Page:Does the Bible sanction American slavery?.djvu/51

Rh master, and to his master’s son, in which Eliezer stood to Abraham and Isaac, and when we find in negro slavery the other characteristics of bondage as it existed in the tents of Abraham and his descendants, we may begin to think that the term “Patriarchal” is true as applied to the Slavery of Virginia and Carolina. we come to the time of Moses and his laws, we find society at a more advanced stage. The families have become united in the tribe; and the tribes are fast blending into the nation. All the features of national life will now appear. Classes will be formed, and the difference between the freeman and the bondman will be distinctly felt. The State, though in a rude shape, will take the place of the head of the family as the ruler and protector of all: so that the protection afforded by his master will no longer make up to the bondman for the loss of personal liberty. The time is fast approaching when bondage will become an evil and a wrong.

Still, that time has not yet quite arrived. Society is not yet so settled, nor law so paramount, but that protection may be sometimes better for the poor man than independence. The history of the Book of Judges is filled with violence: and the passages of the Law which speak of the hired labourer and assert his rights