had perished in the primeval struggle for existence. These new members are servants to the head of the tribe, on whose protection their lives must depend. Nations with regular governments, and distinctions of class, have been formed in the countries on the edge of which Abraham and his tribe wander. In these nations slavery exists. Its first source probably was war; a further supply being obtained, when the value of the slave to the indolent warrior was felt, by piracy and kidnapping. The traffic in men, which is the strongest evidence of the existence of Slavery in the true sense of the term, has commenced. Abraham himself, from his commerce with slave-owning nations, has servants "bought with his money," as well as servants " born in his house."

But the bondage of Abraham's servants, whether born in his house or bought with his money, can scarcely be called slavery. It is domestic, not merely in the modern, but in the partriarchal sense of the term. In the lonely encampment the head of the tribe must live entirely with his servants. He has no other companions or friends. He is not a member of a class of freemen, nor are they members of a class of slaves: no feeling of contempt, therefore, can arise in his mind nor of degradation in theirs. He and his children work as they do. Jacob seethes the pottage while Esau seeks food by hunting, and the patriarch feels it no disgrace to serve Laban as a common herdsman.

The son is a bondman as well as the servant. Under the family despotism of the Romans he could obtain his liberty only by thrice going through the form of being sold by his father as a slave; and then he ceased to be, in the fullest sense, a member of the family. The eldest son alone was distinguished above the rest of those "in the father's hand," by having the birthright and being the destined head of the tribe in his turn. And if there was no son, a bondman took the inheritance. "And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my

house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir." *

When the family rite of circumcision, the pledge of religious unity, is performed, all the bondmen, whether born in the house or bought with money, are circumcised. "And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him." † "He that is born in thy house, and he. that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.”

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Here is the picture of Patriarchal Bondage: " And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. ... And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor. And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water. And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water and let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may

*Gen. xv. 2, 3.

† Gen. xvii. 23.

drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master.”*

In the picture, on which the evening sun of a long-vanished world here falls, we see, it may safely be said, a relation widely different from that which is painted in the decision of Judge Ruffin. It is a relation of perfect affection and confidence, of complete identity of interest between the master and the servant. If the analogies of tutor and pupil, master and apprentice, which Judge Ruffin rejects in the case of American Slavery, are not applicable in this case, it is only because the strongest of them is too weak and assuredly the term "chattel personal" applied to the steward as he stands by the well praying God to be good to his master, would grate strangely on our ears.

We

This passage illustrates not only the position of the bondman in the family, but the relative position of the son. see that in the matter of marriage, he was entirely "in his father's hand." So in the Roman family, the father could marry any one of his children or of their children, and divorce them, at his pleasure. That the father, in the patriarchal state, as well as at Rome, had the power of life and death over the son, as much as he could have it over the bondman, we see from the story in which Abraham consents to sacrifice Isaac, without any scruple on the ground of moral right, though doubtless with the deepest feelings of paternal sorrow. Ignorance of this fact has led to mistaken judgments, sometimes expressed in very strong language, as to the morality of the story, which, in its issue, is an abrogation of human sacrifices, such as were offered by the neighboring nations, who made their children pass through the fire to Moloch.

It will also be seen from the same passage that the oath of *Gen. xxiv. 1-4, 10-14.

a bondman was as good as that of a freeman. "Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth," &c. In Greece, during the classical times, or at Rome, a bondman's oath would have been worth little. It would scarcely have been supposed that the Gods stooped to guard the faith or punish the perjury of a slave.

The servant prays to God and blesses him as "the God of his master Abraham," because the persons of all the tribe were gathered up as it were into the sacred person of the chief, and came into relation with God and with other tribes through him. So at Rome, the father of the family represented all its members before the Gods and the State.

Laban, the free head of a family, receives Abraham's servant quite as an equal. "And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord; wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels." And on the other hand, Jacob, though he has the birthright, and is to be head of his tribe, binds himself to serve Laban for twice seven years, not exactly as a bondman, but doing the same kind of work as the bondmen did, and surrendering his personal liberty to his master in a way which would not now be permitted (except in the peculiar case of military service) by the laws of any country in which civilized morality prevails.

The identity of interest between the Patriarchal chief and his servant, and the reliance consequently placed by the chief in the servant's loyalty, which we have noted in the story of Abraham's steward, appear elsewhere also. "When Abraham heard that his brother (Lot) was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." The herdmen of Abraham and Lot (Gen. xiii.) and the herdmen of Isaac and Gerar (Gen. xxvi.) strive of their own accord for the pastures and the wells of springing water, evidently regarding the interest of their master as their own.

So much respecting the nature of bondage in the patriarchal state. It seems to bear little resemblance to the con'dition of the gangs of negro chattels who are driven out under the lash of an overseer to plant cotton in America, and who are slaves to the tyrannical cruelty and lust of the white members of their owner's family, as well as to the avarice of their owner. When we find a negro standing in the same relation to his 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.

SECTION III.

WHEN 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: