44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.
It is well known that slavery apologists appealed to the scriptures to justify their position on the legitimacy of slavery. If so, they must have used these verses. In what context(s) were these verses employed? And what was the response of those who were anti-slavery? These verses, which were described as "the strongest passage in the Old Testament in favor of the view" (1) were generally taken at face-value by pro-slavery writers and were usually refuted by their detractors through appeals to etymology and context.
Why were scriptures used to justify slavery? What reasoning did slave apologists use to defend their position? One writer expressed the argument with the following syllogism:
1. Whatever God sanctioned among the Hebrews he sanctioned for all men and at all times.
2. God sanctioned slavery among the Hebrews. Therefore,
3. God sanctioned slavery among all men and at all times. (2)
Following this reasoning, all the pro-slavery writers had to do was to prove that slavery existed in the Bible with divine approval. Many writers used these verses to support this position. William Smith stated "The Jewish Constitution. . .provided for. . .the enslavement. . .of the neighboring heathen in perpetuity." (3) Hopkins declared "the perpetual bondage of the heathen race is too plain for controversy." (4) Rabbi Morris J. Raphall showed that "over these heathen slaves the owner's property was absolute; he could put them to hard labor, to the utmost extent of their physical strength; he could inflict on them any degree of chastisement short of injury to life and limb." (5) And Thornton Stringfellow asked:
if the words of this institution could be more explicit? It is from God himself; it authorizes that people, to whom he had become king and law-giver, to purchase men and women as property; to hold them and their posterity in bondage; and to will them to their children as a possession forever; and more, it allows foreign slaveholders to settle and live among them; to breed slaves and sell them. (6)
However, slavery foes disagreed. Lundy, in a response to Hopkins, claims that an institution's existence does not guarantee its morality:
The law also regulated polygamy and divorce; but no one will venture to assert, except a Mohammedan and a Mormon, that polygamy and divorce are Divine institutions. As God at first made only one wife for a man and no slaves, so it was His intention that he should have only one wife and no slaves. (7)
In addition, Reuben Hatch claimed that these verses did not constitute a commandment or statute to possess slaves; it was merely a "grant of permission" to have servants. (8)
Besides these arguments, an eighteenth century writer pointed out that applying Old Testament slavery to modern times would be like applying other scriptures to "juƒtify Great-Britain[sic] in exterminating the inhabitants of any country ƒhe could overcome." (9) Slavery was not "a new moral precept. . .but for the idolatrous inhabitants of Paleƒtine." (10)
Others pointed out the linguistic problems in the interpretation of the text. Weld showed that the word "forever" applies to the statute and not the term of bondage. He asserts that the word "buy" means that if the neighboring peoples were not willing to sell their people, they could not be purchased. He also shows that the word here translated "bondmen" was the word for servant, used "merely to designate them as the performers of such service." He then claims that if the Israelites actually held slaves, then they should have a word for slave. (11) Hatch confirms Weld's assertions, stating that "Any schoolboy that can read Hebrew, can see this, by examining the passage in the original," (12)
However, Smith disputes this claim, saying that "the attempts which are sometimes made to prove that , of the Septuagint, and servus of the Vulgate version, translated indifferently servant or slave, means only a hired servant, need only to be mentioned to be refuted. (13) He also states as an indisputable fact that slavery existed in Israel. To Weld's "no word for slave" argument he shows that servant is a "generic" form of the word-there are also "hired servants" and "bond servants"-this latter being the equivalent of a slave. (14)
Additionally, Josiah Priest in his work, Bible Defense of Slavery makes the point that the "heathen" and "stranger" mentioned in these verses refers exclusively to Negroes. Since the word "Gentile" is not used in the Torah, the Lord could not be referring to white people. Heathen, then "referred solely to the Canaanites and to their race, the blacks or negroes [sic] in general." (15) Finally, to those who would argue that Leviticus 25:44-46 was not an endorsement of slavery, but merely an inclusion of the practice in the record, Priest points out that the Israelites did not even enter Canaan for nearly forty years after this directive was received. What more evidence is needed that the Lord sanctioned slavery in Israel?
Thus is demonstrated the use of "the strongest passage of the Old Testament in favor of" slavery before slavery was officially abolished. (16) Many points were made in the debate. The American South held human beings in servitude-but so did the ancient children of Israel. It may not have been moral, but it did have divine sanction. However, it is fallacious to assume that the command applied to all people equally with the Israelites. While there may be some hair-splitting over the meaning of certain words in these verses of the Law, the fact remains that these verses showed a future condition of Israel. Of course, with the ratification of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution in 1865 and the later extinguishing of slavery worldwide, the practicality of this dialogue became a moot issue. But it is informative to note how others in past times and places have used scripture to support their arguments.
TEXT:
The Holy Bible: King James Version. (Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979), 185 (Leviticus 25:44-46).
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Pro-Slavery Sources:
Hopkins, John Henry, A Scriptural, Ecclesiastical, and Historical View of Slavery: From the days of the Patriarch Abraham, to the Nineteenth Century : Addressed to the Right Rev. Alonzo Potter. (New-York : W.I. Pooley, 1864), 10-11.
Priest, Josiah., Bible Defence [sic] of Slavery, and Origin Fortunes, and History of the Negro Race. (Glasgow, Ky. : W.S. Brown, 1852), 112-9.
Raphall, M. J. Bible View of Slavery in Fast Day Sermons: Or, The Pulpit on the State of the Country. (New York : Rudd and Carleton, 1861), 241.
Stringfellow, Thornton, Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery. (Richmond : J. W. Randolph, 1856), 29.
Smith, William A., Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery : As Exhibited in the Institution of Domestic Slavery in the United States : with the Duties of Masters and Slaves. (Nashville, TN : Stevenson and Evans, 1856), 139-143.
Anti-Slavery Sources:
Fuller, Richard, Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution : in a Correspondence Between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. (New York : L. Colby ; Boston : Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1845), 60-62.
Hatch, Reuben, Bible Servitude Re-examined: With Special Reference to Pro-slavery Interpretations and Infidel Objections. (Cincinnati : Applegate, 1862),144-7.
Lundy, John P., Review of Bishop Hopkins' Bible View of Slavery / By a Presbyter of the Church in Philadelphia. (Philadelphia : s.n., 1863), 7.
Smith, W., Scripture the Friend of Freedom : Exemplified by a Refutation of the arguments Offered in Defense of Slavery, in a Tract Entitled Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade. (London : Printed by W. Smith : sold by J. Phillips, 1789), 38-9.
Weld, Theodore Dwight, The Bible Against Slavery: An Inquiry into the Patriarchal and Mosaic Systems on the Subject of Human Rights. (New York : American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), 71-8.
SECONDARY SOURCE:
Lloyd, Arthur Young, The Slavery Controversy, 1831-1860. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina press, 1939), 179-182; 309-17. Richard Fuller, Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution : in a Correspondence Between the Rev. Richard Fuller of Beaufort, S.C. and the Rev. Francis Wayland of Providence, R.I. (New York : L. Colby ; Boston : Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1845), 61. 2. Ibid., 62. 3. William A. Smith, Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery : As Exhibited in the Institution of Domestic Slavery in the United States : with the Duties of Masters and Slaves. (Nashville, TN : Stevenson and Evans, 1856), 142-143. 4. Hopkins, John Henry, A Scriptural, Ecclesiastical, and Historical View of Slavery: From the days of the Patriarch Abraham, to the Nineteenth Century : Addressed to the Right Rev. Alonzo Potter. (New-York : W.I. Pooley, 1864), 10-11. 5. M. J. Raphall Bible View of Slavery in Fast Day Sermons: Or, The Pulpit on the State of the Country. (New York : Rudd and Carleton, 1861), 241. 6. Thornton, Stringfellow, Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery. (Richmond : J. W. Randolph, 1856), 29. 7. John P. Lundy, Review of Bishop Hopkins' Bible View of Slavery / By a Presbyter of the Church in Philadelphia. (Philadelphia : s.n., 1863), 7. 8. Reuben Hatch, Bible Servitude Re-examined: With Special Reference to Pro-slavery Interpretations and Infidel Objections. (Cincinnati : Applegate, 1862),145. 9. W. Smith, Scripture the Friend of Freedom : Exemplified by a Refutation of the arguments Offered in Defense of Slavery, in a Tract Entitled Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave Trade. (London : Printed by W. Smith : sold by J. Phillips, 1789), 38-9. 10. Ibid. 11. Theodore Dwight Weld, The Bible Against Slavery: An Inquiry into the Patriarchal and Mosaic Systems on the Subject of Human Rights. (New York : American Anti-Slavery Society, 1838), 71-5. 12. Hatch, 144. 13. William A. Smith, 141. 14. Ibid., 142. 15. Priest, Josiah., 16. Fuller, 61.
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