| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Stephen R. Haynes. Noah's Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery. (Religion in America Series.) New York: Oxford University Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 322. $29.95.

Students of American slavery have long noted that proponents of slavery were wont to use the Bible to defend that institution, and one of the primary "proof texts" was the so-called shame of Noah and the sin of Ham as depicted in Genesis 9: 20–27. Ham saw his drunken father, Noah, lying naked and told his two brothers about it. Upon awaking, Noah cursed Canaan, Ham's son, and said "a servant of servants shall he [Canaan] be unto his brethren." Nothing was said about race, but some southern apologists for slavery simply took this story as the biblical rationale for black enslavement, Africans being the supposed descendants of Ham. Later verses mention Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, and tie him to the kingdom of Babel (Genesis 10: 9–10) and the later confusion of languages there (Genesis 11: 1–9).

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