This brings up the question of the rendition of fugitive slaves, which we have just considered.
"But being free in my own country, and having been, therefore, unlawfully sold into Algerine Slavery, or having been captured, or stolen, you would, I trust, make proper resistance in my behalf." "But," said Mr.North, "The ancestors of my fugitive friend Nesimus, were taken from freedom in their own land and were reduced to slavery.
Must he and his descendants be slaves forever for the sin of the original captors, or for the misfortune of his ancestors ?" "Birth in slavery long established makes all the difference in the world, Mr.North," said I."If I am born in slavery, under a government ordaining slavery, that is a different case from that of one taken out of a passenger ship and sold as a slave." "Then if you and your wife," said he, "were taken out of a passenger ship, and you should happen to have a child born in slavery, that child must remain a slave, even if you go free ?" "No, Sir," said I; "the child born under such circumstances is as rightfully free as its parents.

But take this case: I, being captured and held as a slave, my master gives me a wife, lawfully a slave.

Then, the child born of her is lawfully a slave.

You see the distinction.

God recognized it.