This prophecy of Noah is the vade mecum of slaveholders, and they never venture abroad without it.  It is a pocket-piece for sudden occasion—­a keepsake to dote over—­a charm to spell-bind opposition, and a magnet to attract “whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.”  But closely as they cling to it, “cursed be Canaan” is a poor drug to stupify a throbbing conscience—­a mocking lullaby, vainly wooing slumber to unquiet tossings, and crying “Peace, be still,” where God wakes war, and breaks his thunders.

Those who plead the curse on Canaan to justify negro slavery, assume all the points in debate.

1.  That the condition prophesied was slavery, rather than the mere rendering of service to others, and that it was the bondage of individuals rather than the condition of a nation tributary to another, and in that sense its servant.

2.  That the prediction of crime justifies it; that it grants absolution to those whose crimes fulfil it, if it does not transform the crimes into virtues.  How piously the Pharaohs might have quoted God’s prophecy to Abraham, “Thy seed shall be in bondage, and they shall afflict them for four hundred years.”  And then, what saints were those that crucified the Lord of glory!

3.  That the Africans are descended from Canaan.  Whereas Africa was peopled from Egypt and Ethiopia, and Mizraim settled Egypt, and Cush, Ethiopia.  See Gen. x. 15-19, for the location and boundaries of Canaan’s posterity.  So on the assumption that African slavery fulfils the prophecy, a curse pronounced upon one people, is quoted to justify its infliction upon another.  Perhaps it may be argued that Canaan includes all Ham’s posterity.  If so, the prophecy has not been fulfilled.  The other sons of Ham settled the Egyptian and Assyrian empires, and conjointly with Shem the Persian, and afterward, to some extent, the Grecian and Roman.  The history of these nations gives no verification of the prophecy.  Whereas the history of Canaan’s descendants, for more than three thousand years, is a record of its fulfilment.  First, they were made tributaries by the Israelites.  Then Canaan was the servant of Shem.  Afterward, by the Medes and Persians.  Then Canaan was the servant of Shem, and in part of the other sons of Ham.  Afterward, by the Macedonians, Grecians, and Romans, successively.  Then Canaan was the servant of Japhet, mainly, and secondarily of the other sons of Ham.  Finally, they were subjected by the Ottoman dynasty, where they yet remain.  Thus Canaan is now the servant of Shem and Japhet and the other sons of Ham.

But it may still be objected, that though Canaan is the only one named in the curse, yet the 22d and 23d verses show that it was pronounced upon the posterity of Ham in general. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.”—­Verse 22.  In verse 23, Shem and Japhet cover their father with a garment.  Verse 24, “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his YOUNGER son had done unto him, and said,” &c.