The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-11-10
For the Examiner T.

Ino b1ole ana eSavefys
Many persons have undertaken to prove that
the institution Of slavery 10 sanctioned by the
Bible. II IL our calm and deliberate opinion,
that all such persons spend their strength for
nought They labor In vain. With much
wearisome effort they only succeed In rolling a
heavy stone to the top of an high hill; Dom
which It rushes down immediately to the valley
beneath, that their fruitless labor may DO again
renewed. They gra,uitously toll in the hard
service, which the ancients believed 10 be as
signed only to great criminals, like SsyPhus,
in the regions Of the damned. How often has
It been proved by Ingenious writer's, that the
Bible was In favor Of perpetual slavery; and yet
what man of common sense believes i'll No
body, or certainly none but those who are com
Pletely blinded BY prejudice,
Said stakeholder to me, not long since, al
am not willing to give up my negroes, but
acknowledge that 1t is selfishness in NE
for the Bible requires mat we should do unto
others, as We would that they should do unto
Us. If l were slave, l know that would be
glad to have my liberty bestowed on me. But
paid large sum Of money for my negroes,
and cannot afford {, lose Il. II the govern.
ment will pay me ore half of what they are
worth, will agree to lose the other half my
self, and let them 20 Free" lie was a plain,
u nIettered man, bu'good, sound. common sense
led him at once toa conclusion very different
from tina, to which sophistry, stimulated by
avarice, conduct many prejudiced and self
conceited men, Who profess to be learned In the
scriptures.
The advocates Of perpetual slavery contend
that Abraham had servants, bought with his
money, and HAT the Jews were allowed to buy
bond-men sad bond-women of the heather
round aboutthem, and TO hand them down as
an Inheritance to their children. That they
were allowable d o so, is admitted by every one,
but does H. therefore. follow that African slave
ry-that ,uch slavery as exists among us-is
sanctioned by the Bible' Unqusstionably it
does not Did Abraham ever sell any of his
servantsl Were the Jews allowed to sell their
servants gain, after they had once bought them,
If they thought proper to do sol Could they
be transflred from one master to another, at the
pleasure,f their ownersl The Jews were al
lowed tObuy servants, and to hand them down
as an Inheritance to their children, but who can
prove tla they were at liberty to sell them after
they had once bought themi II Is certain tina,
no suct permission 10 recorded in the Bible
Nor have we any authority In the scriptures,
Las far tad mil r.
that any good man ever sold human being.
have sesrhed, myself, to find if any such trans.
action as the selling of a servant was ever
mentioned n the Bible as occurring among the
Jews, but have never been able to find il; and
have at last come to the conclusion that II Ia
not tleIe. The Jews could buy servants from
among the heather, but could not sell them -
They remained under the same master as long
as they were servants. There is an obviou.
difference between the criminality Of buying
servsnts ana Of selling them, which 10 gene.
rally overlooked, and yet it is very manifest.
A man may buy a slave and il he is humane
man he will have it in his power to improve hi.
condition He may make il infinitely BETTE
than 1t was before the slave came into his pos
session. But when man sells slave he lose.
all csntrd over the destiny Of that slave forever
lie may sell him to kind master, yet, he can
not tell tut that he may be again sold into tn,
hands o. a cruel monster, who will render his
condition as wretched us it can possibly be
mace. For this reason, as 1t seems to me, the
Jews were allowed to buy slaves or bonds men
from the heather, but no permission was given
to their masters to sell them again. Slaves
were much better off among the Jews than
they were as long as they remained in the hand.
Of their heather masters. As soon az a slave
. enered the Jewish Common wealth the law Of
Gsd threw Its broad @gis around him. which
efectually protected him in all his rights and
privileges. His wife, his children, could no
longer be taken from him, and sold for the SAX e
Of gain into miserable and ruthless exile. His
master could no longer treat him with severity,
and many believe that at the return of Jubilee,
all Of tie bondsmen In Israel were set at lib.
erty.
II was evidently a benevolent arrangement,
by which bondsmen were introduced into the
Jewish Commonwealth. They soon became in =.
cOrporated into the great mass OF the Jewish
nation, and in little time all traces of their
foreign origin were forever obliterated and OBJ.
secured.
The true doctrine on the subject Of slavery,
as it is sanctioned by reason and revelation, we
take to be this, that the relation Of master and
servanti s not in itself sinful or In other words
that II is not absolutely wrong to hold our Eel.
lOw-men in bondage, or to buy them from the
heather or from any body else, but that we
ought to hold them in our possession, with
determination to better their condition and to
set them at liberty, just soon as that object
can be accomplished with benefit to them, and
without injury to the community at large. The
idea Of holding human beings in perpetual
bondage, is abhorrent to al the ideas Of Justice
and OF mercy that we have ever formed
If those who are under the impression tha,
the Bible sanctions perpetual slavery, would
only search for authority in the Scriptures, TO
sell human beings-ts transfer them M pron.
erty from one individual to anothsr-to sonar.
ate parents and childien-husbands and w;vss
just as interest may iictate-if they would only
do this we have no doubt but that light would
ere long burst IN Upon their minds, and tina,
they would sooI b convinced, that such slave.
ry as exists in the United States can claim no
sanction whaevsr from the Word of God
Forty years ago no one in Virginia, or in am
Of the Southern States, II we are not mistaken.
ever thought Of such thing as jus,ifyipp ala.