of a free population that thus wandered abroad in search of better
fortunes--a phenomenon which is reproduced in the present day by the
immigration to America of the surplus population of various European
states. So large was this emigration that, in the time of Cicero, the
Jews, Italians and Greeks formed the principal nationalities that
took part in the tumults of the Roman forum, and on one occasion they
hooted Cicero while on the rostrum. The great and striking fact of
the preservation of the people of Beni-Israel, and its increase at
an epoch when the populations of other countries were slowly dying
out, is to be attributed solely to the curb which the law imposed on
domestic slavery, and which it partially maintained even in the times
of the greatest national decay.

On our knowledge of the internal organism and economy of the Hebrews,
may be based certain deductions as to the domestic economy of other
contemporaneous nations, especially those of Syria and certain parts of
west Asia. Lydia, and above all, Babylon and Assyria are historically
known only in the last stages of their existence, when political and
domestic slavery had almost completely fused themselves together.
For earlier times, the sources of investigation are limited, if not
altogether wanting, and analogy alone can guide research. It is,
however, probable that only the Mosaic law remained to combat and
regulate serfdom and slavery with moral and legal weapons. The Hebrews
did not possess, and did not transmit to history, any of the products
of a brilliant civilization or of a refined culture such as reaches us
in echoes from the antique oriental empires. But the Hebrews were, at
the same time, endowed with certain spiritual impulses, aspirations
and ideas, far grander than those of any of the surrounding nations.
Material civilization and culture cannot be considered as the highest
manifestation of man's spirit. History presents examples of the
development of the noblest human impulses to a degree out of all
proportion with the so-called "civilization" of the nation.

The authority of the Scriptures is invoked as absolute sanction for
the enslavement of one branch of the human family; and the theological
right to enslave the African is based on the well-known words of
Noah: "Cursed be Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be unto his
brethren." The general import of these words, however, even in the
strictest construction, has rather a reference to their degradation as
a caste--exemplified in the case of the swineherds among the Egyptians,
or the Çudras (Soudras) among the Hindus--either of which, however,
were chattels deprived of human and family rights.

Modern criticism, guided chiefly by the light of comparative philology
and ethnology, has established beyond any doubt the genuine meaning of
the patriarchal names of Scripture. Down to Abraham, or at the utmost
to Terah his father, all those names bear an ethnical or geographical
signification. Abraham, however, is an historical person, and with him
positive Jewish history opens.

Moses and the other writers of the book of Genesis were educated among
the highly learned and scientific Egyptians; and in Palestine they came
in contact with a highly advanced civilization among the Canaanites or
Phoenicians, Arabians, and Nabatheans, who were then in the full tide
of life and action. From these kindred Shemitic peoples the Hebrews
learned the use of written characters; and many of the scientific
discoveries of these epochs are dimly preserved in the Mosaic record,
as also the general outlines of the ethnic knowledge of the age.
Moses and the other writers did but record the various geographic and
ethnic names which came to their ears, and for this no inspiration was
necessary. Modern scientific criticism, guided by the inductions of
reason--that grandest product of the hand of God--now infuses living
spirit into what was for ages a dead and incomprehensible letter.
This can be easily elucidated by a few examples. The word Ham, or
_Erez-Cham_, has no root or meaning in Hebrew or any other Shemitic
dialect; it was doubtless borrowed from the Egyptians, and to Egypt
must we go for the solution of its signification. Other Biblical
names, as, for example, _Eber_, _Pheleg_ or _Peleg_, _Reu_ or _Rehu_,
_Serug_ and _Nahor_, represent distinct Shemitic tribes, or, as the
record tropically styles them, kingdoms and states, of Mesopotamia
(Naharaina). _Eber_, or more properly, _Heber_ (whence our "Hebrews"),
signifies "the stranger" or "a person from the other side," that is,
one who came from a foreign region. _Aram_ also implies an immigrant
from the other side of the Euphrates. So, likewise _Misraim_ (the
_Misr_ or M-R of the Egyptians), _Cush_, _Phut_ and _Lud_, constituted
distinct tribes and nations in widely distant regions, and perhaps
even belonged to different races, according to accepted schemes of
ethnology. _Lud_ answers to the Libyan _Lewatah_, the _Leguatan_ of
the Byzantine writers, and the classical _Garaman_. _Phut_ and _Lud_
belong to Africa; they are brothers of Mizraim, or its nearest ethnic
relations in the remotest antiquity, or perhaps closely allied but
independent tribes--as the Scriptures generally record tribes and
states politically and geographically independent. _Phut_ and _Lud_
are also mentioned as the allied troops of the Egyptians, or of the
Syrians. Finally _Lud_ (_Ludim_) descends from Mizraim; so it may be
that they were a branch of the Egyptian stem, just as the Irish are an
offshoot of the Gallo-Celtic stock, or the Anglo-Saxons of the Teutonic
trunk.

The curse of Noah was hurled against _Canaan_. The philological and
ethnic signification of this name has already been explained. The
Canaanites, although themselves but an elder branch of the Shemitic
family, were the enemies of Beni-Israel, who conquered them and
drove them from their land and homes. There is thus a manifest logic
in the writer of this part of Genesis condemning them to eternal
servitude--for it was written after the subjugation of the Canaanites.
Indeed, the same policy of enslavement was pursued by almost all the
ancient conquering nations in the flush of their victorious battles;
and so, in later times, did the Longobards of Italy, the Goths and
Franks in Gaul and Spain, the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, and the Normans
in England and Ireland.

There seems to be no scientific doubt that the cursed Canaanites were
of the same family and stock as the Hebrews. After the most searching
and conscientious investigations in ethnology and philology, it is
impossible to regard the Canaanites or Phoenicians as other than
Shemites; and with this also coincide the Scriptures--their land of
Canaan is not in Africa. Who the _Cushites_ of antiquity were, has
likewise been already pointed out. And if, as some have attempted to
prove, the ancient Egyptians were not of the African race (according
to our modern designation), then they were the Chamites, Cushites,
etc., of Scripture. How, through them, the curse can be shown to reach
the genuine African, requires an effort of casuistry repulsive both
to logic and fact--nay, to the baldest common sense. Not the dimmest
shadow of authority can be tortured from the Scriptures for the
enslavement of the black or negro race. With somewhat sounder logic has
this curse of Canaan been applied, even in Christian times, and among
European nations, to classes kept in bondage by masters belonging to
the same race. Slavery, indeed, has been the common fate, in successive
epochs, of all human races and families; and the oppressor has never
been wanting in a pious plea. The so-called nobility of the mediæval
Christian ages considered the burghers and subdued laborers as being of
impure and degraded blood, and all over Europe they were held to be the
descendants of Ham. (Some old aristocratic European families even now
consider all who are not nobles to be of the degraded caste). According
to this construction of the Noachic curse, the foul taint even now
circulates not in the vein of the African slave, but in the veins
of the tyrants who oppress him. Neither the Egyptians, Phoenicians,
Hebrews, nor, indeed, any nation of antiquity, considered any special
race or tribe as absolutely predestined to eternal bondage. This
abominable conception is a putrid growth from mental, social and moral
decay. Even Moses had