Theodore Parker

“ I do not think God makes laws and changes them; but if the Bible as a whole, as you say, is the Word of God, then it is plain that in the New Testament he takes back what he commanded in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament a man is allowed to put away his wife for any cause, or non at all ”

“ But all that is very little, so long as you keep the man from his natural liberty. You would not be happy if a slave would not think it right for a Christian man to hold you in bondage, even if one of your ancestors but fifty years ago, had cursed you, still less if 4,000 years ago. If I were I were a slave holder I would do this-- I would say "come, now you are free, go to work, and I will pay you what you can earn." I think, in ten year's time, you would be a richer man, and in 2 hour's time, a far happier one, a more Christian one. ”

“ B had more fancy than philosophy, it always seemed to me. I may be as "confident" as you think me, but don't call myself a learned man, though I have read about all the valuable works every written on that matter of Noah's curse.
You ask if I could not propose some good to be done to the slaves now. Certainly; their marriage and family rights might be made secure, their work easier, their food and clothing better, they might not be beaten. Pains might be taken to educate them. ”