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Noah's
Curse
The Biblical Justification for Slavery in
America
By Stephen
Haynes
"A servant of
servants shall he be unto his brethren." So reads Noah's curse on his son Ham, and all his
descendants, in Genesis 9:25. Over centuries of interpretation, Ham came to be
identified as the ancestor of black Africans, and Noah's curse to be seen as biblical justification
for American slavery and segregation. While Noah's curse was invoked in western
Europe even prior to the modern period to explain the origins of
slavery, only in the 15th century, when dark-skinned peoples
were enslaved by the Spanish and Portuguese and the figure of
the European slavetrader became ironic, was the curse explicitly
relied upon to justify the ownership of one human being by
another.
American have long
relied on their Bible to help them organize their social world
and Stephen R. Haynes here returns us to the wellspring of the
American South's religious rationale for slavery. Shedding light
on the distinctive and creative ways in which the curse was
appropriated by pro-slavery and pro-segregationist interpreters,
Haynes demonstrates how this ancient biblical tale was
compelling for antebellum white Southerners because it resonated
with core values and beliefs regarding antiquity, tradition,
domesticity, race, and sin.
Through the writings
of, among others, influential Southern Presbyterian clergyman
Benjamin M. Palmer, who predicted that, once freed, the black
race would experience "rapid extinction before they had
time to waste away through listlessness, filth, and vice,"
Haynes shows how Southerners would cling to these texts as a
means of making sense of the South's volcanic history of
secession, war, and defeat. Finally, the book presents
counter-readings of Genesis 9 by abolitionists, biblical critics
and literary artists who have challenged pro-slavery
interpretations by articulating redemptive readings of the
curse.
Tracing the continuum
between racial apartheid and the southern ruling class's
exaggerated sense of honor, between the curse of Noah and the
Confederate flags that still wave over some state capitols,
Stephen R. Haynes here makes the compelling case that the Bible
is in fact one of the foundational texts of American slavery.
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Noah's
Curse must be
recognized as the most innovative and enlightening study of the
Biblical defense of America slavery ever published. The dubious
legend of Noah, as Stephen R. Haynes points out, is still with
us, along with the Confederate symbols flying over public places
and fundamentalists denouncing racial mixing. The Southern mind,
he brilliantly explains, has woven the conventions of honor, the
burdens of shame, the practice of race subordination, and the
concept of divine grace into a single cultural fabric. In the
field of religious and sectional history, this work will take an
honored place next to the studies of Eugene Genovese and Donald
Matthews. No one interested in American religious history can
ignore this intellectually powerful study.--Bertram
Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor and
The
Shaping of Southern Culture.
The ancient
rabbis suggested that every biblical text has seventy legitimate
meanings (and no doubt an infinite number of illegitimate ones).
Stephen Haynes has produced an amazing history of interpretation
of the Ham and Nimrod narratives. It becomes clear through his
careful research that such texts are supple and vulnerable to
misguided theological passion. This book lets us reflect on old
mistakes and, by inference, invites us to reflect on our own
availability for parallel misreadings. Noah's curse is an
exercise in historical disclosure not to be missed by those who
care about the crisis of reading in the church and in a
Bible-rooted culture.--Walter Brueggemann,
Spirituality of the Psalms
Stephen R. Haynes, Ph.D., associate professor, holds a Ph.D. in Religion and Literature from
Emory University, the M. Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary, an M. A. from
Florida State University, and a B. A. From Vanderbilt University. He
is an associate professor
and the Albert B. Curry Chair of Religious Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis,
Tennessee.
He is a member of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission and has been a
member of the Facing History and Ourselves Memphis Advisory Board since 1993.
Haynes is the author of numerous books, including
Prospects
for Post-Holocaust Theology (Scholars Press, 1991);
Reluctant
Witnesses: Jews and the Christian Imagination (Macmillan, 1995);
Holocaust
Education and the Church-Related College: Restoring Ruptured Traditions (Greenwood,
1997); and
Noah's
Curse: The Biblical Justification for Slavery in
America (Oxford University Press, 2002).
Professor Haynes has been at Rhodes since 1989 and
offers courses on the Holocaust, religion and racism, and religion and
literature. In addition to these subjects, he has research interests in
Jewish-Christian relations, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and religion and higher
education.
Haynes contends that Americans have long relied on the Bible to help them
organize their social world, and his lecture will examine the wellspring of the
American South's religious rationale for slavery. Tracing the continuum between
racism and the Southern ruling class' exaggerated sense of honor, between the
curse of Noah and the Confederate flags that still wave over some buildings in
the Southern states, Haynes will make the case that the Bible is one of the
foundational texts of American slavery.
Other books by Stephen Haynes
To Each Its Own Meaning: An Introduction to Biblical Criticisms
and Their Application /
The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon: Portraits of a Protestant Saint
The Bonhoeffer Legacy: Post-Holocaust Perspectives
/
Professing in the Postmodern Academy
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
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2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 2 December 2011
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