Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/162

 war, whose lives had been spared by the conquerors. The Gibeonites employed artifice to obtain this hard condition, that they might remain in the land as a servile race. A stranger, therefore, might be a servant forever. But even these foreign Helots had many rights. They, as well as the Hebrews, enjoyed the rest of the Sabbath. They shared the general rejoicing on the great festivals. To certain feasts they were especially to be invited. Thus the hearts of the bondmen were lightened in the midst of their toil. They were always to be treated with humanity and kindness. In fact, they lived in the houses of their masters more as hired servants than as slaves. They were the family domestics, and were often the objects of extreme attachment and confidence. Says Michaelis: "The condition of slaves among the Hebrews was not merely tolerable, but often extremely comfortable."

That the sympathies of the law were with the oppressed against the oppressor, appears from the singular injunction that a foreign slave, who fled to a Hebrew for protection, should not be given up: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee." No Fugitive Slave Law remanded the terror-stricken fugitive to an angry and infuriated master, and to a condition more hopeless than before.

Contrast this mild servitude with the iron bondage which crushed the servile class in other ancient nations: "Among the Romans slaves were held — pro nullis — pro mortuis — pro quadrupedibus — as no men — as dead men — as beasts; nay, were in a much worse state than any cattle whatever. They had no head in the state, no name, no tribe or register. They were not capable of being injured, nor could they take by purchase or descent; they had no heirs, and could make no will. Exclusive of what was