UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

236 KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN.
"
"manumit your slave,"it said to him,, judgmentupon her,awardingsuch punishment
"
treat him as
your brother," and leftto the
as he thoughtproper.
slave-holder'sconscienceto say how much For unfaithfulness to her marriage-vow,
was implied in thiscommand.
or for drinkingwine,Romulus allowed her
In the directions which Paul gave about husband to put her to death.* From this
slavery, itis evidentthat he consideredthe slavery, son, the wife could never
legal relationwith the same indifferencewith be manumitted; no legal forms were provided.
which a gardener treats a piece of unsightly It was lasting
her life.
bark,which he perceives growingvigor The same spirit slavery pervaded
of a young tree is about to throw off by the relationof master and servant,
its own vitalforce. He looked upon it as giving rise to that severe code of slave-law,
a part of an old,effetesystemof heathenism,
which,with a few featuresof added cruelty,
belonging usages ChristianAmerica,in the nineteenth century,
which were waxing old and readyto vanish has reenacted.
away.
With regard, now, to all theseabuses of
There is an argument which has been proper relations, the gospelpursuedone
much employed on this subject, and which uniform course. It did not command the
is specious Ịt is this. That the apostles Christian fatherto performthe legalact of
treatedslavery of the lawful relations emancipation to his son ;
but it infused such
of life, like that of parent and child, husband
a divinespirit paternalrelation, by
and wife.
assimilating itto the relationof the heavenly
The argumentisthus stated: The apostles Fatherțhat the ChristianizedRoman would
found allthe relationsof lifemuch corrupted regard any use of his barbarous and oppressive
by various abuses.
legalpowers as entirely They did not attack the relations, but with his Christian profession. So it
reformed the abuses,and thus restoredthe ennobled the marriagerelationbycomparing
relationsto a healthystate.
it to the relationbetween Christ and his
The mistake here lies in assuming that church ; commandingthe husband to love his
slavery lawful relation. Slavery is wife,even as Christ loved the church,and
the corruption of a lawful relation. The gave himself for it. It said to him, "No
lawful relation is servitude, slavery man ever
yet hated his own flesh,but
the corruptionof servitude.
nourisheth and cherisheth it,even as the
When the apostles came, all the relations Lord the church; "so oughtevery
one to
of lifein the Roman empirewere thoroughly love his wife,even as himself." Not an
permeatedwith the principle slavery. allusion is made to the barbarous,unjust
The relationof child to parentwas slavery. power which the law gave the husband. It
The relationof wife to husband was slavery. was perfectly understood that a Christian
The relationof servant to master was slavery.
husband could not make use of itin conformity
with these directions.
The power of the father over his son, by In the same manner Christianmasters
Roman law,was very much the same with were exhorted to give 'to theirservants that
the power of the master over his slave.* which isjust and equitable; and,so far from
He could,at his pleasure, scourge,imprison, coercing their services by forcețo forbear
or put him to death. The son could possess even threatenings. Christian master
nothing but what was the propertyof his was directed to receive his Christianized
father ; and this unlimited control extended slave, " not now as a slave,but above a
throughthe whole lifetime of the father, slave, a brotherbeloved;"and,as in allthese
unless the son were formally by an other cases, nothingwas said to him about
act of manumission three times repeated, the barbarous powers which the Roman law
while the slave could be manumitted byperforming
gave him,sinceit was perfectly understood
the act onlyonce. Neither was that he could not at the same time treat him
there any law obliging the father to manumit
as a brother beloved and as a slave in the
; he could retain this power, if he sense of Roman law.
chose,duringhis whole life.
When, therefore,
question is asked,
Verysimilar was the situationof the Roman
why did not the apostles seek the abolition
wife. In case she were accused of of slavery, we answer, theydid seek it.
crime,her husband assembled a meeting of They sought it by the safest, shortest,and
her relations, and in their presence
sat in most direct course which could possibly have
been adopted.
*
See Adams' Roman Antiquities.
*
Dionys. Hal. n. 25.