The Bible no Refuge for Slavery.
The Bible further condemns slavery specifically by condemning the traffic in human beings. Deut. xxiv. 7. "If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you." This text most clearly condemns, not only the act of stealing men, but the act of making merchandise of men. The principle of traffic in human beings is condemned. There is only one point on which the advocate of slavery can hang an objection and that is the fact that it simply condemns making merchandise of the children of Israel. This is fully answered by the remark that Israel after the flesh, cannot be more sacred in the eye of God, than Israel after the Spirit. If it was wrong to make merchandise of a Jew, because he was a Jew, it must be wrong to make merchandise of a Christian, because he is a Christian. Chapt. xxi. 14. "And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her." This is spoken of a female captive taken in war. It fully condemns the idea of selling human beings. Amos ii. 6. "Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof: because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes." On this text it may be remarked. 1. The slaves are often righteous, so that it is true to the very letter, that the righteous are sold for silver. 2. The slaves are all poor and are often bartered and gambled away for a consideration as small as a pair of shoes. Zech. xi. 4, 5. "Thus saith the Lord my God, Feed the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord: for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not." If there ever was a true picture, this is a true picture of slavery. The members of the flock of Jesus Christ are sold, "and they that sell them say blessed be the Lord, for I am rich; and their own shepherds pity them not." Joel iii. 3. "And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink." That every crime here condemned is part and parcel of American slavery, cannot be denied. The right of property in man is the foundation of these crimes. How often are slaves exchanged one for another, so that it is literally true that a boy is given for a harlot. Again, how often is it the case in their gambling and drinking revels that slaveholders pawn their servants for their bills, or gamble them away, so that it is literally true that a girl is sold for wine that they may drink. In concluding this argument, two things are to be noticed. 1. The Bible, as has been shown, clearly condemns the traffic in human beings. 2. American slavery assumes the right of buying and selling human beings as personal chattels. From the above propositions it follows that the Bible condemns slavery. The Bible further condemns Slavery specifically by condemning Involuntary Servitude. That slavery is involuntary servitude will not be denied: Indeed it is only involuntary slavery that we labor to condemn in these numbers. The only question that needs to be settled in this argument, is the wrong of forcing one man to serve another against his will. We know of no scriptures, which by any fair construction, can be made to justify compulsory service. But we will quote a few texts which, in our own mind, condemn it. Deut. xxiii. 15, 16.—"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him." This text most clearly condemns involuntary service, for it most clearly justifies the servant in leaving his master and protects him in it against the pursuits of his master, and even forbids the people among whom he may go to deliver him up. It appears from this text that there was such a thing as involuntary servitude, and in this text it is effectually condemned. It is clear that the Jews were forbidden to compel service against the will of the servant. This will appear still more plain from another text. This subject is treated at large by the prophet, and to save the reader the trouble of turning to his Bible, while reading this argument, we quote the prophet at length. Jer. xxxiv. 6. "Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem: 7. When the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah; for these defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah. 8. This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; 9. That every man should let his man servant, and every man his maid servant, being a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them; to wit, of a Jew his brother. 10. Now when all the princes and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his man servant, and every one his maid servant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. 11. But afterward they turned and caused the servants and the hand-maids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for hand-maids. 12. Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 13. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the house of bondmen, saying, 14. At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother a Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. 15. And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: 16. But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection; to be unto you for servants and for hand-maids. 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord; ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor; behold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth." The fourteenth verse speaks of being sold for seven years, but it is obvious the price for which a man was sold was his own, and went into his own pocket, for the benefit of his own family, or at most to pay his debts, the amount of which he had previously enjoyed and consumed. What is here called selling was obviously nothing more than a contract for98service for more than seven years. The seven years' service was voluntary, because agreed upon by the parties, and paid for in advance; but when they kept the servant beyond that time, it became involuntary, and God condemned it, and punished them for it. Isa. lviii. 6. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free?" The expression, "let the oppressed go free," is a full condemnation of involuntary servitude. To compel any man to serve another against his will, who is out of his minority and uncondemned for crime, is to oppress him; and the command to let the oppressed go free, condemns such forced service. American slavery is a system of force and violence, and cannot be maintained for a day, only by a constant war upon the very life of the slaves. For all this there is no warrant in the Bible, but much against it. Involuntary service must be wrong, from the fact that the violence necessary to maintain it is wrong. Whips for the naked back, thumb screws, chains, prisons, and other modes of torture, to subdue persons unconvicted of crime, have no warrant in the Gospel, and cannot be justified, only upon a principle which will justify every species of violence men may choose to practice upon one another. Slavery is a work without wages, which is condemned in the Bible. Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. "Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that be in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it; lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." It may be said that this text does not meet the case, because it speaks of hired servant, but this cannot alter the principle involved. The text condemns the act of withholding what is a man's due for his labor, and this every slaveholder does. One man voluntarily goes to work with the expectation of wages, while the employer seizes upon another and compels him to work, nolens volens. We ask, Is not the man who is compelled to work as much entitled to pay as he who works voluntarily? Certainly he is. This is kept back, and in this the slave is oppressed. Jer. xxii. 13, 14. "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; that saith, I will build me a wide house, a large chamber, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermillion." This most certainly meets the case exactly; nothing is said about hiring men, but simply using their service without wages, which every slaveholder does. Men are here absolutely forbidden to use their neighbor's service without wages, and as slavery is a system of work without wages, it is here forbidden. Hab. ii. 9, 10, 11, 12. "Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity." To establish a city by iniquity is to build up a city with the fruit of the unpaid toil of slaves, and every city in the South is built in this way. Mal. iii. 5. "And I will come near to you to judgment: and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts." James v. 4. "Behold, the hire of the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The above texts are sufficient to prove that the Bible forbids one class of men to use the labor of another class, without paying them for their work, and in forbidding this, it forbids slavery. Some may say that slaves are paid in food and raiment. These are bestowed only so far as they promote the master's interest, and they are not wages any more than the oats a man feeds his horse, or the grease he puts upon his carriage, or the manure with which he dresses his field, are wages. Wages is the amount stipulated and paid for service, but there is no stipulation between the master and slave; the slave has no voice in determining the amount he receives; this is unknown to him at the time labor is demanded and rendered, and is determined by the arbitrary will of the master. To constitute wages, the amount rendered for service must be a matter of mutual agreement between the parties. But as slavery is a system of absolute rule on the part of the master, and of coerced submission on the part of the slave, without the consent of his will to condition or stipulation, the very idea of wages is excluded.