Excerpt from Slavery Indispensable to the Civilization of Africa

But how was Jacob and his family to be placed in Egypt so as to gain the advantages of this knowledge? This ques tion is not so easily solved as some might suppose, who reason from the facility with which emigration from one country to another is now practised. If we look at some of the religious and political difficulties which stood in the way of such an emigration, we shall find them absolutely insuperable.

In the first place, Egypt was an idolatrous nation; and Jacob with his family were worshippers of the true God: and secondly, the occupation of these Hebrews, being keepers and dealers in cattle, rendered them an abomination to the Egyptians: and thirdly, all strangers found in that country were suspected of being Spies, as Joseph said to his brethren, by the life of Pharaoh, ye are spies.

Politically and religiously considered, these obstacles ren dered it impossible for Jacob's family to have made a settle ment in Egypt under any other circumstances than those which the Divine Providence employed. Joseph was sold by his brethren, and carried into Egypt, and there sold again. But bya succession of the most singular providential occurrences, he was finally exalted to honor and influence in the nation, which at once opened the way for the introduction of all his family into that country without the sacrifice of their religion, or the relinquishment of their property, although it consisted in cattle. The land of Goshen was granted to them out of favor to Joseph. But the Hebrews greatly increased, and soon betook themselves to the various employments of the Egyptians, and learned the arts and sciences of that country.

Joseph's brethren have been severely censured for selling him, by all who take only a one-sided view of that case, and who see nothing in it but the painful separation of Joseph from his family, and the heartfelt grief of a doting father on account of the supposed death of his favorite son. The cruelty and wickedness of that unnatural act, as they deem it, seems to have no forgiveness, and monuments to their discredit have been raised by commentators and other writers upon the singular history of Jacob and his family.

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