t
"doulos," and hired servant,) I say he told me positively, there was no
such law. When I opened the Bible and showed it to him, his shame was
very visible. (And I hope he is not the only great and good man, that
God will put to shame for being ignorant of his word.) But he never
opened his mouth to me about slavery again while he lived.

If my reader does no _better_ than he did, at least let him not fight
against God for establishing the institution of "chattel" slavery in his
kingdom, nor against me for believing he did do it. But, reader, if you
have the hardihood to insist that these were hired servants, and not
slaves after all, then, I answer, that ours are hired servants, too,
and not slaves; and so the dispute ends favorably to the South, and it
is lawful for us, according to abolition admissions, to hold them to
servitude. For ours, we paid money to a former owner; so did the Jews
for theirs. The increase of ours passes as an inheritance to our
children, so did the increase of the Jewish servants pass as an
inheritance to their children, to be an inheritance forever. And all
this took place by the direction of God to his chosen people.

My correspondent thinks with Mr. Jefferson, that Jehovah has no
attributes that will harmonize with slavery; and that all men are born
free and equal. Now, I say let him throw away his Bible as Mr. Jefferson
did his, and then they will be fit companions. But never disgrace the
Bible by making Mr. Jefferson its expounder, nor Mr. Jefferson by
deriving his sentiments from it. Mr. Jefferson did not bow to the
authority of the Bible, and on this subject I do not bow to him. How can
any man, who believes the Bible, admit for a moment that God intended to
teach mankind by the Bible, that all are born free and equal?

Men who engage in this controversy ought to look into the Bible, and see
what is in it about slavery. I do not know how to account for such men
saying, as my correspondent does, that the slave of the Mosaic law,
purchased of the heathen, was a hired servant; and that both he and the
Hebrew hired servant of the same law, had a passport from God to run
away from their masters with impunity, to prove which is the object of
one of his quotations. Again, New Testament _servants_ and _masters_ are
not the servants and masters of the Mosaic law, but the servants and
masters of the Roman Empire. To go to the law of Moses to find out the
statutes of the Roman Empire, is folly.