The first edition of The Book of Spirits was published on April 18, 1857 in Paris, France, by Allan Kardec. This edition, now 160 years old, marked the beginning of Spiritism on Earth, and it contains 501 questions. The second (and definitive) edition was published on March 16, 1860, with 1,019 issues.

Taking advantage of this splendid mark, we hereby show the relevance of this great work and we drew from it the Spirits' teachings regarding these two issues: slavery and the rights of man and woman.

We are all equal before God - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says in its article number 1 that all men are equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and must act in relation to one another in the spirit of brotherhood.

The Old Testament book Leviticus (25:10) says, "You shall proclaim freedom upon the Earth and to all the inhabitants thereof". In Acts of the Apostles, in the New Testament (7:26) we read: "Men, you are brothers: why do you offend one another?" In The Book of Spirits of the Spiritist Codification, by Allan Kardec, Chapter IX - Equality Law, Question 803, Kardec asks the Spirits:

"Are all men equal before God?" The answer is, "Yes, everyone tends to the same end, and God makes His laws for all." You often say, 'The sun shines for all,' and with this you are saying a greater and more general truth than you think. All men are subject to the same natural laws, all are born with the same weakness, are subject to the same pains, and the body of the rich is destroyed like that of the poor. Therefore, God gave no natural superiority to any man, either by birth or death: All are equal before Him".

In Chapter X - Law of Freedom, The Book of Spirits addresses the subject of Slavery. In question 829, the Encoder asks, "Are there men naturally destined to be owned by others?"

The Spirits answer: "All absolute subjection from one man to another is contrary to the Law of God. Slavery is an abuse of power and will disappear with progress, as all abuses will gradually disappear". The Book of Spirits makes it clear that slavery is a law against Nature, because it resembles man to the brute and degrades him morally and physically.

It is not the blood that must be purer - And when slavery is part of the customs of a nation? (Question 830). The Spirits’ answer is that evil is always evil and the responsibility of evil is relative to the means available to understand it. They explain that anyone who uses the law of slavery is always guilty of a violation of natural law, and guilt, as in all things, is relative. The Spirits ensure: Being slavery a custom among certain nations, man can practice it in good faith, as something that seems natural to him. But from the moment his reason, more developed and especially enlightened by the lights of Christianity, shows him that a slave is an equal before God, he has no more excuses.

The Encoder asks about an interesting issue (Question 832): "There are men who treat their slaves with humanity, who let them lack nothing and think that freedom would expose them to still more deprivations. The Spirits reply, "I say that they take into consideration their own interests; they are also careful with their oxen and their horses, with which they may profit more from the market. They are not guilty like those who mistreat the slaves, but they do not stop using them as goods, depriving them of the right to be their own masters".

Kardec asks (Question 831): "Does the natural inequality of the aptitudes not place certain human races under the dependence of intelligent races?" The Spirits answer: "Yes, to elevate them, and not to further brutalize them in slavery. Men have long considered certain human races as animals to be domesticated, armed with arms and hands, and have judged themselves in the right to sell their members as beasts of burden. They considered themselves of a purer blood. Fools, who do not see beyond matter, it is not the blood that must be more or less pure, but the Spirit".

Rights must be equal – Always based on Allan Kardec and the Spiritist Codification, The Book of Spirits tells us in item VI - Equality of the rights of man and woman, chapter IX, that the moral inferiority of women in certain regions proceeds "of the unjust and cruel domain that man has exercised over them, a consequence of social institutions and the abuse of force over weakness.  Among men, who are barely advanced from a moral point of view, strength is law".

The Book of Spirits says that the woman is physically weaker than the man "in order to point out to her the particular functions. Man is destined to be rude because he is the strongest; the woman to soft work; and both are to help each other in the trials of a life full of bitterness".

It is quite clear in this chapter that if God "gave less physical strength to the woman, He gave her greater sensitivity at the same time, in relation to the delicacy of the maternal functions and the weakness of the beings entrusted to her care" and that the functions conferred to women are as important as men's and even greater.