Black Slavery as the ‘Curse of Ham’: Bible Truth, Jewish Myth or Racist Apologetic?

In the Old Testament of the Bible there is a story of a Great Flood unleashed by God to punish humankind.The descendants of Adam and Eve had become evil and wicked, and God was sorry He had ever created mankind. He decided the only thing to do was destroy them all and start anew! But there was one man, Noah, who was obedient to God and found God's favour. God instructed Noah to build a large boat which He would use to preserve life on the earth. God brought the animals to Noah. Noah had three sons with three daughters-in-law. Along with his wife they were a family of eight people. These eight people are all that were saved and were called upon to replenish the earth. Noah’s three sons were named Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Some years after the great flood, according to the Bible, Noah planted a vineyard. One day he drank of the wine and became so drunk that he uncovered himself within his tent. It is told that Ham, his son , committed the indescretion of seeing his father uncovered, and told his two brothers outside.Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah came out of drunkenness, he came to know what his youngest son had done to him. Noah saw a weakness in Ham--Ham had taken sensual pleasure in seeing his father naked, and he was irreverent in boasting to his brothers. Noah perceived that the same weakness existed in his grandson Canaan--but probably to an even greater degree than was evident in Ham. According to the Book of Genesis 9:25-27 of The Bible, Noah said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers". He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japeth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave'. (Such transference of sin from a guilty to an innocent person or persons appears in many biblical passages.) The curse extended to all of Canaan's descendants.

The names of the four sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan. According to Biblical scholars, Cush, Ham’s oldest son represents the African tribes known as Ethiopians; Mizraim corresponds to Egypt; Phut is linked by some to Somalia, by others to Libya. Canaan is thought to represent the land of Palestine and Phoenicia. So Ham is believed to be the ancestor of all these people from Palestine and Egypt to Africa. The concept, the Biblical scholars conclude, that Ham was a Black man originated in later Jewish rabbinical folklore and thus belongs in the category or tradition of Jewish myths and geneology.

In a deliberate attempt to justify Black Slavery, the Europeans, and later North American Christian scholars picked up on early Christians' traditional belief that Canaan had settled in Africa. The dark skin of Africans became associated with this "Curse of Ham." Thus slavery of Africans became religiously justifiable. The Historian, Edith Sanders concludes that the identification of Ham's descendants as Balck Africans gained currency in the sixteenth century. These arguments became increasingly common during the slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries. It served as a rationale for slavery, using Biblical interpretations in support of its tenets. The image of the Black People deteriorated in direct proportion to the growth of the importance of slavery.” Benjamin Braude, Professor of History at Boston College, writes, “in 18th and 19th century Euro-America, Chapter 9: verse:25-27 of the Book of Genesis (of the Old Testament of the Bible) became 'the curse of Ham', a foundation myth for collective degradation, conventionally trotted out as God’s reason for condemning generations of dark-skinned peoples from Africa to slavery.” Author Anthony Pagden wrote: "This reading of the Book of Genesis merged easily into a medieval iconographic tradition in which devils were always depicted as black. Later pseudo-scientific theories would be built around African skull shapes, dental structure, and body postures, in an attempt to find an unassailable argument -- rooted in whatever the most persuasive contemporary idiom happened to be: law, theology, genealogy, or natural science -- why one part of the human race should live in perpetual indebtedness to another." In ancient times, cursing a whole race into slavery was considered acceptable because it was in the Bible. American slave owners, almost all of whom were Christians, felt that they were carrying out God's plan by buying and using slaves. Over the years, the Bible teachers and writers perpetuated this notion through its uncritical repetition.

The Book of Genesis provides no biblical basis, either ethically or prophetically, for the assertion that black people are under Noah's curse or to justify black slavery. The NIV Study Bible notes, “Noah’s curse cannot be used to justify the enslavement of blacks, since most of Ham’s descendants are known to be Caucasian, as the Canaanites certainly were (as shown by ancient paintings of the Canaanites discovered in Egypt).”