Untitled - African American History

XXXvi HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SLAVERY.
is now being executed upon his descendants, in the enslavement
of the negro race. From the familiarity with
which Noah spoke of the servile condition of his youngest
son, it seems probable that the condition of servitude
must have existed prior to the flood.
In every organized community there must be a labor-
wiser heads :
ing class, to execute the plans devised by
to till the ground, and to perform the menial offices
necessarily connected with social life. This class have
generally been slaves, and, in the opinion of Puffendorf,
their bondage naturally arose, in the infancy of society,
from their occupation. The poorer and less intelligent
applied to the more opulent and intelligent for employment.
The return was food and raiment, at a time
when there was no currency. With the removal of the
employer mankind at that age having no permanent
abode the employee moved also, and with him nis
family. His children, as they grew to youth and man-
hood, naturally aided the parent in his labors, and received
the same reward; and thus, either by express
contract or custom, the one, with his descendants, became
attached to and a part of the household of the
other. Certain it is, that Abraham had his man-servants
and maid-servants, born in his house and bought with
his money ; and that Sarah, his wife, was a hard mis-
tress to Hagar, her handmaid, who became a fugitive
from her hand, and returned only by the direction of the
angel of the Lord. The slave-trade too, was of early
origin, as we find Joseph sold to Midianitish merchants,
and resold by them in Egypt. The transfer of slaves
from parent to child, was of still earlier origin, as we
find Rebecca, on her marriage to Isaac, carrying her
damsels home with her ;
a custom followed by Laban,
on the marriage of Leah and Rachel to Jacob. The
slavery in these patriarchal days, was undoubtedly mild ;
and the relations between the master and slave, of the