THE TESTIMONY OF GOD AGAINST SLAVERY: WITH NOTES. BY REV. LA ROY SUNDERLAND. How canst thou say, I am not polluted? See thy way in the valley; THIRD EDITION. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1839. U.S.5265.15.3 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by LA ROY SUNDERLAND, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of New York. PREFACE. IF Slavery is ever abolished from the world, it will be done by the influence of the Christian Religion. Men never will abandon slave-holding, till they feel it to be a sin against God; and the reason why all who are now concerned in the support of this system, do not feel and act under this conviction is, because they have not examined it in the light of God's word. It is a solemn fact, that there is scarcely any one sin described in the inspired writings, in all its parts, features, and consequences, so clearly and explicitly, as are those acts which constitute the sin of slavery; and scarcely any other sin has been so frequently denounced in the Bible, with the fearful maledictions of Heaven. Let the reader examine the few passages quoted in the following pages, with a prayerful and unprejudiced mind, and let him ask himself, while doing this, what we may suppose God's design was, in dictating so much which we find in the Scriptures against oppression in all its forms, against man-stealing, against defrauding the poor of his right, and against keeping back the hire which is due to those who reap down our fields? Why has he, in so many instances, enjoined it upon man to show pity towards those of his species who are in distress, and to extend relief to all who are in trouble and unable to help themselves? Such passages, it will be perceived, make up no inconsiderable portion of the preceptive part of the Bible; and must these all be thrown away? Is there no sin committed by any of the human family now, against which they were designed to bear? Are not these passages of Holy Scripture now "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness?" In a word, who does not see, that if no part of the Scriptures may be now brought to bear, with the utmost propriety, against the present system of oppression which prevails in this nation, merely because the circumstances under which this sin is now committed may differ, in some respects, from those in which men sinned when the various parts of the Bible were at first written, then it must follow, as an undeniable consequence, that no sins of any kind can be reproved, at the present day, in Scripture language, nor from Scripture authority. It is not pretended that all the passages in the Bible I which relate to this subject, are brought forward in this little work, but it has been the author's design to notice the most of those which, it is believed, either directly or indirectly, show slave-holding to be a sin; and to do justice to the subject, none of those are omitted which have been so frequently quoted, and so strangely tortured to prove that the Bible justifies the system. This work has been prepared with the kindest of feelings, both towards the enslaver and enslaved; and if it should be the means of helping the friends of these two classes of our fellow-citizens, in any degree, to the use of those heavenly weapons, by which it is our duty to prosecute the great and good work of delivering the oppressed from the hands of the oppressor, the object will have been obtained. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God SEPTEMBER 4, 1836. TESTIMONY OF GOD AGAINST SLAVERY. CHAPTER I. WHAT IS SLAVERY? THE inquiry here, is, not what was Roman or Grecian slavery, but what is American slavery? What is that slavery which has been created and which is still sanctioned by law in these United States? We answer, it is the condition of those of our species who are held and treated as property. In South Carolina, this state is described in the following language:-"Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels, personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever.” The law of Louisiana declares : "A slave is one who is in the power of the master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire anything, but what must belong to his master. دو An act of the state of Maryland, declares slaves to be property, in these words :— "In case the personal property of a ward shall |