n, subjection and compulsory servitude the abnormal and unnatural.

But it is objected that, though the proper meaning of the verb "to
serve" does not imply chattel slavery, it is certain that the derived
noun #EVEDH#, _evedh_, translated "servant" and "bondman" in our
version, is frequently used to designate involuntary servitude, the
service of one "bought with money," and therefore a chattel slave. We
reply, By far the most frequent use of this term, as is well known,
represents either the common deferential mode of address of inferiors to
superiors, or equals to equals, used then and to-day in the East, or the
political subordination of inferior to superior rank invariably existing
in Eastern governments. Otherwise we have Jacob saying to Esau, "The
children which God hath graciously given thy" _slave_; and Joseph's
brethren saying to him, "Thou saidst to thy _slaves_, Bring him down to
me." "When we came up to thy _slave_ my father." Saul's officers and
soldiers are his slaves, David is Jonathan's, and _vice versa_; Abigail,
David's wife, is his slave; his people, officers, and even embassadors
are all his slaves; all are slaves to each other, and none are masters,
unless it be the king.

How, then, can we properly define the meaning and status of the term
"servant" in any particular passage? We answer, only by the context and
the usage of the particular time and place, so far as known.

2. _The Curse of Canaan._

We first meet with the term "servant" in the oft-disputed passage, Gen.
9:25-27: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his
brethren.... Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his
servant." ... Now, as we have no state of servitude in the context or
the usage of the times with which to compare this, and as only Canaan
and his descendants are included in the curse, we must look to their
subsequent history for the fulfillment of the prophecy, and the kind of
servitude there implied.

We find the descendants of Canaan and their land defined in Gen.
10:15-20. They were not the Africans, as some ignorantly assert, but the
Canaanites, who dwelt in Canaan, and were there destroyed by the
Israelites, or rendered tributaries, except the Gibeonites, who were
doomed to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water," the serfs of the
temple service. Josh. 9:23, 27. There is not one word of buying and
selling _individuals_--no chattelism, or any sanction of it; there