year of jubilee.[731] In 2 Kings iv. 1 the widow tells Elisha that her
husband's creditors will come and take her two sons to be bondmen. The
creditors of some of the Jews who returned from exile threatened to make
them debtor slaves. Nehemiah appealed to them not to do so.[732] In
Matt. xviii. 25 the man who could not pay was to be sold with his wife
and children. Kidnapping was punishable by death.[733] In Job xxxi. 15
we find the ultimate philosophico-religious reason for repudiating
slavery: "Has not He who made me made him [the slave] also in his
mother's womb?" The laws of the "Book of Covenants" begin with laws
about slaves.[734] A male slave, with his wife, is to be freed in the
seventh year, unless he prefers to remain a slave. A man may sell his
daughter into slavery, i.e. to be a concubine. There was no difference
in principle between a daughter given to wife and one sold to be a
concubine. In Deut. xv. 12 the female slave is also set free in the
seventh year, and persons so freed are to be given gifts when they
depart. The slaves were war captives, or bought persons, or
criminals.[735] The lot of slaves was not hard. The owners had not the
power of life and death. The slave could acquire property.[736] If the
slave was an Israelite he was protected by especial restrictions on the
master in behalf of fellow-countrymen.[737]

+285. Slavery in the classical states.+ Slavery came to the two great
classical states from the antecedent facts of savage and barbaric life.
When Aristotle came to study slavery he could not find a time when it
was not. We have seen how it had become one of the leading institutions
of uncivilized society, and how it had been developed in different forms
and degrees. The two great classical states, more especially Rome, built
their power on slavery. Both states pursued their interests with little
care for the pain they might inflict on others, or the cost in the
happiness of others. The Roman state began by subjugating its nearest
neighbors. It used its war captives as slaves, increased its power,
conquered more, and repeated the process until it used up all the known
world. The Phoenicians were merchants, who kidnapped men, women, and
children, if they found opportunity, and sold them into slavery far from
home. The Ionians, who grew rich by commerce, bought slaves and
organized states in which slaves did all the productive work. In both
Greece and Rome productive work came to be despised