SLAVES. All Men were created free and equal, and Slavery enter’d the World only by Sin. Noah, to punish the Affront that his Son Ham put upon him, by exposing his Nakedness, gave his Curse to Canaan, the Son of Ham, and made him subject to Slavery; Gen. ix. 25.Maledictus Chanaan, servus servorum erit fratribus suis. When Abraham was chosen of God, to become the Father of the Race of the Faithful, he received the Badge of Circumcision, as a Character that made him known to be the Servant of the Lord. His Descendants always valued themselves upon their Liberty. Nemini servivimus unquamJohn viii. 33., said the Jews to Jesus Christ. And St. Paul magnifies the Liberty of the true Children of Abraham, as being really free, born of a free Mother, in Opposition to the Race of Ishmael, born of a Mother that was a Slave; Non sumus ancillæ filii, sed liberæ, quâ libertate Christus nos liberavit. This has regard to moral Liberty and Servitude. But the Rabbins maintain, that they have never been in Subjection to any one by a Servitude which they call Intrinsick, and which changes the Condition of the Person. If they have been reduced to Slavery, that does not destory that State of Liberty to which they were born.
But this does not hinder, but that the Hebrews have often been subjected by several Princes. For Example, the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Chaldeans, the Grecians, and the Romans. Many, compell’d by Necessity, have been forced to sell their Liberty; and others, being taken in War, remain’d Slaves to the Conquerors. Moses himself takes Notice of two or three Sorts of Slaves among the Hebrews. They had foreign Slaves, obtain’d by the way of War, or by their Money, or born in their Houses. The Masters had an intire Sovereign Authority over these; they might sell them, change them, punish them, judge them, and even put them to Death, without any form of Process. If a Man smite Exod. xxi. 20, 21.his Servant, or his Maid with a Rod, and he die under his Hand, he shall be surely punished; notwithstanding, if he continue a Day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his Money.
This must be understood, as the Rabbins say,1 of Hebrew Slaves, but not of Foreign Slaves, which a Master might Job xxxi. 13, 14, 15. 1 Sam. v. 9. Vulg.have, and might use what Severity towards them they pleas’d with Impunity; for in this Case the Law of Moses had enjoined nothing. They follow’d the Rules common to other Nations, among whom all Masters had an absolute Power over their Slaves.2 Apud omnes perquè nationes animadvertere possumus, dominis in servos vitæ necisque potestatem fuisse. Yet wise Men have always much disapproved that Liberty which certain Masters have assumed to themselves, of thus putting their Slaves to Death. Cato the Plutarch. in Catone.Censor would never put any of his Slaves to Death, before they had been condemned and found worthy of Death by his other Slaves.
Job testifies, that he had never declined to enter into Judgment with his Slaves, when any Difficulty arose between them. The Athenians punish’d with Death him that had kill’d a Slave, as much as if he had been a Free-man.
The Samaritan Text, in this Passage now cited, is very different from the Hebrew. It is read thus: He that shall strike his Man-servant, or his Maid-servant with a Rod, if they die under his Hand, he shall not be molested, he shall not die; and if the Servant survives for two or three Days, he shall not be punished, because it is the Price of his Money. As if all this only related to a Slave, Canaanitish or Gentile, which the Civil Laws allow’d to put to Death with Impunity.
Lev. xxv. 39, 40.The Chaldee Paraphrast, some Rabbins, and some Commentators, are of the same Opinion, that this has no regard to Hebrew Slaves; for, say they, it cannot be said of an Israelitish Slave, that he was the Price of the Money of his Master: Pecunia illius est. He was in Servitude but for a few Years, and the Damage that his Master would suffer by putting him to Death, and so depriving himself of the Service he might have expected from him, would not have punish’d him enough for it. Whereas the Loss of a Foreign Slave brought a considerable Prejudice to an interested Master, and he was in some measure justly punish’d for his Cruelty, by the Death of a Man that was his own for ever, and who might have left him Children of the same Condition as himself.
Here are the Rules that Moses appoints should be observed, in respect to Hebrew Slaves: If thy Brother, that dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a Bond-servant. But as an hired Servant, and as a Sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the Year of Jubilee. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his Children with him, and shall return unto his own Family, and unto the Possession of his Fathers shall he return. For they are my Servants, which I brought forth out of the Land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as Bond-men. Thou shalt not rule over them with Rigour, but shalt fear thy God. Both thy Bond-men and thy Bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy Bond-men and Bond-maids. It was not therefore the Design of the Lord, that the Israelites should be reduced to perpetual Slavery by their Brethren, or that they should be sold to Strangers, to remain Slaves for their whole Lives. But if an Hebrew should have sold himself to a Stranger living in the Country; this Hebrew might redeem his Freedom by his Parsimony, if he had Means for it. If not, one of his nearest Relations might redeem him, by paying to his Master the Sum that he had given for him, Deduction being made for the Service he had done him, and reckoning what Time he had still to serve to the Year of Jubilee, for then he had a Right to go out of Servitude without any Ransom.
Exod. xxi. 1, 2, &c.In another Place Moses makes these Regulations concerning Hebrew Slaves: If thou buy an Hebrew Servant, six Years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. The Rabbins will have it, that a Slave was obliged to serve for seven Years compleat; but the Generality of Commentators think, that he went out free in the Sabbatical Year, even tho’ he should not have served two or three Years. Moses adds; He shall have at going out the same Cloaths he had at coming in, and his Wife shall go out with him. The Hebrew has it; If he came in by himself [with his Body] he shall go out by himself; if he were marry’d, then his Wife shall go out with him. The Rabbins say, that the Master was obliged to maintain the Wife and Children of the Slave, although none but the Husband was a Slave.
If his Master have given him a Wife, and she hath born him Sons or Daughters; the Wife and her Children shall be her Master’s, and he shall go out by himself; [or with his Body.] Several Meanings may be affix’d to this Law. A Master might make a Hebrew Slave marry a Woman Slave of a another Nation; and as this Woman is no Israelite, she could not enjoy the Privilege of the Sabbatical Year; but her Husband might quit her, and enter upon his Liberty this Year. ‘Tis ask’d, Whether the Marriage was dissolved upon this Separation? The Opinions of Interpreters are divided upon this Question3. What to us appears to have the greatest Certainty, is, that as there could properly be no Marriage among Slaves, who had took one another without Choice and without Liberty, so there could be no Dissolution of Marriage in their Separation. See the Commentators upon this Passage.
Exod. xxi. 5, 6.If the Servant shall plainly say, I love my Master, my Wife, and my Children, I will not go out free: Then his Master shall bring him unto the Judges; [Heb. Gods] he shall also bring him to the Door, or unto Deut. xv. 17.the Door-post, [of his Master’s House] and his Master shall bore his Ear through with an Aul, and he shall serve him for ever. That is to say, according to the Commentators,4 till the Year of Jubilee; for then all Slaves, without Exception, recover’d their Liberty. The Rabbins add, that they were thus set free also at the Death of their Masters, and did not descend to their Heirs.
If a Man sell his Daughter to be a Maid -servant, [or a Slave] she shall not go out as Exod xxi. 7.the Men-servants do. That is to say, the Laws we have now mention’d do not concern her. There is another kind of Jurisprudence for Girls, than for Hebrew Men or Boys. A Father could not sell his Daughter for a Slave, according to the Rabbins,5 till she was at the Age of Puberty, and unless he was reduced to the utmost Indigence. Besides, when a Master bought an Israelitish Girl, it was always with this Presumption, that he would take her for Wife, or that he would permit his Son to marry her. Hence it is that Moses adds, If she please not her Master, and he does not think fit to marry her, he shall set her at Liberty; or, according to the Hebrew, he shall let her be redeemed: To sell her unto a strange Nation he shall have no Power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her, as to the Promise, implicitely at least, that he had made her, of taking her to be his Wife.
Exod. xxi. 9, 10.If he have betrothed her unto his Son, he shall deal with her after the manner of Daughters. He shall take care that his Son uses her as his Wife, that he does not despise her, or use her ill. ” If he makes ” his Son marry another Wife, he shall ” give her her Dowry, her Cloaths, and ” what is due to her, for her Virginity; ” or, according to the Hebrew, ” If he make ” his Son marry another Wife, he shall ” not diminish the Cloaths, the Maintenance, and the Habitation of the former.” That is, according to several Commentators,6 If the Master that bought this Maid, and who made his Son marry her, makes his Son marry a second Wife, he shall take care that his Son treat this first Woman as his Wife, that he allow her Food and Raiment, and perform the Duties of Marriage to her as to his true Wife; if he does not, then shall she go out free without Money.
Otherwise, if the Father of the Family who has bought an Israelitish Maid, does not marry her, nor makes his Son to marry her; or if he would dismiss her after he had kept her for some time, he shall be obliged to marry her to another, or to sell her to another Hebrew Master, on the same Conditions that he had taken her himself, giving her a Portion, her Cloaths, and the Price of her Virginity, agreeable to Custom, or according as it should be regulated by the Judges.
An Hebrew might fall into Slavery several ways. First, If reduced to extream Lev. xxv. 29.Poverty, he might sell himself. Secondly, A Father might sell his Children for Lev. xxi. 7. 2 Kings iv. 1.Slaves. Thirdly, Insolvent Debtors might be deliver’d up to their Creditors for Slaves. Thieves that were not able to make Restitution for their Thefts, or the Value of them, were sold for the Benefit of the Exod. xxii. 3.Sufferers. Fifthly, They might be taken in War, or by Thieves. Sixthly, They might be stole away, by the Crime call’d Plagium, and afterwards sold for Slaves, as Joseph was sold by his Brethren. Lastly, An Hebrew Slave redeem’d from a Gentile by one of his Brethren, might be sold by him to another Israelite.
By the Word Slavery, Servitude, or Bondage, the Scripture often expresses the Subjection of one People to another. For Gen. xxvii. 37.Example, Isaac says to Esau; Behold, I have made him thy Lord, and all his Brethren have I given to him for Servants. And elsewhere the Egyptians say to Joseph; Buy us and our Land for Bread, and we and our Land will be Servants unto Pharaoh. And when Samuel declares to the Hebrews what are the Rights and Prerogatives of a 1 Sam. viii. 16, 17.King, he says; ” He shall take your ” Slaves, and your Maids, and you yourselves shall be subject to him as Slaves: ” Vosque eritis ei servi. And Goliah says to the Israelites; Am not I a Philistine, and you Servants to Saul? 1 Sam. xvii. 8, 9.Choose you a Man for you, and let him come down to me. And if he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your Servants. But if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our Servants, and serve us.
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