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The Curse of Ham in the Early Modern Era: The Bible and the Justifications for Slavery. By David M. Whitford. [St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History] (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing. 2009. Pp. xviii, 217. $119.95. ISBN 978-0-754-66625-7.)
Among the followers of the Abrahamic religions, the Curse of Ham has arguably been the most wide spread justification for condemning darkskinned peoples to slavery. Its purported proof-text is Genesis 9:18-27, the story of the responses of the sons of Noah to their father's nakedness. Whatever Ham did - mockery, voyeurism, rape, castration? - and Shem and Japheth did not, it provoked a paternal curse, targeting Ham's son Canaan with enslavement. On this as well as almost everything else, the twists of the text as well as its subsequent interpretations are endlessly confusing. Over recent decades, exactly when, where, how, and among whom these disturbing verses became the Curse have provoked studies by numerous scholars, notably David Aaron, John Bergsma, David Goldenberg, Scott Hahn, Steven Haynes, Ephraim Isaac, Sylvester Johnson, Abraham Melamed, Thomas Peterson, Jonathan Shorsch, and the present...