“The inquiry then presents itself, whether _the fact that they were bought_ determines any thing with certainty in regard to the nature of the servitude, or to the propriety of slavery as practised now. The Hebrew, in the passages referred to in Genesis, is ‘the born in thy house, and _the purchase of silver_,’ מִקְנַה־כֶּסֶף— _mi knath keseph_—not incorrectly rendered, ‘those bought with money.’ The verb קָנָה _kânâ_, from which the noun here is derived, and which is commonly used in the Scriptures when the purchase of slaves is referred to, means _to set upright_ or _erect_, to _found_ or _create_. _Gen._ xiv. 19, 22. _Deut._ xxxii. 6; _to get for oneself_, _to gain_ or _acquire_. _Prov._ iv. 7, xv. 32; to _obtain_, _Gen._ iv. 1; and _to buy_, or _purchase_, _Gen._ xxv. 10; xlvii. 22. In this latter sense it is often used, and with the same latitude of signification as the word _buy_ or _purchase_ is with us. It is most commonly rendered by the words _buy_ and _purchase_ in the Scriptures. See _Gen._ xxv. 10; xlvii. 22; xlix. 30; 1. 13; _Josh._ xxiv. 32; 2 _Sam._ xii. 3; _Ps._ lxxviii. 54; _Deut._ xxxii. 6; _Lev._ xxvii. 24, and very often elsewhere. It is applied to the purchase of fields, of cattle, of men, and of every thing which was or could be regarded as property. As there is express mention of _silver_ or _money_ in the passage before us respecting the servants of Abraham, there is no doubt that the expression means that he paid a price for a part of his servants. A part of them were ‘born in his house;’ a part had been ‘bought with money’ from ‘strangers,’ or were foreigners. “But still, this use of the word in itself determines nothing in regard to the tenure by which they were held, or the nature of the servitude to which they were subjected. It does not prove that they were regarded as _property_ in the sense in which a slave is now regarded as a chattel; nor does it demonstrate that the one who was bought ceased to be regarded altogether _as a man_; or that it was regarded as right to sell him again. The fact that he was to be circumcised as one of the family of Abraham, certainly does not look as if he ceased to be regarded _as a man_.