Saint Augustine Quotes
He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
Augustine, Saint. The City of God. Translated by Marcus Dods, T. & T. Clark, 1871, p. 138.
Previous Sultans had developed a large army of Black Moors. Then there was a civil war in Morocco where the light skinned Moroccans fought against those of dark skin. The light skins won and the new Sultan ordered the remnants of the Black soldiers with their families to Larache where he surrounded them by Arabs and simply gave the Blacks to the light skinned Arabs as slaves.
What was particularly interesting about this quotation is that Pinkney was a political leader of Maryland, a slave state. He saw the injustice and immorality of slavery but like many others of our founding fathers assumed that ending slavery would infringe on the property rights of the slave holders. Others argued that there can be no right to deny others their basic rights—property and wealth are subordinate to natural rights. See {632258} and {632259} for more on this point.
The prophet warns the Jews about wanting a king.
He was making a generalization based on his historical study of nations and societies.
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Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.
