' The great design of Providence in no
wise abates the sin of those who brought the slaves here, nor does it
warrant us in getting more of them. While this is true, I cannot resist
the thought that God has a controversy with this black race which is not
yet finished. I believe that God withholds from them a spirit and temper
suited for freedom till he shall have finished his marvellous designs.
His destiny with the Jew, as a nation, to the present day, is another
illustration of his mysterious providence with regard to a people.
"As to the enactment which made the Hebrew servant a slave for life,
thus dooming even one of the covenant people to perpetual bondage, if he
had married in slavery, I see in it several things most clearly.
"You will have noticed that in every case in which a Hebrew was made a
servant, poverty was the ground of it. 'If thy brother be waxen poor,'
he could sell himself, either to a Hebrew or to a resident alien. He and
his children could also be taken for debt. This seems to us oppressive.
"Let a family among us be reduced, from any cause, to a condition in
which they cannot maintain themselves, and what follows? The children
find employment, some of them in families, in various kinds of domestic
service.
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