The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-02-26
The Descendants of Ham the Superior
Race.
BY REV. ]. f.. BECKWITH.


Senator Sumner once said that when he
was laboring, years age, against the Give
fold barbarism Of slavery he frequently
received letters from various parts Of the
country, clergy, and laity asking him if he
was not fighting against God? TIE reason
for the inquiry was that the writer's believed
that, by an inspired curse, Noah had de
voted the descendants of Ham to posi-
ton inferior to that given 10 the descend
ants of Shem and Japheth, and conse-
quently it was the will of God that colored
people should be the servants of the whites.
II nee to contend, as Sumner did, that they
should have equal privileges with other
men, was to contend against the expressed
will of the Creator, was fighting against
God
With sentiments like hose, men, prsfes-
sing to be philanthopists, and believing i'll
Christ, justified themselves while holding
men in the most abjcct slavery-some of
them concluding that they were "dong
God service, - putting in execution decree
of the Almighty. And they were fortified
in their position by not few learned men
and Doctors of Divinity. This sentiment
was embraced, in whole or in part, by
very large portion Of the people of the
United States, not only by Shareholders,
but those who never were. Some, not
many it is hoped, even went SO far as to
deny that black men had souls, and to hold
that they had no ''rights that white men
were bound to respect" Hence it is right,
proper, and necessary to assign them an in
ferior position in society, and confine them
to that position by the stcrnest enactments
of law. "They ought to be made to know
and keep their place." is the sentiment Of
nearly half the people of this country to-
day, if not even of majority.
To such, the assertion with which these
lines are preceded will sound like folly, or
madness and at first they may be much
offended, not only with the assertion, but
with its author. Yet if the reader will lay
aside all prejudice for the time being, and
candidly attend to the facts and the argu-
ment, it is confidently expected that he
will be fully convinced, not only that the
doctrine heretofore held is wrong, but the
opposite is true-that Ham and his descend
ants have been not the inferior, but he su-
perior and the predominant race in all that
part of the worlds history where the fam
lily can be traced.
If this can be shown, surely it cannot be
work of inutility to present it to the
world and every lover of mankind and of
God should rejoice that error is sverthrown,
and that the truth is made plain and clear
to their understanding-rejoic that there
is no necessary obstacle in the way of any
race or color preventing them from laboring
for, and attaining to, any position to which
they may aspire-that they are not debarred
| or discouraged from strainins every nerve
to attain equal cminence with any other
| men.
| The first step in this argument will be to
clear away the stumbling block so long the
| bul~ark of caste, the curse supposed to
have been pronounced by the patriarch
| Noah upon the descendants of Ham. No
such curse is Oh record and it is an object
Of wonder that any enc pretending to I'M
derstand the Scriptures should ever have
made the assertion, for it certainly is not
in the Bible.
That portion of Scripture from which il
purports to have been taken, is found in
Genesis 8, 20-27 inclusive: ''And Noah
began to be a husbandman,, and he planted
vineyard, and drank of the wine. and wa.
drunken. And he was uncovered in his
tent, and Ham, the father of Canaan. saw
the nakedness of his father. and told his
two brethren without. And Shem, and
Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon
both of their shoulders, and went back
ward, and covered the nakedness Of theil
| father, and their faces were backward and
they saw not the nakcdIess of their father
And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew
what his younger son had done unto him.
and he said, cursed be Canaan, a servant
of servants shall he be to his brethren
! Anu n6 Salu, DleSSeu DE Uhe LofQ G0Q Of
Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant
God shall enlarge Japheth and he shal
dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan
shall be his servant This is the passage
said to contain the curse, and this is liter
ally all that is said upon the subject in tho
Bible. curse was pronounced upon
Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, but nc
word was uttered cursing either Ham, Of
his other sons. Hence there is not the
slightest authority for saying that Noal
cursed Ham, or his descendants general,
any more than he cursed Shem, or Japheth
Besides what there is of the curse comes il
such a questionable shape, that subsequent
events would have to confirm it in order tt
lead us to suppose that Noah was inspired
He had just recovered, or partially recoved
from the sleep of drunkenness. "He awok,
from his wine.'' Surely God does no
choose men under such circumstances b,