THE CURSE OF HAM JUSTIFY SLAVERY

Curse of Ham

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Noah damning Ham, 19th century painting by Ivan Stepanovitch Ksenofontov

The Curse of Ham (also called the curse of Canaan) refers to a story in the Book of Genesis 9:20-27 in which Ham's father Noah places a curse upon Ham's son Canaan, after Ham "saw the nakedness of his father," because of Noah's drunkenness in the tent, "and told his two brethren without".

Some Biblical scholars see the story as an early Hebrew rationalization for Israel's conquest and enslavement of the Canaanites, who were presumed to descend from Canaan.^[1]

The "curse of Ham" interpretation of Noah's curse has been used by some members of Abrahamic religions to justify racism and theenslavement of people of Black African ancestry, who were believed to be descendants of Ham.^[2][3] They were often called Hamites and were believed to have descended through Canaan or his older brothers. Proponents of slavery in the United States increasingly invoked the "curse of Ham" in the US during the 19th century, as a response to the growing abolitionist movement.^[4]