tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6030110973061875792.post7221978715244818849..comments2024-03-16T21:32:23.088-04:00Comments on A Sure Word: Is the Bible Immoral? Part 3: Does the Bible Condone Slavery?RKBentleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00566375018731000081noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6030110973061875792.post-69784073838492241382015-12-03T00:24:40.443-05:002015-12-03T00:24:40.443-05:00You yourself quote a passage that says that foreig...You yourself quote a passage that says that foreigners, under the Mosaic law, could be owned as permanent, inheritable chattels. Indeed, that clause that forbids ruling ruthlessly over one's fellow Israelites could be understood (given the legal maxim that "the exception proves the rule" -- if X is forbidden where condition Y prevails, you are otherwise free to do X) to allow ruthless treatment of one's foreign chattels. <br /><br />How different is this from the race-based slavery prevalent in the United States before 1865? I note that, unlike the practice of the Roman Empire (and many other ancient slave-owning societies), the U.S. did not allow slave-owners to kill their human chattels, so in this respect, again, American slavery resembled that authorized by the Mosaic Law. I don't know that there was any law (certainly, if there was, it went generally unenforced) against sexual exploitation of American slaves, but I think that law in the Pentateuch about treating a slave as a wife if you used her sexually applied, again, to Israelites sold into (theoretically) temporary bondage, not necessarily to foreign slaves.<br /><br /><b>For example, Exodus 21:16 specifically proscribes the death penalty for anyone who kidnaps a person in order to sell him.</b><br /><br />After 1807, the United States forbade the importation of new slaves into the country, and treated the international slave trade as piracy -- jailing many, and on one occasion hanging a man, for trying to transport slaves between Africa and Brazil. At the same time, human chattel servitude (of Black non-citizens) was protected by law (e.g. the Fugitive Slave Act). It was not at all legal in the U.S. to kidnap free people -- even free Blacks -- into slavery (cf. the protagonist of <i>Twelve Years a Slave</i>, eventually freed by a southern court because it wasn't legal to enslave him). Granted, the existence of a law does not guarantee universal or enthusiastic enforcement of a law (a point noted by several Old Testament prophets about aspects of the Mosaic Law, of course), but the letter of U.S. law towards enslaved Africans between 1807 and 1865, and that of the Mosaic Law towards enslaved foreigners, was well-nigh identical.<br /><br />And yes, indentured servitude also existed in the early United States, closely modeled after Old Testament rules regarding temporarily enslaved Israelites (these laws were sometimes evaded and abused by people using indentured labor -- a problem that, again, seems to have occurred in ancient Israel). This allowed poor Europeans to settle in the New World without coming up with the price of a trip and homestead all at one time. Again, the standard of freedom after seven years and a chance to set oneself up as an independent land owner did not apply to enslaved Africans, as it did not apply to non-Israelite slaves.<br /><br />Oh, by the way, very few Black Africans were kidnapped by white slave traders. That was dangerous and impractical. In general, they went to African slave markets, and bought prisoners of war, and people enslaved (by local African rulers) for debt or for various crimes (the usual sources of slaves). They didn't think of themselves as thieves or kidnappers; they were merchants, buying a product where it was cheap and selling it where it was expensive. The product simply happened to be human beings of another nation, a practice specifically allowed in Exodus 25:44-46.Steven J.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15638850493907393069noreply@blogger.com