Why? Slaves and Indentured Servants

Slavery in the north and south in colonial times was "justified" (rationalized) biblically. Later on the north had little use for "servants", mostly housekeepers and shop "helpers", but the agrarian economy in the south required cheap labor. Previously, most of the "free" help was indentured servants who pledged from four to seven years servitude for passage to the New World. Many of these indentured servants lived the lives of slaves and some never regained their freedom.

Indentured servitude wasn't anything new! The Jews had indentured servants ages ago!

Exodus 22:2 " If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. 3 If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft."

Exodus 21:2 (KJV) "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing."

2 Kings 4:1 "Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen."

Here we see that Jews "owned" other Jews for a period of time for two reasons:  theft and as payment for a debt. That is much the same as migrants to "Virginia" in colonial times, "America", being known pretty much as "Virginia".  Indentured servants were sent to America who had been criminals. Since most of them had no money, indentured servitude was the only way to eventual freedom. Australia, another colony of the British Empire was a little different. It was a dumping ground for criminals whereas the American colonies had landed gentry and indentured servants. Most of the ordinary people were neither, but the servants were mostly owned by the aristocratic class. It had to be good; it was biblical after all, wasn't it?

Slavery is not ordained of God. It's the workings of man! All men were born to be free, and all were to toil to prosper. It was by disobedience that some became servants to others, but servitude is a noble profession. There is scripture that defines fair treatment for servants and how servants are to serve with respect. However, the intent is not to justify slavery, but slavery was reality, not only for the Negro race, but for all races. For the Hebrew people there was hope. At the end of seven years all Hebrew servants were to be freed! That was a "type of salvation" and since Egypt represented slavery and sin, there was hope! In seven years the servant shall be free!

Jeremiah 34:8 "This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; 9 That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother. 10 Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. 11 But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. 12 Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 13 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen (slaves), saying, 14 At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. 15 And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: 16 But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids."

The Hebrew people disobeyed God as they often did! Whereas, the servants were to be free, they were brought back into subjection. In effect indentured servants lost their hope and became slaves! Here it's obvious that it wasn't God who caused slavery, it was God's people who disobeyed! God intended liberty for all.

Pagans were not protected by God since they were not "his people". They suffered more dire consequences!

 Leviticus 25:44 "Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, (slaves) 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." "

Heathens were to be slaves. Hebrews were to be treated different. Heathens were worked harder than were the Jews because they weren't obedient to God as a community. It's doesn't seem fair, but with God justice prevails. This is a "picture" of justice for heathens who never accept Jesus. It doesn't seem fair to us, but their destiny is eternal damnation, likewise a harsh penalty, not for a time, but forever. There is no hope for the heathen and the Leviticus passage is basically a warning" Without God there is no hope!

Just as Jesus offered the propitiation for sins by grace, available to all, God with mercy caused a jubilee every fifty years. At that time by grace every slave and every servant whether heathen or Hebrew were put at liberty. They were to be freed at last! This is a "picture" of Jesus, who was rejected by the Hebrews, but accepted by the Gentiles (heathen). In the end it was the gentile people who obtained the same freedom available to all!

Leviticus 25:8 "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession."

Now for slavery in America. It started by indentured servitude, but that cost money (land and tobacco). It was found that French, Dutch and later; English slave traders could provide cheaper labor than that of indentured servitude. Around 1640 the slave trade began in earnest. An indentured servant named Antonio, later to become Anthony Johnson, is alleged to have become the first owner of a slave. Antonio was a black man!

Just as Hebrews had servants which were kept in slavery, in America it was a Negro who enslaved another of the same race. Truly "there is nothing new under the sun"!  However, slavery in colonial America originally wasn't about race! It was about the heathen. Just as in the Bible Hebrews were allowed to have heathen slaves (because of their heathens not accepting God), in colonial times Christians were allowed to have heathen slaves. Only after African trade was commenced, mainly by the Dutch, did slavery and the Negro race become nearly equivalent. The exception was the aboriginal Americans. Because most were heathen, many Indians became slaves as well!

Before 1700 there occurred Bacon's Rebellion, a battle between the alliance of Negroes and white poor against the landed gentry. Gov. Berkeley won out and Nathaniel Bacon died. However, a legacy was left. There was distrust between those aristocrats with land and the "common people" who had allied themselves in the rebellion with the Negro race. After that time, the relationship between servant and owner deteriorated. There became a larger gap between the common man and the landowner and with the advent of a new nation, only land owners were enfranchised.

Religious people rallied to free the slaves. They didn't always use righteous means. The Constitution was shriveled to free the enslaved and still suffers. Violence was used and the remnants of the class and regional warfare still taints race relations in this nation! Church denominations were split, both using scripture to justify their position. Those churches have yet to fully unify again and probably never will. Both groups believed they were correct in their interpretation, but both were right... and both were wrong! Slavery was sanctioned and controlled in biblical times, but it wasn't because men were "good", but because of disobedience!

The conquest of America brought about the conversion of the American Indian. Christians often used violence erroneously to champion the Lord. Conquest was done by prayer, but oftentimes with gain in mind. However, the end results is that most of the Indian population is Christian! Slavery too was an evil which brought an heathen people to their knees; not to the white master, but to the Lord of the Universe! Blacks are in heaven because of the sacrifice of their antecedents. Sometimes the Lord uses a crooked stick for good.

"But things aren't yet good!" you say. Jesus said that we shall always have the poor with us (Mark 14:7). He could have ended poverty right there forever. Likewise, God could have ended slavery way back in Moses' time. He didn't, but he offered hope! Just as the slaves looked forward to a jubilee and freedom, we too look forward to a jubilee! We have hope too; even a greater hope. Whereas the heathen were freed for a lifetime, our jubilee is freedom forever. Just as God offered mercy at the time of jubile. Jesus provides the grace for all, heathen gentiles included, by his death on the cross! Heaven is jubilee!

When slavery was ended, not by the Emancipation Proclamation, a faux document, but by the 14th Amendment, some in slavery were afraid. They had hard times, but they were housed, clothed and fed. Many chose to remain with their former masters. They chose slavery over freedom. They denied that hope existed! Likewise, many enslaved today by their modern masters fear freedom. They don't feel comfortable around a righteous environment because slavery (to whatever) and pleasures them is all they know. Righteousness is out of their comfort zone just as freedom was the fear of the freed slave. Neither slave nor sinner is entirely free, because they choose slavery as something superior to freedom in Christ!

Freedom was available. It was going to happen. Landowners were finding it too expensive to care for a slave from cradle to grave. Some believe that in a few years costs would take it's toll and slaves would be freed by those of their own accord. This is speculation, but is probable. Rather than using our system of justice, America took an extreme shortcut. 700,000 people died in a war that would not have been necessary if the Constitutional system had been used! The ends don't justify the means. Hate abounds today because of the improper use of power. We're seeing lingering hate in Ferguson, Missouri right now because things were done wrong way back them.We chose to end slavery by rebellion when it should have been done out of obedience (to the Constitution and to God). They year of jubilee was at hand and America went a different route! It was a noble endeavor and those Radical Republicans had good intentions, but radicals are the root cause of the animosity which still exists today.

The black race are still servants to the same people who enslaved them to start with. Oh, yes, they still have good intentions, but the progressives have created a new class of slavery. The black race is still in bondage to liberalism which must supply cradle to grave for them! Thanks to Johnson's "War on Poverty" and Obama's "Redistribution of the Wealth" the black race has not moved forward. They are more enslaved today than they were before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That servitude causes stress and keeps them in poverty. Poor people steal and break the law. Some get killed. There's blame in both neighborhoods. Progressives are to blame for entrapping an entire race in poverty and blacks are to blame for failing to see the jubilee. The hope offered with the "I have a Dream Speech". That hope is achieved only through the Peacemaker; not by the National Guard or The "Department of Justice"!

Let's look to the jubilee right now! Let's return God to the Nation and prayer to the classroom. Let's quit caring about offending when we offer alternatives, but offer hope so that others may have joy. Let the purveyors of rebellion go back to their dens of thieves and those who seek change through right prevail. God's command is to love him and others. The nation fails there and the people are accomplices. Change must be toward good, not evil, for hope has one direction.