Biblical Approach to slavery

Slavery in the bible has always been a very big debate topic. Throughout the bible some verses make it seem as though slavery was okay and others show more about freedom and equality rather than being okay with slavery. To talk about slavery in the bible you have to break the bible down. For starters in the old testament slavery was an everyday part of life. Also we see that slavery wasn’t portrayed how we saw it in American history, it was usually a debt that someone had to pay off. In Exodus 21:2 it says that a Hebrew slave only lasts for six years then they are able to leave and be free. In the bible it also talks about not actually ever hurting a slave or treating them in a way that was too harsh. I thought that was interesting because the bible did try to limit what could and couldn’t be done to the slaves. Now if we look at the new testament we see that its stance on the bible is more complex.There is Paul who writes about slaves and how they should be treated fairly and more as brothers and equals rather than someone who is below a person, and that every person is made in God’s eyes and that they are made to do what he set out for them to do or to be.In other parts of the new testament it says that a slaves freedom would be better if it was gained, which in my opinion looking at both sides of this it shows that slavery wasn’t a thing in the bible and it was more so someone paying a debt that was owed rather then being forced to do manual labor and receive punishments for being a certain race.