Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-11-27
For the Green Mountain Freeman.
The Bible against Slavery,
MEssRs. POLAND g. BRIGGs

MEssRs. POLAND g. BRIGGs:
Sns-The base insult to the Almighty, charging up
on Him the sanction, in His holy word, of such slave
ry as is %practiced in the Southern States, has elected
from a citizen of Virginia a Bible argument against
slavery, which should be read by every person in the
United States. Among other things, he shows clearly
from scripture that whatever of servitude was authoriz-
ed by the Levitical law, was nothing like slavery, when
compared with that %practiced, and attempted to be le-
galized in the Southern states. To present a motive
for people to purchase and read this pamphlet, and also
to place before them for consideration in the mean time
some positions which he appears to support beyond con-
tradiction, and that chiefly from plain scripture, | pre-
sent below a few Of those propositions. The manu-
script, written in Virginia, was sent to the Hon. Lewis
Tappan, of New York, who has procured an edition to
be printed, which is now for sale in New York. The
pamphlet is now before me and hope and presume
you will deem it e%xpedient and useful to publish these
extracts. TITUs HUTCHINSON.
"1st. The p~retence of Old Testament slavery has
no natural analogy to support it. 1t in no sense har-
monies with the laws of nature.
Cd. The extreme moral violence of the scriptures "a
gainst the great sin of human oppression including, of
course, the most oppressive practice in the world.
Sd. The existence of numerous important legal rights
and privileges expressly vested in all classes of ancient
Hebrew servants equally, by the letter of the Levitical
remembered, that the laws of the slave states deprive
slaves of all rights make them things.
4th. The entire absence of any slave code, or body
of slave regulations, in the Levitical law, or in any 9TH
er part of the Old Testament but on the contrary, as
before shown, the direct reverse of them in all respects
9Th. There are no words in the Hebrew language
corresponding in meaning with our English, and the
ancient and modern words, SLAVE, Shareholder, Slavery
&c, which never could have happened had the practice
of slavery existed among the ancient ~Israeltes, either
with or without the Levitical law.
9th. The Levitical statute for the voluntary escape
Deut. a: Is, 16. Having escaped, he could not be COM
PEELED to return, without his consent.
9TH. The great Levitical institutions of the year Of
release and the jubilee. Elk. 81: 2. Lev. 25: 8-l3
Deut. Is; u, &c.
9Th. The restoration of inheritances or estates to the
lOll9LudI OWlIClSj vi ulGII uGlI13 vi Lllt arrival vi GdCL
successive jubilee: see Lev. 25th chap. and Numb. Both
do
9th. There is not only no account in the scriptures
of any kind of slavery Qike that in the South) in the
Jewish nation, but there is no Jewish or other tradition
of any such among them.
10th. Gods grant of dominion and ownership of pro
perty gave equal right to each individual.
18th. Slavery of human beings, is a direct violation
rect, but equally certain, violation of the other com
mandments in the table.
18th. Human slavery is an indirect, but certain, vio-
lation of every moral precept contained in the scrip
lures, because the support of it necessarily produces
such violation"