intellectual evils" uniformly produced by slavery, instead of adopting some restrictive measures, some gradual emancipation laws, would point out the mode of obtaining slaves from abroad, [Lev. xxv. 44–46;] authorize the Hebrews to purchase of the heathen round about; and thus multiply and perpetuate these dreadful evils?-Pro-slavery men are therefore shut up to the necessity either of maintaining that slavery is in no sense an evil, or of abandoning their position that the Mosaic system of servitude was a system of slavery. We shall endeavor to prove that it was an institution, most just and kind to the servant; most equitable and beneficial to the master.

Argument 2. Adults, not guilty of crime, became servants only by SELLING THEMSELVES. -To this vital point, Dr. J. has devoted only half a dozen words "the miserable subterfuge, that he sold himself." [p. 16.] We shall see with what propriety he substitutes a sneer for sober argument. If it be not true, let those who deny it, show us of whom they could be legally bought. "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee," (Lev. xv. 29.) No crime is here mentioned. The man is too poor to maintain a separate family: he must become a servant. Now who is authorized to sell him? In some parts of our country, such persons may be sold by the overseers of the poor; tho' not as slaves. Were there such officers among the Hebrews, who might dispose of this poor man? The Jewish poor-laws were of another sort. (See Lev. xxv. 35.)——Were the elders of the gate allowed to sell him? Might any rich neighbor catch the pauper, sell him to the highest bidder, and pocket the money! Show us the law for such "a fair business transaction." If there is no such law, then we need no Daniel to tell us that the poor Hebrew sold himself, to some wealthy neighbor, who could employ and maintain him and his family.

So says the law itself, (Lev. xxv. 39,) And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee.— The Hebrew is, wenimkar, and sell himself unto thee. The verb nakar signifies, to sell, and, in the Niphal, as here, to be sold, or to sell one's self. The Niphal species of verbs is used, either, "(1) as the passive of Kal; or (2) to express an action

.

performed by the subject upon himself or reflexive **** Grammarians are not agreed as to what should be considered the primary signification." (Nordheimer § 14-1.)-Again, verse 42. They shall not be sold (yimmakeru, sell themselves,) as bondmen. In both these passages the original verbs may be translated with the reflexive sense; and so have our translators rendered the same word, in the same form, (verse 47.) And if a sojourner or a stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself (wenimkar) unto the stranger, &c. But in verse 48, tho' the same transaction is spoken of, they render the word in the passive, "After that he is sold (nimkar, hath sold himself,) he may be redeemed," &c. And indeed he was sold by himself. Compare verse 49, or if be able, he may redeem himself, (wenigal, Niph. of gaal, to redeem.) How could this Hebrew. whose poverty led him to sell himself, ever be "able to redeem himself," unless he had received of the stranger "the price of his sale?" (verse 50.) It may be said that, in this case, he was certainly able to redeem himself, at any time, and therefore needed not that "any nigh of kin," (verses 48, 49,) should redeem him. So he was; he might have redeemed himself the hour after his sale, if he had no other use for the money he had received: but what would he gain by a transaction that would reduce him to the same situation of helpless poverty as before? The law contemplates his obtaining from his master the price of his labor in advance, and investing it in such a manner, that, in the course of a few years, he might be able to refund the money, and have something left to support his family.-Again, Deut. xv. 12, And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold (yimmaker, sell himself) unto thee, &c. Neh. v. 8, We, after

our ability, have redeemed, (kaninu have bought, but not for slaves, our brethren the Jews which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold (wenimkeru, sell themselves) unto us?-alluding to this custom of servants selling themselves, Elijah says to Ahab, Thou hast sold thyself to work iniquity. 1 Kings, xxi. 20, compare verse 25. There was none like Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness. 2 Kings, xvii. 17, The Jews sold themselves to do

evil, &c. Isaiah 1. 1, Behold, for your iniquities have yc sold yourselves, (nimkartem.) lii. 3, Ye have sold yourselves for nought, &c. Compare a similar expression, Ro. vi. 16, o paritanete heautous doulous eis hupakoen, &c. to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, &c.-Prof. Bush, in his Notes on Ex. xxi. 2, makes these remarks. "The following instances of the use of the term (kanah, to buy,) will go to show that its sense is modified by the subjects to which it is applied, and that it does not by any means necessarily convey the idea of the Hebrew servants being bought and sold as goods and chattels, as they are under system of modern slavery, especially in our country." He then cites a number of passages. "Here, as the service among the Hebrews was for the most part voluntary, the 'buying a Hebrew servant' may as legitimately imply the buying him from himself, that is, buying his services, as any other mode of purchase. Indeed, as there is no positive proof that Hebrew servants were ever made such or kept in that condition by force, against their own consent, except as a punishment for crime, the decided presumption is, that such is the kind of 'buying here spoken of." And so Scott, on the same passage: "The Hebrews sometimes sold themselves * through poverty."

*

Maimonides, a learned Jewish rabbi, (quoted by Bush,) speaks of the Jews as selling themselves.

Argument 3. Hebrew girls could be sold by their parents; but not for a period extending beyond the years of maturity, when they were to be married by their purchaser, or by his son.—“And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do. If she please not her master, who hath 'betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her, And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. (Ex. xxi. 7.) This law allowed the sale of a daughter, as a female-servant (leamah.) She was not a slave, however: for, [1.] She was purchased in her maidenhood, to

She was to serve till After that period, the

become her master's wife at womanhood. the age of maturity, and no longer. master must marry her; or she might claim redemption. For, surely, her master might not keep her five, ten, or fifteen years after she was marriageable, still deluding her with promises of marriage, and thus prevent her from obtaining freedom. If he betrothed her to his son, it was on the same condition, that the marriage should be consummated when she should arrive at mature age.-(2.) The fact that she was purchased of her father does not prove that she was the property of her purchaser. Wives were commonly bought by their husbands, even though they were never to serve as hand-maids. So Boaz bought Ruth: "moreover, Ruth the Moabitess *** have I purchased to be my wife." [Ruth iv. 10.] Hosea says of his wife, “Lo, I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley." [iii. 2.]Jacob paid fourteen years' labor for Leah and Rachel. [Gen. xxix. 15-29.] His wives say of their father, "He hath sold us," &c. (xxxi. 15.) Shechem offered to buy Dinah: "What ye shall say unto me, I will give." (xxxiv. 11, 12.) David paid a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, for Michael the daughter of Saul. "The king desireth not any dowry (mohar) but," &c. 1 Samuel, (xviii. 24.] Compare Ex. xxii. 16, and if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her [mahor, purchase her] to be his wife:-with verse 17: and Deut. xxii. 28, 29. If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, &c. A similar custom prevailed among the ancient Greeks: See Homer's Iliad, ix. 146, philen anaednon, a mistress obtained without the usual gifts, xi. 243, polla d'edoke, xvi. 178–190, muria edna, xxii. 472, epei pore muria edna.—See, also, the purchase of a husband, Eurip. Medea, 230:

Panton d' hos' est empsucha, kai gnomen echei,

Gunaikes esmen athliotaton phuton:

Has prota men dei chrematon huperbolc

Posin priasthai, despoten te somatos.

Herodotus, (Lib. 1, cap. 196,) tells us that the Babylonians

and others sold girls for wives, at public auction. "Nomoi de autoisi hode katesteatai, &c. In my description of their laws, I have to mention one, the wisdom of which I must admire; *** In each of their several districts this custom was every year observed: such of their virgins as were marriageable, were at an appointed time and place assembled together. Here the men also came, and some public officer sold by auction the young women one by one, beginning with the most beautiful *** taking it for granted that each man married the maid he purchased." [Beloe's translation.] The remains of a similar custom existed among the ancient Germans: Dotem non uxor marito, sed uxori maritus, offert. Intersunt parentes et propinqui, ac munera probant; &c. (C. C. Taciti, Germania, xviii.)— Indeed, the history of our own country is not without example of wives purchased for forty pounds of tobacco, apiece: but no one ever dreamed that they were therefore the actual property of their husbands.-(3.) She was not a part of the master's chattels; and therefore he may not sell her. "To sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power," (verse 8.) (leam nakeri.) "He was not allowed to marry her to another person, or to sell her into another family. Thus the words rendered 'a strange people, are generally understood, because it is supposed that no Hebrew slave could be sold to a Gentile." (Scott.)-(4.) If he have betrothed her unto his son, he must treat her, in all respects, as one of his own daughters.

Argument 4. The heathen were bought as servants, only with their own consent. The law respecting servants of this class, is found, Lev. xxv. 44-46. Both thy bond-men (abdeka,) and thy bond-maids (amatheka,) which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession (ahuzzah.)` And shall take them for an inheritance (hithnahaltem) for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession, and they shall be your bond-men forever, (leolam bahem taabodu:) but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule over one

ye