The Bible Against Slavery

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.



The advocates of slavery are always at their wits end when they
try to press the Bible into their service. Every movement sliovvs that
they are hard-pushed. Their odd conceits and ever varying shifts, their
forced constructions, lacking even plausibility, their bold assumptions,
and blind guesswork, not only proclaim their cause desperate, but
themselves. Some of the Bible defences thrown around slavery by
ministers of the Gospel, do so torture common sense. Scripture, and
historical fact, that it were hard to tell whether absurdity, fatuity, igno-
rance, or blasphemy, predominates, in the compound. Each strives so
lustily for the mastery, it may be set down a drawn battle.

How often has it been set up in type, th;it the color of the negro is
the Cain.mark, propagated downward. Doubtless Cain's posterity started
an opposition to the ark, and rode out the flood with flying streamers !
Why should not a miracle be wrought to point such an argument, and
fill out for slaveholders a Divine title-deed, vindicating the ways of God
to men ?

Objection 1. " Cursed he Canaan, a servant of servants* shall he he
unto his brethren." Gen, i. 25.

This prophecy of Noah is the vade mecum of slaveholders, and they
never venture abroad without it. It is a pocket-piece for sudden occa-
sion — a keepsake to dote over — a charm to spell-bind opposition, and a
magnet to attract " whatsoever worketh abomination, or makelh a lie."
But closely as they cling to it, "cursed be Canaan" is a poor drug to
stupify a throbbing conscience — a mocking lullaby, vainly wooing slum-
ber to unquiet tossings, and crying " Peace, be still," where God wakes
war, and breaks his thunders.

Those who plead the curse on Canaan to justify negro slavery, as-
sume all the points in debate.

1. That the condition prophesied was slavery, rather than the mere
rendering of service to others, and that it was the bondage of individuals
rather than the condition of a nation tributary to another, and in that
sense its servant.

2. That the prediction oC ciime justifies it ; that it grants absolution
to those whose crimes fulfil it. if it does not transform the crimes into
virtues. How piously the Pharaohs might have quoted God's prophe-
cy to Abraham, " Thy seed shall be in bondage, and they shall ajjlict
them for four hundred years.''' And then, what saints were those that
crucified the Lord of glory !



48

3. That the Africans are descended from Canaan. Whereas Africa
was peopled from Egypt and Ethiopia, and Mizraim settled Egj-pt, and
Cush, Ethiopia. See Gen. x. 15 — 19, for the location and boundaries
of Canaan's posterity. So on tlie assumption that African slavery ful-
fils the prophecy, a curse pronounced upon one people, is quoted to
justify its infliction upon another. Perhaps it may oe argued that Ca-
naan includes all Ham's posterity. If so, the prophecy has not been
fulfilled. The other sons of Ham settled the Egyptian and Assyrian
empires, and conjointly with Shorn the Persian, and afterward, to some
extent, the Grecian and Roman. The history of these nations gives
no verification of the prophecy. Whereas the history of Canaan's de-
scendants, for more than three thousand years, is a record of its fulfil-
ment. First, they were made tributaries by the Israelites. Then Ca-
naan was the servant of Shem. Afterward, by the Medes and Persians.
Then Canaan was the servant of Shem, and in part of the other sons of
Ham. Afterward, by the Macedonians, Grecians, and Romans, suc-
cessively. Then Canaan was the servant of Japhet, mainly, aud se-
condarily of the other sons of Ham. Finally, they were subjected by
the Ottoman dynasty, where they yet remain. Thus Canaan is now
the servant of Shem and Japhet and the other sons of Ham.

But it may still be objected, that though Canaan is the only one najned
in the curse, yet the 22d and 23d verses show that it was pronounced
upon the posterity of Ham in general. "And Ham, the father oj Ca-
naan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren with,
out." — Verse 22. In verse 23, Shem and Japhet cover their father
with a garment. Verse 24, " And Noah aiiwke from his wine, and
knew what his younger son had done unto him, and said," &c.

It is argued that this younger son cannot be Canaan, as he was not
the son, but the grandson of Noah, and therefore it must be Ham.. We
answer, whoever that " younger son" was, or whatever he did. Canaan
alone was named in the curse. Besides, the Hebrew word Ben, signifies
son, grandson, great-grandson, or any one of the posterity of an indi-
vidual. Gen. xxix. 5, " And he said unto them^ Know ye Laban, the
SON of Nahor ?" Yet Laban was the grandson of Nahor. Gen. xxiv.
15, 29. In 2 Sam. xix. 24, it is said, " Mephibosheth, the son of Saul,
came down to meet the king." But Mephibosheth was the son of Jona-
than, and thegran^Zsonof Saul. 2 Sam. ix. 6. So Ruth iv. 17. ''There
is a SON born lo Naomi." This was the son of Ruth, the daughter-in-
law of Naomi. Ruth iv. 13, 15. So 2 Sam. xxi. 6. "Let seven men
of his {SauVs) sons be delivered unto us," &c. Seven of Saul's



49



grandsons were delivered up. 2 Sam. xxi. 8, 9. So Gen.^ xxi. 28,
" And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters ;" and m
the 55th verse, « And early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his
soxs," &c. These were his gratidsons. So 2 Kings ix. 20, " The
driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi." So 1 Kings xix. 16. But Jehu
was the grandson of Nimshi. 2 Kings ix. 2, 14. Who will forbid the
inspired writer to use the same word when speaking of Noah's grandson ?
Further, if Ham were meant, what propriety in calling him the younger
son ? The order in which Noah's sons are always mentioned, makes
Ham the second, and not the younger son. If it be s^id that Bible usage
is variable, and that the order of birth is not always preserved in enume-
rations ; the reply is, that, enumeration in the order of birth, is the rule, in
any other oVdcr the exception. Besides, if the younger member of a
family, takes precedence of older ones in the family record, it is a mark
of pre-eminence, either in original endowments, or providential instru-
mentality. Abraham, though sixty years younger than his eldest bro-
ther, and probably the youngest of Terab's sons, stands first in the family
genealo jy . Nothing "in Ham's history warrants the idea of his pre-emi-
nence ^besides, the Hebrew word Hakkaton, rendered younger, means
the little, small. The same word is used in Isaiah xl. 22. "A little one
shall lecome a thousand.'^ Also in Isaiah xxii. 24. ^^ All vessels oj small
quantity.'' So Psalms cxv. 13. -He will bless them that fear the Lord,
both small and great." Also Exodus xviii. 22. " But every s.mall mat.
ter they shall judge." It would be a perfectly literal rendering of Gen.
ix. 24, if it were translated thus, " when Noah knew what his little son,*
or grandson {Beno hakkaton) had done unto him, he said, cursed be Canaan," <tc.

Even if the Africans were the descendants of Canaan, the assumption
that their enslavement is a fulfilment cf this prophecy, lacks even plausi-
bilit V, for, only a meio fraction of the inhabitants of Africa have at any one
time been the slaves of other nations. If the objector say in reply, that
a large majority of the Africans have always been slaves at home, we an-
swer, 1st. It is false in point of fact, though zealously bruited often to
serve a turn. 2d. If it were true, how does it help the argument ? The
prophecy was, « Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unta
his BRETHREN," not unto himself !

* The French language in this respect foUows the same analogy. Our word grandson being
in French, petit fils, (little son.)