bettle's notices of
kind paternal head ; they labored in common with his
oavii offspring, they tended his flocks Avith his oavii sons
and daughters, they Avere protected by special ordinances
of the Jewish laAV, and at the expiration of fifty years,
there Avas a manumission of all slaA^es, and every one was
entitled to land and money from their masters : and, in
addition to this, there Avas that most important of all
differences, viz., that Hebrew slavery Avas not hereditary
Even this mild kind of bondage extended no further than
to those Avho Avere actually purchased by the master;
their offspring were free, and instead of the heart-sicken¬
ing certainty of the American slave, that the oppression
under Avhich he suffers Avill be perpetuated, perhaps in an
aggravated form, to his latest posterity, the JeAvish bonds¬
man saAv in prospective for 7iis offspring liberty, and per¬
haps honor and happiness. Among the Romans, if a
slave exhibited talents and became distinguished for his
mental poAvers, he generally obtained his freedom; and
many of the most illustrious poets, statesmen, and
Avarriors of Rome Avere freedmen.* To compare then the
kind and paternal government of the Hebrew slave, his
certain prospect of obtaining an honorable freedom, or
the hope of the Roman servant, Avho felt Avithin his
breast the energies and ambition of a poAverful mind, to
that dull, heartless, and oppressive reality, which sits like
an incubus upon the breast of an American slave, that
never to him shall the light of freedom daA\rn, or the
present abjectness of his condition be changed for his
* See Stephens' Slavery of British West India Colonies, Vol. I.,
pp. 43, 44, 57, 04, &c.—Editor.
Permalink: http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/n7r4z
