monility. however, could not fiiil to produce their eHecl. and Jews as will as people of other denoiiiiiiatiiins were destined to contriltute ^rfi'ly '" •'."' development of untislavery sentiment in America, in spile of the pronounceil repufrnanee of a nund)er to Dr. David Kin"earryini: polities into the pulpit." horn, for instance, shortly after he arriveil in Haiti more as minister of the Har Sinai conjrreiralion. Icx^k stronir rrouiul airainsl slavery, lirst in his monthly "Sinai." in is.'il). and afterward in the pid|iil. lie contended that if it were true, as asserted, that the I'nion rested on slavery, then with so thoroujrhly immoral a basis it would be neither capable of sur-
viving nor
£inhorn
650
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Antlslavery
to survive: and he pointed out that the spirit of Judaism, as o|)posed toils letter, deniamled the abolition of An address di-livered by Dr. slavery.
tit
Against, Raphallfor, Morris
Kaphall. a New York rabbi Slavery. (Jan. 4. ISGI). on the national fast day desiirnatcil by the President, aroused much attention and comment; for in it he contended on behalf of Judaism that slavery had the divine sjinclion of the God of Israel, and that only " ijrnonmt babblers invoked the alli ired "hijrher law njrainst slavery, since there could be no higher law Numerthan the Hible". and this ordained slavery. ous ant isia very leailers immediately proleste<l against th<se views ou liehalf of Judaism, and refuted HapDr. Einhorn attacked them so liall's arguments. strongly and unmistakably that he aroused the ire of the proslavery leaders, and his life was in danger He was (luring the Baltimore riots in April. IStil. forced to tiee from Baltimore, and. ralhcr than permit himself to lie muzzled, he surrendered his |)osiOther Jewish pulpit-leaders also look sliong tion. ground on the subject, especially after the outbreak This was particularly true of Henof the Civil War. janun Felsentlial and Liebman Adier of Chicago. Sabalo Morals of Philadelphia. Benjamin Szold of Baltimore, and Samuel M. Is;uics of New York. For a niunber of years Ixfore the war. Jewish laymen as individuals had lieen active in the .siime cause. Chief among these was ^Michael Heilprin. the He had taken an dislinguished Jewish scholar. active part in the course of antislavery meetings in Philailelphia a few years before the war, and was roused to immediate action by Dr. I{jipHeilprin, hall's sermon. On Jan. Hi. IStil. he contrilmted a fiery denunciation and Pinner, Benjamin, an exhaustive scholarly refutation of Hapliall's views to the "New York Trilnme," which at once recognized the article ediThus indorsed, it commanded the widest torially. attention; and owing to this vehement but convincing repudiation of alleged proslavery views. Heiliuin succeeded in arousing the |)ublic in a more marked degree than any other American-Jewish antislavery During the five years preceiiiiig this chamjiion. J.
time. .Moritz Pinner had also done yeoman's work in the Siime cause l)y circulating antislavery literaIn ture and developing antislavery propaganda. is.")7 he started an abolitionist newspaper in Kansas City, a proslavery region; and was an antislavery delegate to the state and national Republican conventions of ISOO, which latter inclmled other Jewish menibei's. In Chicago as early as is.iy Jews were active in liberating an imprisoned fugitive slave, and soon after in securing German recrviits for the Hepublican party in the AVcst. Nor did the Soitli. which produced such brilliant .lewish workers in the proslavery cause as Judah P. Benjamin, fail to contribute a fair ipuita also of Jewish antislavery workers, in some instances as early as 1840. Nuuktous other examples of Jewish antislavery activity in
America are at hand. In the West Indies some Jewish aniislavi'ry symjiathizers were to be found early in the idneleenlh century: others actually devisi-<l eHicient methods for rendering emancipated slaves self supporting and independent. In the Inited States these various tendencies which developed and arouseil a sentiment in favor of theanlislavcry movemi'iil among Jewish residents are responsil)le in ii large di-gree for the enormous number of Jewish soldiers who enlisted in the Union army during the Civil
War. Tlie artli'li"s nnd .sermons roforrwl to iit>ove; also slaion Wolf, The American Jur tin I'ttlrinf, SttUiier* IstlT). anil Citizen, M. J. K.
Bmi.ioiiRAPnv
ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT AND THE JEWS:
Tile niovenienl ai;aiii>>l slaveiy is ipue of the most important ilTorls in Ihedevelopmeut of civilization; and the relationof the Jewsto this subject merits special attention. J. K. Ingram, in his valuable work on the " History of Slavery," has well ]ioinled out that "our great horror for some aspects of slavery musi not jirevent us from recognizing that insiitulion as a neces.sary step in social ])rogress." by the immense advance involved in the subslitution of siMvitude for the inuiiolation of captives; by making possibh'the system of incorporation by con(|Uest ami liy developing regular and sustained industrial lif.'. Each of these advantages was thereby realized in a marked degree in Jewish life. But it is important also to observe that among the Hebrews the evilsof the inslilution were greatly minimized in theory and in practise, which Ingram refers to when he slales that " when we consider its moral eU'ects. whilst endeavoring to the utmost to avoid e.xaggcTation. we must yet pronounce its intluenee to have been profoundly detrimental." The pronounce<l manner in which theivilsof the system were minimizeil and the hardshl|is of the institution were ameliorated by Jewish law more clearly apjiears Such amelioration is natin the article on Sl.wkkv. urally to be anlicipated among a people believing in the common descent of all human beings and in the brollarhood of man. While it is important to note Mie ])receplsenjoiningkind and humane treatment of botli Jewish and Gentile slaves which are found in Jewish law. we must not forget that the feeling of racial athnity, and the idea that the ]ierpetual jihysical subserviency of any ]iartial denial of the sovereignty one Jew involved of God, tended to restrict es|ieeially the enslavement of Jews. The tendency to abolish slavery among Jews, even in early times, is clearly indicated by the following customs: Unlessa Hebrew slave consented to prolong his term of service, it exjiired at the beginning of the seventh year: a general emancipation of slaves look place in the tiflieth or jubilee year; on restoring the sum paid for his purclia.se or ransom, a slave received a cerlificaleof ni;uiumission; on the death of a master without heirs the slaves were in certain ca.ses set free; sometimes they were tj citly emancipated, as when they were numbered among the free Hebrews selectecl to participate in religious service. The Bible, indeed, records the emancipation of all Hebrew slaves in King Zedekiali's time, at the instance of the iirophet Jeremiah (Jer. .xxxiv. S). during the first siege of .lerusjilim by Nebuchadnezzar; but after the withdrawal of that comiueror, the more powerful masters again forced their emancipated After the downfall of he first slaves into servitude. monarchy the right to hold a fellow Hebrew as a slave was regarded as at an end. although an attempt was maile to reintroduce the enslavement of Hebrews ,'i
t
