Untitled - African American History

CHAPTER I.
SLAVERY AMONG THE JEWS.
THERE were, among the Jews, two distinct classes of
slaves, distinguished by great difference of treatment
and status, as well as by the duration of their bondage.
the
The one class consisted of their Hebrew brethren ;
other of strangers and heathen. The bondage of the
first expired on the seventh year; unless 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; he shall also bring
him unto the door or doorpost ; and his master shall
bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him
forever." 1 Thus the Hebrew servant became one of the
other class, whose bondage was perpetual. 8 On the
seventh year, the Hebrew servant, when he went free,
took with him his wife, if she came with him. But if
his master had given him a wife, she and her children
1
Exodus 21 : 5, 6 Deut. 15 : 16.
;
8 I am aware that abolitionists, including learned prelates in the Bri-
tish House of Lords, have explained the word " forever" to mean only
until the year of Jubilee. I am not a sufficient Hebrew scholar to enter
into this controversy or to pretend to decide the question. I would remark
that the same argument is resorted to, by those contending for uni-
versal salvation, to meet and refute the orthodox doctrine of eternal
punishment. The curious on this point are referred to Fletcher's Studies
on Slavery ; Priest's Bible Defence of Slavery, 136 ; Gill's Commentary ;
Lev. 25 : 44; Michaelis's Comm. on Mosaic Law, vol. ii, art. 127. This
learned author supposes that even the Hebrew servant in some cases
served till the year of Jubilee.