Following the chapter containing the prophecy of Noah, the historian records the genealogy of the descendants of Ham and Canaan.  We will quote the entire account that we may be assisted to the truth.

“And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan; and the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah:  and the sons of Raamah; Sheba and Dedan.  And Cush begat Nimrod:  he began to be a mighty one in the earth.  He was a mighty hunter before the Lord:  wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.  And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.  Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah:  the same is a great city.  And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (out of whom came Philistim), and Caphtorim.  And Canaan begat Sidon his first-born, and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite:  and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.  And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.  These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations."[21]

Here is a very minute account of the family of Ham, who it is said was to share the fate of his son Canaan, and a clear account of the children of Canaan.  “Nimrod,” says the record, “began to be a mighty one in the earth.  He was a mighty hunter before the Lord....  And the beginning of his kingdom,” etc.  We find that Cush was the oldest son of Ham, and the father of Nimrod the “mighty one in the earth,” whose “kingdom” was so extensive.  He founded the Babylonian empire, and was the father of the founder of the city of Nineveh, one of the grandest cities of the ancient world.  These wonderful achievements were of the children of Cush, the ancestor of the Negroes.  It is fair to suppose that this line of Ham’s posterity was not lacking in powers necessary to found cities and kingdoms, and maintain government.

Thus far we have been enabled to see, according to the Bible record, that the posterity of Canaan did not go into bondage; that it was a powerful people, both in point of numbers and wealth; and, from the number and character of the cities it built, we infer that it was an intellectual posterity.  We conclude that thus far there is no evidence, from a biblical standpoint, that Noah’s prophecy was fulfilled.  But, notwithstanding the absence of scriptural proof as to the bondage of the children of Canaan, the venerable Dr. Mede says, “There never has been a son of Ham who has shaken a sceptre over the head of Japheth.