Black and Slave: the Origins and History of the Curse of Ham

The idea that blackness and slavery were inescapably joined and that the Bible thus consigned blacks to everlasting servitude had its most notorious manifestation in antebellum America, where it provided biblical validation for sustaining the slave system.

See Also: Black and Slave (De Gruyter, 2017).

By David M. Goldenberg
University of Pennsylvania (ret.)
August 2017

Click here for article.

Comments (4)

What line of exposition do we find concerning Moses' Kushite wife?

#1 - Martin Hughes - 08/25/2017 - 18:43

A very interesting paper and nicely done piece of research.

#2 - John Thomas - 08/29/2017 - 22:19

Regarding Moses' Kushite wife, see my book The Curse of Ham, pp. 26-29. For a medieval perspective in the work of Maimonides, see “It is Permitted to Marry a Kushite,” AJS Review 37.1 (2013) 29-49, available online.

#3 - david goldenberg - 09/07/2017 - 21:08

Thank you for this well thought out article.

#4 - Doretha Abrams - 09/12/2017 - 18:26

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