The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus

by American Anti-Slavery Society

No. 4.
THE
ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER.
THE
BIBLE AGAINST SLAVERY.
AN INQUIRY INTO THE PATRIARCHAL AND MOSAIC SYSTEMS ON THE SUBJECT OF HUMAN RIGHTS. Third Edition—Revised.

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,

NO. 143 NASSAU STREET.

1838.

This periodical contains 5 sheets.—Postage under 100 miles, 7 1-2 cts; over 100 miles, 12 1-2 cts.

Please read and circulate.

CONTENTS

• [DEFINITION OF SLAVERY,]
• • [Negative,]
  • [Affirmative,]
  • [Legal,]
• [THE MORAL LAW AGAINST SLAVERY]
• • ["Thou shalt not steal,"]
  • ["Thou shalt not covet,"]
• [MAN-STEALING—EXAMINATION OF EX. xxi. 16,]
• • [Separation of man from brutes and things,]
• [IMPORT OF "BUY" AND "BOUGHT WITH MONEY,"]
• • [Servants sold themselves,]
• [RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES SECURED BY LAW TO SERVANTS,]
• [SERVANTS WERE VOLUNTARY,]
• • [Runaway Servants not to be delivered to their Masters,]
• [SERVANTS WERE PAID WAGES,]
• [MASTERS NOT "OWNERS,"]
• • [Servants not subjected to the uses of property,]
  • [Servants expressly distinguished from property,]
  • [Examination of Gen. xii. 5.—"The souls that they had gotten," &c.]
  • [Social equality of Servants and Masters,]
  • [Condition of the Gibeonites as subjects of the Hebrew Commonwealth,]
  • [Egyptian Bondage analyzed,]
• [OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.]
• ["CURSED BE CANAAN," &c.—EXAMINATION OF GEN. ix. 25,]
• ["FOR HE IS HIS MONEY," &c.—EXAMINATION OF EX. xxi. 20, 21,]
• [EXAMINATION OF LEV. xxv. 44-46,]
• • ["Both thy BONDMEN, &c., shall be of the heathen,"]
  • ["They shall be your bondmen FOREVER,"]
  • ["Ye shall take them as an INHERITANCE," &c.]
• [EXAMINATION OF LEV. XXV. 39, 40.—THE FREEHOLDER NOT TO "SERVE AS A BOND SERVANT,"]
• • [Difference between Hired and Bought Servants,]
  • [Bought Servants the most favored and honored class,]
  • [Israelites and Strangers belonged to both classes,]
  • [Israelites servants to the Strangers,]
  • [Reasons for the release of the Israelitish Servants in the seventh year,]
  • [Reasons for assigning the Strangers to a longer service,]
  • [Reasons for calling them the Servants,]
  • [Different kinds of service assigned to the Israelites and Strangers,]
• [REVIEW OF ALL THE CLASSES OF SERVANTS WITH THE MODIFICATIONS OF EACH,]
• • [Political disabilities of the Strangers,]
• [EXAMINATION OF EX. xxi. 2-6.—"IF THOU BUY AN HEBREW SERVANT,"]
• [THE CANAANITES NOT SENTENCED TO UNCONDITIONAL EXTERMINATION,]

THE BIBLE AGAINST SLAVERY.

The spirit of slavery never seeks shelter in the Bible, of its own accord. It grasps the horns of the altar only in desperation—rushing from the terror of the avenger's arm. Like other unclean spirits, it "hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds should be reproved." Goaded to phrenzy in its conflicts with conscience and common sense, denied all quarter, and hunted from every covert, it vaults over the sacred inclosure and courses up and down the Bible, "seeking rest, and finding none." THE LAW OF LOVE, glowing on every page, flashes around it an omnipresent anguish and despair. It shrinks from the hated light, and howls under the consuming touch, as demons quailed before the Son of God, and shrieked, "Torment us not." At last, it slinks away under the types of the Mosaic system, and seeks to burrow out of sight among their shadows. Vain hope! Its asylum is its sepulchre; its city of refuge, the city of destruction. It flies from light into the sun; from heat, into devouring fire; and from the voice of God into the thickest of His thunders.