Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/707

651 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

651

Nchcmiali. howiiiinuiliatcly jiftcr tlic icstDration. ever, successfully resisted tlw endeavor (Neh. v. "i10).

lleriid

aroused

Iiuicli ilidifXIialioii

by

reeslatilisli-

the old law under whieli a .lew Emanci- could be sold inti> slavery for crime: pation in and, as the |icoi)le refused to |iurchase the Bible, such lliOirew slaves, he oversle]i|>ed the old law by sellinir them into foreiun After countries, to the exasjienition of the people. the destruction of the lirst monarchy, therefore, Hebrews, generally speaking, were not held as slaves by fellow Hebrews, though nou .Jewish slaves continued to be conunon posses-sions among the .lews. But prior to the common era the principle of the abolition of all slavery, whether of .lews or of iion.lews, was adopted in theoiv and in practise among Thus, we learn frcjm j'liiloiand similar Hie Kssenes. testimony is furnished by .losephus): "Anil they [the Esseiies) do not use the ministrations of slaves, lookin.g uiion the possession of servants or slaves to be a thing absolutely and wholly contrary to nature: for natuie hath created all men free; but the injustice and covetousness of some men wiio pn'fer 'ne((Uality that cause of all evil, having subdued some, have given to the more powerful authority over those who are weaker" (Philo, "On a Contemplative Life," i..). It is interesting toobserve that the French statesman Isaac Adolphe Cremien.v, in an address before thi' general International Antislavery Congress held in London (1H40), proudly said on this jioint: in;j

,

"I

feel (.Teat pleiisiire In joining

Iliis

cenvenllon,

bemuse

I

mil a (lesi'eniliint uf Ulc.se Hfhrews who were Ilie Ilrst te pnietailii the iilieillinn I dei-lalt'd slavery lu he a eriiiie. and that it was, t<> lis*' the expression of ,losephiis, a perIn this asseinl>ly IM'ttial ratise of perturhatlon f'.r the state. tills must entitle them to the lili;liest Kloiy."

slavery slavery in the .Jewish

dispersion of the Jewish race

among

the nations resulted in ducking for a time the Antislavery

^loveinent which Judaism had been developing.

Greece and Rome

liotli

familiari/.id the .Jews, as never be-

with slavery as a gigantic and apparently in and the .lews soon learned in Hemic to (In as the lionians did. lionutii inroads among the barbarians resniled in the enslavement of an ever-increasing number of caplives; and it was, in fact, from such treatment of .'Slavonic captives In this, as in that the term "slave" was derived. other tiilds of commerce, .lews became conspicuous the later er.is of the Uoiiian empiii-; and it is during fore,

(lispensiil)le sy.stein

Of course the .Jews abandoned generally. as it came tube abandoned by law or <-ustom various countries where they v<Te living,

law seems throughout to luive assured cjuite geiieially hnnuine treatment for slaves among Jewish possessors.

The movement in favor of the aliolition of (he enslavement of .lewsbecunie marked in character in the time Jirecediiig the commencement of the common When the Jews were living in a land not their era. own the feeling displayed itself in the establishment of societies and funds for the ransom of .lewish slaves, Israel Abrahams, in his "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," p. !l(i. siiys, "that Jews from the larliest perio(|s regarded the ihity of ransoming. lewish captives as one of their most jiressing obligatiiuis." The payment of money for this purpose was always made a first charge upon the syniigogal funds. Among Spanish Jews such ransoms were taken Kansom of (piite as a matter of course. Habbi Jewish .Moses ben H'i""k in the tenth century Slaves in was ransomed by the Cordovan Jews; the Middle and somewhat

later Don Is;iac .Vbruvunci devoted much money and labor to redeeming large niinibers of Jewish slaves. Numerous other instances, even to the present day, are recordid in every quarter of the globe in which Jews have settled. In fact, the generosity and sense of obligation of Jews in this resect became so well known that Jews were captured and enslaved for the .sjike of securing these ninsonis. Traces are found, too, of purchases by Jews during the Dark Ages of heathen slaves .solily for the purpose of converting them to Judaism and liberating

Ag^es.

them.

When

.African slavery

forbade such eonviTsioiis, and thenafler proliibiled the iici|iiisiiioii or even the retention of Chrisliun

These measures were directed not slaves by .Jews. against slavery genenilly. but more and inoreaL'uinsf It was not till about the eiislavemi-nt of Christiiins. 12(XJ that the CInircli took strong ground against

we

a.irain

in

America, Span-

find

Portuguese, and Dutch Jews engaged in the Irallie, and holding slaves in common with their Jewish lirelliren. In view of the historical alti-

slave noil tiiile

of .Jiidaisiu to slavery,

we

are not surpris<'d,

however, to learn that Jews, like Cremieu., logieallv and zialously threw themselves as such into the antislavery struggle.



therefore not surprising to lind numerous explicit rffertMici'S to .lews as slave traders and posses.sors Particularly in the history of liome and of slaves. Spaiti are refereiici'S encountered to .Jewish slavedealers and slaveowners priiu' loUdO of the common Cliarlenuigne and Louis the Pious si'cni to em. liuve specitically sjinetioned such innditions. These dealings brought with Iheni tliiir own punishment for the .lews, however: for it is to .Ji'wisli illations to slavery that one can Inice a number of oulttrciiks against the .lews on the part of the common Church and the Christian state of thi' early .Middle Ages. There waslheobvious ilanger that Christian slaves in the households of .lewish musters were liable to become con verts to. Judaism :und so Kmjieror Constantine, the Theoilosiaii eiale. Pope (Jregory 1., iind various oilier Cliurch and secular authorities,

was introduced

early in the si.vteenth century, ish,

The

Antislavery

Abolitionist

Movement in the

Nineteenth Century,

mieii.x liims<.lf,

we

In the ease of Crelind that for many

years he had been an earnest, impassinned, and indefatigable abolitionist before it became his privilege, as a member of the Krench Provisional

Government

(1S4.'<),

to

announce, on

behalf of the Cabinet,

the abolition of slavery tliroiighoiit the French possessions. In England there were Jewish members of the abolition societies, and Gninville Sharp, in his " Ijiw of Hetribiition," and NVilbirfiuee, in his " A Letter on the .bolition of the Slave TniiU" freely employed .lewish teachiiiirs as arguments against slavery. When at the oulbnak of the .Vnierican Civil War it became iniport.int for the .lewish pulpit and press to give exprission to Jewish viiws on llie subject, mill liki' Uabbi (i. (iotllieil of .Manchester, and Dr. L. Philippson of Honn and .Magdeburg, forcibly

combated

the

view announced by Southern sympa-

thizers, that Judaism regarded slavery as divinely Sliel/iiurs "I)ie Verhilltordaineii. Habbi nisse iliT Sklaveiei bei den .lten Hebiilirn," published in (iermaii at Copeiihuireii and I.eipsic in IS,'i!t. was rapidly ti-anslated and published in the I'liited

M

Stales in many i|iiarters, and rendered valuable service in the same direction. Siniilarlv, in (Jerniany, Ilertliold Auerbiiih in his work, "1>as Ijindhaiisum Hliein," closely imitated Mrs. Slowelli arousinir public opinion against slavery and the slave trade through the medium of ticlion; and Heinrieh