The Curse of Ham Myth Supported Racial Slavery
White theologians corrupted Genesis 9:25-27, falsely claiming Africans were cursed for servitude through Noah’s condemnation of Canaan. Nothing in this biblical passage mentions race or skin color, yet this mistaken interpretation spread widely through works like Josiah Priest’s 1852 “Bible Defence of Slavery.” European and American slaveholders happily adopted this convenient religious fiction to justify their practices. The myth’s remarkable persistence shows how biblical texts were deliberately manipulated to serve economic interests rather than spiritual truth or accurate scholarship.
