Main Page: Latter-day Saint Racial History
The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People: Historical Context (Pre-1830)
The belief that black Africans were descended from Noah's son Ham dates back at least to Hebraic literature from A.D. 200 to 600, but did not become widespread until the British "discovery" of Africa in the sixteenth century. Because Ham's son Canaan was cursed by Noah to be a "servant of servants" (Genesis 9:25), in the seventeenth century this became a common rationalization for African slavery. This theory fell into disuse for a time but was revived in the nineteenth century to answer criticisms from evangelical abolitionists.
"Noah Damning Ham" by Ivan Stepanovitch Ksenofontov, nineteenth century.
While sharing the belief that Africans were the seed of Ham, abolitionists argued that they were descended not from Canaan but from one of Ham's other sons, Cush, or from all four, and that the curse therefore did not cover them. Therefore another argument was formulated, that Africans were also descendants of Cain, who was cursed for murdering his brother Abel and for loving Satan more than God. Hence they were cursed regardless of their Hamitic lineage. The actual curse on Cain was being cut off from the presence of God, but it also came with a mark so that people would recognize him and not kill him.
"Cain Flying Before Jehovah's Curse", Fernand Cormon, 1880. Based on the description in Victor Hugo's La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Ages), a volume of poems covering humanity's history and evolution.
The Bible is silent on what this mark was and whether it was passed on to his descendants, and even if it was, it would not mean that they were under the same curse forever. But Protestants began to argue that this mark was black skin and that the curse justified slavery. In her poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America", eighteenth-century slave and poetess Phillis Wheatley wrote:
"Some view our sable race with scornful eyes;
'Their color is a diabolic dye.'
Remember Christians; Negroes black as Cain,
May be refined, and join the angelic train."
African slavery was a major component in European settlement of the New World, and its acceptability went unquestioned for centuries. Historian Craig Harline wrote, "Maybe the best reason not to argue that an idea or practice should continue just because it’s been around a long time is slavery. Slavery had been around seemingly forever when some Western Christians began to oppose it in the eighteenth century, setting off a debate in the United States that lasted into the Civil War. The most striking thing about the debate to us might be that those in favor of slavery had the best biblical arguments.
"Both Old and New Testaments assume the existence of slavery and never condemn it. They condemn only masters who treat slaves badly. The Bible taught 'clearly and conclusively that the holding of slaves is right,' said advocates of slavery, who could cite numerous passages specifically saying so. The Baptist minister Thornton Stringfellow wrote in 1860 that God approved slavery not only in the Bible, but in the 'only National Constitution which ever emanated from God.' And since God was the same God yesterday, today, and forever, then it followed that slavery had to be the same too. In fact, anyone in favor of freedom and equality for all, as the Declaration of Independence declared, was essentially rejecting the Bible itself, said Stringfellow, because the Bible was full of sanctioned inequality.
"Those against slavery weren’t simply going to ignore the Bible, of course, any more than Galileo or Calvin would have. They knew they didn’t have any passages on their side to specifically condemn slavery. Their strategy instead was to emphasize passages about human relationships in general, such as the Golden Rule, or Acts 17 (God has made of one blood all nations), or God created all in his own image, and other 'Family of Man' sorts of texts that might be derived from the Bible or from widely accepted principles of the Enlightenment. They also might use the historical approach: biblical passages in favor of slavery reflected the understanding of past societies rather than of some enduring practice. Or they relied on 'the general tenor of scripture.' That’s where lasting principles were to be found, not in specific rules for a specific place and time. Some Christians went even further and said slavery had never been right to begin with but was simply allowed by God because of human weakness."
England abolished its slave trade in 1807, largely thanks to the efforts of an alliance of evangelicals and Quakers led by William Wilberforce. They continued fighting to end slavery altogether, and by 1830 were only three years away from victory. In the United States, however, large swathes of the economy were heavily dependent on slave labor and many refused to give it up. Even some of those who personally opposed the practice distanced themselves from full abolitionists, viewing them as dangerous extremists. And virtually no white people, whether for or against slavery, believed that black people were their intellectual or spiritual equals.
This is the context in which all early Latter-day Saints were born and raised, and this is the context in which the Church of Jesus Christ was restored. Joseph Smith and everyone else believed that black people were the descendants of Cain and Ham, and most believed everything those lineages were thought to imply.
Next: The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 1830-1837
"Some view our sable race with scornful eyes;
'Their color is a diabolic dye.'
Remember Christians; Negroes black as Cain,
May be refined, and join the angelic train."
African slavery was a major component in European settlement of the New World, and its acceptability went unquestioned for centuries. Historian Craig Harline wrote, "Maybe the best reason not to argue that an idea or practice should continue just because it’s been around a long time is slavery. Slavery had been around seemingly forever when some Western Christians began to oppose it in the eighteenth century, setting off a debate in the United States that lasted into the Civil War. The most striking thing about the debate to us might be that those in favor of slavery had the best biblical arguments.
"Both Old and New Testaments assume the existence of slavery and never condemn it. They condemn only masters who treat slaves badly. The Bible taught 'clearly and conclusively that the holding of slaves is right,' said advocates of slavery, who could cite numerous passages specifically saying so. The Baptist minister Thornton Stringfellow wrote in 1860 that God approved slavery not only in the Bible, but in the 'only National Constitution which ever emanated from God.' And since God was the same God yesterday, today, and forever, then it followed that slavery had to be the same too. In fact, anyone in favor of freedom and equality for all, as the Declaration of Independence declared, was essentially rejecting the Bible itself, said Stringfellow, because the Bible was full of sanctioned inequality.
"Those against slavery weren’t simply going to ignore the Bible, of course, any more than Galileo or Calvin would have. They knew they didn’t have any passages on their side to specifically condemn slavery. Their strategy instead was to emphasize passages about human relationships in general, such as the Golden Rule, or Acts 17 (God has made of one blood all nations), or God created all in his own image, and other 'Family of Man' sorts of texts that might be derived from the Bible or from widely accepted principles of the Enlightenment. They also might use the historical approach: biblical passages in favor of slavery reflected the understanding of past societies rather than of some enduring practice. Or they relied on 'the general tenor of scripture.' That’s where lasting principles were to be found, not in specific rules for a specific place and time. Some Christians went even further and said slavery had never been right to begin with but was simply allowed by God because of human weakness."
England abolished its slave trade in 1807, largely thanks to the efforts of an alliance of evangelicals and Quakers led by William Wilberforce. They continued fighting to end slavery altogether, and by 1830 were only three years away from victory. In the United States, however, large swathes of the economy were heavily dependent on slave labor and many refused to give it up. Even some of those who personally opposed the practice distanced themselves from full abolitionists, viewing them as dangerous extremists. And virtually no white people, whether for or against slavery, believed that black people were their intellectual or spiritual equals.
This is the context in which all early Latter-day Saints were born and raised, and this is the context in which the Church of Jesus Christ was restored. Joseph Smith and everyone else believed that black people were the descendants of Cain and Ham, and most believed everything those lineages were thought to imply.
Next: The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 1830-1837
