Religions (Oct 2021)

The Blessing of Whiteness in the Curse of Ham: Reading Gen 9:18–29 in the Antebellum South

  • Wongi Park

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110928
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 11
p. 928

Abstract

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This essay examines the antebellum history of interpretation surrounding the curse of Ham in Gen 9:18–29. It explores how modern notions of scientific racism were read into the story as a de facto justification for the transatlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery in the antebellum South. However, more than simply being used as a prooftext for racist agendas, the curse of Ham provided a biblical foil for circumscribing a racial hierarchy where whiteness was positioned as superior in the figure of Japheth. By considering key features of the racist antebellum interpretation, I argue that the proslavery rationalization of Christian antebellum writers is rooted in a deracialized whiteness that was biblically produced and blessed with divine authority.

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