“And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
“And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
“God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant” (Gen. ix, 25–27).
Nor is it the Jewish Scriptures alone which sanction slavery. The Christian Scriptures are not less emphatic in their indorsement of it.
“Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor” (1 Tim. vi, 1).
“Exhort servants to be obedient unto their masters” (Titus ii, 9).
“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling” (Eph. vi, 5).
“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward” (1 Pet. ii, 18).
It may be urged that the term “servant” here refers to a hired servant. Not so; wherever the word “servant” occurs in the New Testament, it means slave in its worst sense.
The Fugitive Slave law, which made us a nation of kidnappers, derived its authority from the New Testament. Paul had established a precedent by returning a fugitive slave to his master.