Jewish nation as _tributaries_. So far from being distributed among the Israelites and their internal organization as a distinct people abolished, they remained a separate, and, in some respects, an independent community for many centuries. When attacked by the Amorites, they applied to the Israelites as confederates for aid--it was rendered, their enemies routed, and themselves left unmolested in their cities. Josh. x. 6-18. Long afterwards, Saul slew some of them, and G.o.d sent upon Israel a three years' famine for it. David inquired of the Gibeonites, ”What shall I do for you, and wherewith shall I make the atonement?” At their demand, he delivered up to them seven of Saul's descendants. 2 Sam. xxi. 1-9. The whole transaction was a formal recognition of the Gibeonites as a distinct people. There is no intimation that they served either families or individuals of the Israelites, but only the ”house of G.o.d,” or the Tabernacle. This was established first at Gilgal, a days' journey from their cities; and then at s.h.i.+loh, nearly two days' journey from them; where it continued about 350 years. During this period the Gibeonites inhabited their ancient cities and territory. Only a few, comparatively, could have been absent at any one time in attendance on the Tabernacle. Wherever allusion is made to them in the history, the main body are spoken of as _at home_.

It is preposterous to suppose that all the inhabitants of these four cities could find employment at the Tabernacle. One of them ”was a great city, as one of the royal cities;” so large, that a confederacy of five kings, apparently the most powerful in the land, was deemed necessary for its destruction. It is probable that the men were divided into cla.s.ses, ministering in rotation--each cla.s.s a few days or weeks at a time. As the priests whose a.s.sistants they were, served by courses in rotation a week at a time; it is not improbable that their periods of service were so arranged as to correspond. This service was their _national tribute_ to the Israelites, for the privilege of residence and protection under their government. No service seems to have been required of the _females_. As these Gibeonites were Canaanites, and as they had greatly exasperated the Israelites by impudent imposition and lying, we might a.s.suredly expect that they would reduce _them_ to the condition of chattels, if there was _any_ case in which G.o.d permitted them to do so.

IV. EGYPTIAN BONDAGE a.n.a.lYZED. Throughout the Mosaic system, G.o.d warns the Israelites against holding their servants in such a condition as they were held in by the Egyptians. How often are they pointed back to the grindings of their prison-house! What motives to the exercise of justice and kindness towards their servants, are held out to their fears in threatened judgments; to their hopes in promised good; and to all within them that could feel, by those oft repeated words of tenderness and terror! ”For ye were bondmen in the land of Egypt”--waking anew the memory of tears and anguish, and of the wrath that avenged them. But what was the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt? Of what rights were they plundered and what did they retain?

1. _They were not dispersed among the families of Egypt,[A] but formed a separate community_. Gen. xlvi. 34. Ex. viii. 22, 24; ix. 26; x. 23; xi.

7; iv. 29; ii. 9; xvi. 22; xvii. 5; vi. 14. 2. _They had the exclusive possession of the land of Goshen,[B] ”the best part of the land” of Egypt_. Gen. xlv. 18; xlvii. 6, 11, 27; Ex. viii. 22; ix. 26; xii. 4.

Goshen must have been at a considerable distance from those parts of Egypt inhabited by the Egyptians; so far at least as to prevent their contact with the Israelites, since the reason a.s.signed for locating them in Goshen was, that shepherds were ”an abomination to the Egyptians;”

besides, their employments would naturally lead them out of the settled parts of Egypt to find a free range of pasturage for their immense flocks and herds. 3. _They lived in permanent dwellings_. These were _houses_, not _tents_. In Ex. xii. 7, 22, the two side _posts_, and the upper door _posts_, and the lintel of the houses are mentioned. Each family seems to have occupied a house _by itself_. Acts vii. 20. Ex.

xii. 4--and judging from the regulation about the eating of the Pa.s.sover, they could hardly have been small ones, Ex. xii. 4; probably contained separate apartments, as the entertainment of sojourners seems to have been a common usage. Ex. iii. 23; and also places for concealment. Ex. ii. 2, 3; Acts vii. 20. They appear to have been well apparelled. Ex. xii. 11. 4. _They owned ”flocks and herds,” and ”very much cattle_.” Ex. xii. 4, 6, 32, 37, 38. From the fact that ”_every man_” was commanded to kill either a lamb or a kid, one year old, for the Pa.s.sover, before the people left Egypt, we infer that even the poorest of the Israelites owned a flock either of sheep or goats.

Further, the immense mult.i.tude of their flocks and herds may be judged of from the expostulation of Moses with Jehovah. Num. xii. 21, 22. ”The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen, and thou hast said I will give them flesh that they may eat a whole month; shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to _suffice_ them.” As these six hundred thousand were only the _men_ ”from twenty years old and upward, that were able to go forth to war,” Ex. i. 45, 46; the whole number of the Israelites could not have been less than three millions and a half.

Flocks and herds to ”suffice” all these for food, might surely be called ”very much cattle.” 5. _They had their own form of government_, and preserved their tribe and family divisions, and their internal organization throughout, though still a province of Egypt, and _tributary_ to it. Ex. ii. 1; xii. 19, 21; vi. 14, 25; v. 19; iii. 16, 18. 6. _They had in a considerable measure, the disposal of their own time._ Ex. iii. 16, 18; xii. 6; ii. 9; and iv. 27, 29-31. _They seem to have practised the fine arts_. Ex. x.x.xii. 4; x.x.xv. 22, 35. 7. _They were all armed_. Ex. x.x.xii. 27. 8. _They held their possessions independently, and the Egyptians seem to have regarded them as inviolable_. No intimation is given that the Egyptians dispossessed them of their habitations, or took away their flocks, or herds, or crops, or implements of agriculture, or any article of property. 9. _All the females seem to have known something of domestic refinements_. They were familiar with instruments of music, and skilled in the working of fine fabrics. Ex. xv. 20; x.x.xv. 25, 26; and both males and females were able to read and write. Deut. xi. 18-20; xvii. 19; xxvii. 3. 10. _Service seems to have been exacted from none but adult males_. Nothing is said from which the bond service of females could be inferred; the hiding of Moses three months by his mother, and the payment of wages to her by Pharaoh's daughter, go against such a supposition. Ex. ii. 29. 11.

_Their food was abundant and of great variety_. So far from being fed upon a fixed allowance of a single article, and hastily prepared, ”they sat by the flesh-pots,” and ”did eat bread to the full.” Ex. xvi. 3; and their bread was prepared with leaven. Ex. xii. 15, 39. They ate ”the fish freely, the cuc.u.mbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic.” Num. xi. 4, 5; xx. 5. Probably but a small portion of the people were in the service of the Egyptians at any one time. The extent and variety of their own possessions, together with such a cultivation of their crops as would provide them with bread, and such care of their immense flocks and herds, as would secure their profitable increase, must have kept at home the main body of the nation.

During the plague of darkness, G.o.d informs us that ”ALL the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” We infer that they were _there_ to enjoy it. See also Ex. ix. 26. It seems improbable that the making of brick, the only service named during the latter part of their sojourn in Egypt, could have furnished permanent employment for the bulk of the nation. See also Ex. iv. 29-31. Besides, when Eastern nations employed tributaries, it was as now, in the use of the levy, requiring them to furnish a given quota, drafted off periodically, so that comparatively but a small portion of the nation would be absent _at any one time_. The adult males of the Israelites were probably divided into companies, which relieved each other at stated intervals of weeks or months. It might have been during one of these periodical furloughs from service that Aaron performed the journey to h.o.r.eb. Ex. iv. 27. At the least calculation this journey must have consumed _eight weeks_. Probably one-fifth part of the proceeds of their labor was required of the Israelites in common with the Egyptians. Gen. xlvii. 24, 26. Instead of taking it from their _crops_, (Goshen being better for _pasturage_) they exacted it of them in brick making; and labor might have been exacted only from the _poorer_ Israelites, the wealthy being able to pay their tribute in money. The fact that all the elders of Israel seem to have controlled their own time, (See Ex. iv. 29; iii. 16; v. 20,) favors the supposition. Ex. iv. 27, 31. Contrast this bondage of Egypt with American slavery. Have our slaves ”flocks and herds even very much cattle?” Do they live in commodious houses of their own, ”sit by the flesh-pots,” ”eat fish freely,” and ”eat bread to the full”? Do they live in a separate community, in their distinct tribes, under their own rulers, in the exclusive occupation of an extensive tract of country for the culture of their crops, and for rearing immense herds of their own cattle--and all these held inviolable by their masters? Are our female slaves free from exactions of labor and liabilities of outrage? or when employed, are they paid wages, as was the Israelitish woman by the king's daughter? Have they the disposal of their own time, and the means for cultivating social refinements, for practising the fine arts, and for personal improvement? THE ISRAELITES UNDER THE BONDAGE OF EGYPT, ENJOYED ALL THESE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES. True, ”all the service wherein they made them serve was with rigor.” But what was this when compared with the incessant toil of American slaves; the robbery of all their time and earnings, and even the ”power to own any thing, or acquire any thing?” a ”quart of corn a-day,” the legal allowance of food![C] their _only_ clothing for one half the year, ”_one_ s.h.i.+rt and _one_ pair of pantaloons!”[D]_two hours and a half_ only, for rest and refreshment in the twenty-four![E]--their dwellings, _hovels_, unfit for human residence, with but one apartment, where both s.e.xes and all ages herd promiscuously at night, like the beasts of the field.[F] Add to this, the ignorance, and degradation;[G] the daily sunderings of kindred, the revelries of l.u.s.t, the lacerations and baptisms of blood, sanctioned by law, and patronized by public sentiment. What was the bondage of Egypt when compared with this? And yet for her oppression of the poor, G.o.d smote her with plagues, and trampled her as the mire, till she pa.s.sed away in his wrath, and the place that knew her in her pride, knew her no more. Ah! ”I have seen the afflictions of my people, and I have heard their groanings, and am come down to deliver them.” HE DID COME, and Egypt sank a ruinous heap, and her blood closed over her. If such was G.o.d's retribution for the oppression of heathen Egypt, of how much sorer punishment shall a Christian people be thought worthy, who cloak with religion a system, in comparison with which the bondage of Egypt dwindles to nothing? Let those believe who can, that G.o.d commissioned his people to rob others of _all_ their rights, while he denounced against them wrath to the uttermost, if they practised the _far lighter_ oppression of Egypt--which robbed its victims of only the least and cheapest of their rights, and left the females unplundered even of these. What! Is G.o.d divided against himself? When He had just turned Egypt into a funeral pile; while his curse yet blazed upon her unburied dead, and his bolts still hissed amidst her slaughter, and the smoke of her torment went upwards because she had ”ROBBED THE POOR,” did He license the VICTIMS of robbery to rob the poor of ALL? As _Lawgiver_, did he _create_ a system tenfold more grinding than that for which he had just hurled Pharaoh headlong, and overwhelmed his princes and his hosts, till ”h.e.l.l was moved to meet them at their coming?”

[Footnote C: See law of North Carolina, Haywood's Manual 524-5. To show that slaveholders are not better than their laws. We give a few testimonies. Rev. Thomas Clay, of Georgia, (a slaveholder,) in an address before the Georgia presbytery, in 1834, speaking of the slave's allowance of food, says:--”The quant.i.ty allowed by custom is a _peck of corn a week._” The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser of May 30, 1788, says, ”a _single peck of corn a week, or the like measure of rice_, is the ordinary quant.i.ty of provision for a _hard-working_ slave; to which a small quant.i.ty of meat is occasionally, though _rarely_, added.”

The Gradual Emanc.i.p.ation Society of North Carolina, in their Report for 1836, signed Moses Swaim, President, and William Swaim, Secretary, says, in describing the condition of slaves in the Eastern part of that State, ”The master puts the unfortunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient for their sustenance, so that a _great part_ of them go _half naked_ and _half starved_ much of the time.” See Minutes of the American Convention, convened in Baltimore, Oct. 25, 1826.

Rev. John Rankin, a native of Tennessee, and for many years a preacher in slave states, says of the food of slaves, ”It _often_ happens that what will _barely keep them alive_, is all that a cruel avarice will allow them. Hence, in some instances, their allowance has been reduced to a _single pint of corn each_, during the day and night. And some have no better allowance than a small portion of cotton seed; while perhaps they are not permitted to taste meat so much as once in the course of seven years. _Thousands of them are pressed with the gnawings of cruel hunger during their whole lives._” Rankin's Letters on Slavery, pp. 57, 58.

Hon. Robert J. Turnbull, of Charleston, S.C., a slaveholder, says, ”The subsistence of the slaves consists, from March until August, of corn ground into grits, or meal, made into what is called _hominy_, or baked into corn bread. The other six months, they are fed upon the sweet potatoe. Meat, when given, is only by way of _indulgence or favor_.”

_See ”Refutation of the Calumnies circulated against the Southern and Western States,” by a South Carolinian. Charleston_, 1822.

Asa A. Stone, a theological student, residing at Natchez, Mississippi, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Evangelist in 1835, in which he says, ”On almost every plantation, the hands suffer more or less from hunger at some seasons of almost every year. There is always a _good deal of suffering_ from hunger. On many plantations, and particularly in Louisiana, the slaves are in a condition of _almost utter famishment_ during a great portion of the year.”

At the commencement of his letter, Mr. S. says, ”Intending, as I do, that my statements shall be relied on, and knowing that, should you think fit to publish this communication, they will come to this country, where their correctness may be tested by comparison with real life, I make them with the utmost care and precaution.”

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