Or, if the will and sovereignty of God, And snap the chain the moment when you may." Cowper. SECT. V.—THE SOURCES OF SLAVERY. If liberty is the birthright of every human being, in what manner have persons become slaves? This is a very natural question. We should think liberty so dear a blessing, that every one would most strenuously maintain and defend it, and watch against every thing that might endanger it. Fellow feeling, we should think, would also prompt every man to defend this sacred right of his neighbour against encroachment; and that, if an attempt should be made to enslave one man, the whole neighbourhood would rise to defend or rescue him ; and that thus slavery must be of very rare occurrence, and its extensive prevalence absolutely impossible. This, however, is very far from being the true state of the case. Among the causes of slavery may be mentioned— 1. Crime.—On account of their crimes, some persons have been condemned to labour in a state of slavery for a limited time, or for the remainder of life. 2. Captives taken in war have been either detained and employed as slaves in public works, or sold to individuals, or appropriated by the captors for their own private use, as any other part of the booty taken in war. Persons thus becoming slaves, have often been redeemed from captivity by a ransom paid by their friends; or exchanged for other captives, restored to their own country, and set at liberty. 3. Debtors have sometimes sold themselves to their creditors, either for a limited time, or for life. 4. A vast proportion of slaves have been made so by the treachery of man. They have been enticed by stratagem, or seized by violence, and sold into captivity. Even parents have sold their children in this manner. 5. Children born of parents in a state of slavery, being destitute of the means of claiming the native liberty of man, have inherited the slavery of their parents, and become the property of their possessor; and thus slavery, when once incurred, has been perpetuated from generation to generation. SECT. VI.—THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY. When did slavery begin? At a very early period. We do not know whether it existed before the flood; but, as the presumptuous wickedness of man had risen to such an awful height, as to call for that judgment from a righteous God, we can scarcely think that, ainong the monstrous evils that prevailed, the oppression of man by man did not hold a conspicuous place. Indeed, the predictive curse pronounced soon after the flood, against Ham and his posterity, "6 a servant of servants, (or a slave of slaves,) shall he be unto his brethren," would have been unintelligible if slavery had been unknown. In rather more than a century after the flood, Nimrod, the son of Cush, grandson of Ham and great-grandson of Noah, was proverbially distinguished as a "mighty hunter before the Lord." This phrase," before the Lord," when applied to a good man, intimates that he acted as realizing the presence of God, and enjoying the Divine approbation and favour. Thus it is said that "Noah was righteous before the Lord;" and Abraham was thus addressed," I am the Almighty God, walk thou before me, and be thou perfect." But when the phrase is applied to a wicked man, it generally expresses his presumptuous defiance of the Lord. Thus it is said, "the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly." It is probable that the phrase, as applied to Nimrod, denotes his daring haughty spirit, which led him, in his ambitious pursuits, to disregard the laws of God and the rights of men. Up to his time, government had been patriarchal; that is, each father had governed in his own family; but Nimrod is the first mentioned king and conqueror. He might hunt wild beasts, but it is pretty evident that he also hunted down men, and made them subservient to his ambition and usurpation. He founded the royal city, afterwards called Babel or Babylon, and thence went forth to conquer and subdue, and usurp dominion over the inhabitants of other places. He was, in all probability, the leader of that presumptuous enterprise, the building of a city whose walls should reach to heaven, and should become the centre of a universal monarchy. In the prosecution of these ambitious designs, we can easily imagine that Nimrod must have reduced vast numbers of his fellow-creatures to subjection, either to the labour of slavery or the captivity of war; indeed we can scarcely suppose it to have been other wise; and general surmise probably does not err in assigning to Nimrod the infamous distinction of being the parent of postdiluvian slavery. It is certain that, in the time of Abraham, some kind of slavery was very common, for we read repeatedly of servants which were his property, born in his house, or bought with his money, or presented to him by some prince with whom he was in friendly alliance, and from henceforward almost every enumeration of patriarchal wealth contains the item, 56 men- servants and maid-servants." From the character of Abraham, we have every reason to conclude that these persons were treated by him not only with justice and humanity, but with paternal kindness; and, in many instances, their being placed in his family was doubtless a great blessing to them, as the means of bringing them to an acquaintance with the true God. The same remark will apply to the pious patriarchs in general. Still we cannot but see the evil connected with a condition which entrusts one man with absolute dominion over another, the possibility and even danger that he may abuse it. It is very possible that humane and conscientious persons, living in times and countries where slavery was the usual mode of servitude, may have fallen into the custom without perceiving the danger of its principle, and without any disposition to abuse the arbitrary power they possessed; but such instances, however numerous, must be regarded as the exceptions, which do not set aside the general rule that fallen man, acquiring absolute power over his natural equals will, in all probability, abuse it. About a hundred and fifty years afterwards, we find that the descendants of Ishmael, and of Abraham's other sons, by Keturah, having greatly multiplied, carried on an extensive trade with Egypt, carrying thither "spicery, balm, and myrrh," the precious productions of their own lands, and, probably, bringing back in exchange the manufactures of Egypt. We observe, with regret, that they were also familiar with another, a most unjust and inhuman traffic in the persons of men. For when the unnatural brethren of Joseph were deliberating on taking away his life, the approach of a company of Ishmaelitish merchants struck into their minds the sudden thought of selling him for a slave. The proposal was made, and the transaction completed without any thing like an emotion of horror or surprise. It is evident that the sale of the human species was no new thing, and that the purchasers were not over scrupulous in their inquiries as to the right of disposal. Many years. afterwards, when speaking of the transaction, Joseph said, "I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews;" and this was a just account. The Ishmaelites, indeed, bought him and sold him; but they bought him of those who had no right to sell him, and no subsequent purchases could do away the guilt of the first theft, or give right to any successive proprietors. The same remark will apply to right of property in African slaves, a subject which, during the last few years, has provoked much discussion, but which is now, as far as England is concerned, happily set at rest. When the astonishing vicissitudes of Providence, by which the history of Joseph is marked, had placed him on the second throne in Egypt, and brought his offending brethren to his feet in the character of humble suppliants, although cordially reconciled |