is a
performing of the service of the temple, or paying tribute, but never
slaves or chattels. Canaan thus became the servant (not slave) of Shem;
and when afterward Israel was oppressed and rendered tributary to other
nations, the Canaanites became thus not only "servants," but "servants
of servants."

3. _Patriarchal Servitude._

The next example of the word "servant" brings us to that epoch in
relation to which the Harmony Presbytery of South Carolina says,
"Slavery has existed from the days of those good old slaveholders
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (who are now in the kingdom of heaven,) to
the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his master
Philemon, and wrote a Christian and paternal letter to this slaveholder,
which we find still stands in the canon of the Scriptures."

The account we have of Abraham's servants is briefly as follows: That
he had men-servants and maid-servants, Gen. 12:16; 14:14; 17:27, (not
_slaves_, for we have shown above by numerous passages that to give such
a definition to the term "servant" is false and absurd, unless sustained
by the context or the usage of the times;) that they numbered some two
thousand persons, (reckoning by the number of fighting men among them,
generally one in five of the population,) were trained and accustomed to
arms, Gen. 14:14; could inherit property, Gen. 15:3, 4; in religious
ordinances were perfectly equal with the master, Gen. 17:10-14; had
entire control not only over the property, but also the heirs of the
household, Gen. 24:2-10; lastly, they were invariably considered as
_men_, not slaves or chattels. Gen. 24:30, 32. "And the _man_ (servant
of Abraham) came into the house, and he ungirded his camels, and gave
straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the
_men's_ feet that were with him."

"But," it is objected, "some of these servants were 'bought with money;'
therefore they must have been possessed as 'chattel slaves.'" This
conclusion depends partly on the meaning of the Hebrew verb #KAUNAU#
_kaunau_, "to buy;" and asserts that whenever this term is applied to
persons, it implies the relation of chattel slavery. The primary
definition of the verb, given by Gesenius, is, to erect; then, 1. To
found or create; 2. To get, gain, obtain, acquire, possess; 3. To get by
purchase, to buy.

Let us see the meaning of this term, applied to persons in other
passages. In Gen. 31:15, Rachel and Leah say