m mentioned above
exist? The slave, being property, can not possess or inherit property.
In Gen. 15:3 we find Abraham complaining to the Lord, "Behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, and lo, _one born in my house_ is my heir!" The
same term is used here as in speaking of Abraham's other servants; and
yet this "servant" is declared by Abraham his acknowledged heir. Here
there is a manifest contradiction of the conditions of a chattel slave.
They can not inherit property; this man could; therefore he was not a
slave. It is an entirely gratuitous assumption to assert that Abraham's
dependents were slaves; for similar cases occur daily in nomadic tribes,
as formerly they did in Scottish clans. If the chief has no child
capable of succeeding him in office, he chooses from his dependents some
tried and trusty warrior, and adopts him as lieutenant or henchman, to
succeed him as heir or chief. Just so Abraham, then nearly eighty years
old, despairing of a son to take his place as chief of the tribe,
adopted some young warrior (perhaps a leader in the battle of Hobah) as
his heir, with the proviso of resigning in favor of a son if any be
born. But in the case of Jacob's four sons the conclusion is
self-evident--children of "servants" or "handmaids," yet recognized as
free like the other sons, sharing the property of the father equally
with them;--the conditions of a state of chattelism did not exist.

These things prove conclusively that the term "servant" never meant
_slave_ in patriarchal families; that the term "bought with money"
referred only to feudal allegiance or service for a time agreed on by
both parties. These servants could possess and inherit property; their
children were free; they were trained to the use of arms; in religious
matters master and servant were alike and equal; and they were always
considered and called _men_, never slaves or chattels,--all which are
directly contrary to the principles and express enactments of American
slave law, and are the characteristics of free persons even at the
South. Add to this the significant fact that not one word is said in the
patriarchal records of _selling_ any of these servants, (the only act
mentioned of selling a human being is that of Joseph by his brethren, so
bitterly reprobated and repented of by them soon after,) though
frequently bought; that no fugitive law existed, in fact could not exist
in a wandering tribe,--and the natural conclusion is, that they were n