Originally Posted by Conan

It doesn't sanction racial slavery. Rather, certain offenses under the mosaic law were punishable by sentences of slavery. Likewise, certain nations captives were taken as slaves. There were sanctions and rules in place about how one was to treat a slave - and after so many years of service they were allowed to either be set free, or stay with their master for an indefinate amount of time. This isn't the cotton pickin', southern pride slavery we're talking about here.