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Curses of Cain and Ham and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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See also: Mormon teachings on skin color, Curse and mark of Cain § Latter-day Saints, and Curse of Ham § Latter Day Saint movement
This painting shows Noah cursing Ham. Smith and Young both taught that Black people were under the curse of Ham,[1][2] and the curse of Cain.[3]: 27 [4][5]

Teachings on the biblical curse of Cain and the curse of Ham in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and their effects on Black people in the LDS Church have changed throughout the church's history. Both church founder Joseph Smith, and his most popular successor Brigham Young taught that Black people were under the curse of Ham,[1][2] and the curse of Cain.[3]: 27 [4][5] Smith and Young both referred to the curses as a cause for slavery.[6]: 126 [1][7] They also taught that dark skin marked people of African ancestry as cursed by God.[3]: 27 [8] In Smith's revisions of the King James Bible, and production of the Book of Abraham he traced their cursed state back to the curses placed on Cain and Ham, and linked the two curses by positioning Ham's Canaanite posterity as matrilinear descendants of Cain.[3]: 22, 29, 31, 54–57 

Prior to the Latter Day Saint settlement in Missouri, Smith, like many other Northerners, was opposed to slavery, but softened his opposition to slavery during the Missouri years, going as far as writing a very cautious justification of the institution. Following the Mormon Extermination Order and violent expulsion of the church from the slave state, Smith openly embraced abolitionism and preached the equality of all of God's children, in 1841 stating that if the opportunity for Black people were equal to the opportunity provided to White people, that Black people could perform as well or better than them.

Young, while seemingly open to Black men holding the priesthood under Smith's leadership and praising of Black members of the church, later as Smith's successor used the curse as justification of barring Black people from the priesthood, banning interracial marriages, and opposing Black suffrage.[9]: 70 [10][11] He stated that the curse would one day be lifted and that Black people would be able to receive the priesthood post-mortally.[12]: 66 

In LDS Scripture

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According to the Bible, after Cain killed Abel, God cursed him and put a mark on him.[13] In another biblical account, Ham discovered his father Noah drunk and naked in his tent. Because of this, Noah cursed Ham's son, Canaan to be "servants of servants".[6]: 125  Although the scriptures do not mention Ham's skin color, some doctrines associated the curse with Black people and used it to justify slavery.[6]: 125 

Starting in 1831, Smith said he translated parts of the Old Testament, and those parts have been interpreted to mean that Black people were the descendants of Cain and Ham.[14]: 235  In his translation Smith wrote "Canaan shall be his servant and a veil of darkness shall cover him that he shall be known among all men."[14]: 235 [15] He also wrote "there was a blackness come upon all the children of Canaan", and "the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them."[14]: 235 [16][15] However, the term "black" at that time did not refer solely to skin color; the adjective was also defined by Noah Webster as "sullen; having a cloudy look or countenance […] atrociously wicked; horrible […] dismal; mournful; calamitous," which descriptions go hand-in-hand with the consequences of Cain having murdered Abel.[17] The Pearl of Great Price, another LDS book of scripture, describes a blackness settling upon the children of Canaan;[12]: 12  many critics take this as a reference to descendants of Cain, but the Church's doctrine does not make any claims about the Canaanites being Cain's descendants. Church president Brigham Young stated, "What is the mark? You will see it on the countenance of every African you ever did see....",[12]: 38 [8][18] and "the Lord put a mark upon [Cain], which is the flat nose and black skin".[16][19]

Teachings in the late 1800s

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Young once taught that the devil was Black,[20] and his successor as church president, John Taylor, taught on multiple occasions that the reason that Black people (those with the curse of Cain) were allowed to survive the flood was so that the devil could be properly represented on the earth through the children of Ham and his wife Egyptus.[6]: 158 [21][22] The next president, Wilford Woodruff also affirmed that millions of people have Cain's mark of blackness drawing a parallel to modern Native Americans' "curse of redness".[23]

Teachings in the 1900s

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In a 1908 Liahona article for missionaries, an anonymous but church-sanctioned author reviewed the scriptures about Blackness in the Pearl of Great Price. The author stated that Ham married a descendant of Cain. Therefore Canaan received two curses, one from Noah, and one from being a descendant of Cain.[12]: 55  The article states that Canaan was the "sole ancestor of the Negro race" and explicitly linked his curse to be "servant of servants" to Black priesthood denial.[12]: 55  To support this idea, the article also discussed how Pharaoh, a descendant of Canaan according to LDS scripture, could not have the priesthood, because Noah "cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood".[12]: 58 [24]

In 1931, apostle Joseph Fielding Smith wrote on the same topic in The Way to Perfection: Short Discourses on Gospel Themes, generating controversy within and without Mormonism.[25] For evidence that modern Black people were descended from Cain, Smith wrote that "it is generally believed that" Cain's curse was continued through his descendants and through Ham's wife.[25]: 104  Smith states that "some of the brethren who were associate with Joseph Smith have declared that he taught this doctrine."[25]: 103 

After the temple and priesthood restrictions removed

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In 1978, when the church ended the ban on the priesthood, apostle Bruce R. McConkie taught that the ancient curse of Cain and Ham was no longer in effect.[12]: 117  General authorities in the LDS Church favored Smith's explanation until 2013, when a Church-published online essay disavowed the idea that Black skin is the sign of a curse.[12]: 59 [26] The Old Testament Student Manual, which is published by the church and is the manual currently used to teach the Old Testament in LDS institutes, teaches that Canaan could not hold the priesthood because of the cursing of Ham his father, but makes no reference to race.[27][28]

Antediluvian people of Canaan

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According to the Book of Moses, the people of Canaan were a group of people that lived during the time of Enoch, before the Canaanites mentioned in the Bible. Enoch prophesied that the people of Canaan would war against the people of Shum,[29] and that God would curse their land with heat, and that a blackness would come upon them. When Enoch called the people to repentance and established Zion, he taught everyone except the people of Canaan. The Book of Abraham identifies Pharaoh as a Canaanite. There is no explicit connection from the antediluvian people of Canaan to Cain's descendants, the Canaanites descended from Ham's son Canaan or modern Black people.[9]: 41–42  However, the Book of Moses identifies both Cain's descendants and the people of Canaan as black and cursed, and they were frequently used interchangeably.[9][30] Bruce R. McConkie justified restrictions on teaching Black people because Enoch did not teach the people of Canaan.[31]: 1–12 

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Smith, Joseph (April 1836). "For the Messenger and Advocate". Messenger and Advocate. Vol. 2, no. 7. p. 290 – via The Joseph Smith Papers. After having expressed myself so freely upon this subject [of slavery], I do not doubt, but those who have been forward in raising their voices against the South, will cry out against me .... It is my privilege then to name certain passages from the Bible, and examine the teachings of the ancients upon the matter as the fact is uncontrovertible [sic] that the first mention we have of slavery is found in the Holy Bible, pronounced by a man [Noah] who was perfect in his generation, and walked with God. And so far from that prediction being averse to the mind of God, it remains as a lasting monument of the decree of Jehovah, to the shame and confusion of all who have cried out against the South, in consequence of their holding the sons of Ham in servitude. 'And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.' ... (Gen. 9:25-26). Trace the history of the world from this notable event down to this day, and you will find the fulfillment of this singular prophecy. [T]he curse is not yet taken off from the sons of Canaan, neither will be until it is affected by as great a power as caused it to come; and the people who interfere the least with the purposes of God in this matter, will come under the least condemnation before Him ....
  2. ^ a b Young, Brigham (October 6, 1863). "Necessity for Watchfulness". Journal of Discourses. 10: 250 – via Wikisource. [O]ne portion of the country wish to raise their negroes or [B]lack slaves and the other portion wish to free them, and, apparently, to almost worship them. Well, raise and worship them, who cares? I should never fight one moment about it, for the cause of human improvement is not in the least advanced by the dreadful war which now convulses our unhappy country. Ham will continue to be the servant of servants, as the Lord has decreed, until the curse is removed. ... Treat the slaves kindly and let them live, for Ham must be the servant of servants until the curse is removed. Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot. Yet our Christian brethren think that they are going to overthrow the sentence of the Almighty upon the seed of Ham.
  3. ^ a b c d Stuart Bingham, Ryan (July 2015). "Curses and Marks: Racial Dispensations and Dispensations of Race in Joseph Smith's Bible Revision and the Book of Abraham". Journal of Mormon History. 41 (3). University of Illinois Press: 22–57. doi:10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.22. JSTOR 10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.22 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ a b Reeve, W. Paul (2015). Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 256. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754076.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-975407-6 – via Google Books. Joseph ... sought to 'sh[o]w that the Indians have gr[e]ater cause to complain of the treatment of the whites than the Negroes or Sons of Cain.'
  5. ^ a b Skousen, W. Cleon (2016). Treasures from the Book of Mormon, Volume Two: Enos 1 to Alma 29 (2016 eBook ed.). Brigham City, Utah: Brigham Distributing. p. 586. ISBN 9780934364492 – via Google Books. Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of [B]lackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to.
  6. ^ a b c d Reeve, W. Paul (2015). Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975407-6 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Young, Brigham (October 6, 1863). "Necessity for Watchfulness". Journal of Discourses. 10: 250 – via Wikisource. [O]ne portion of the country wish to raise their negroes or black slaves and the other portion wish to free them, and, apparently, to almost worship them. Well, raise and worship them, who cares? I should never fight one moment about it, for the cause of human improvement is not in the least advanced by the dreadful war which now convulses our unhappy country. Ham will continue to be the servant of servants, as the Lord has decreed, until the curse is removed. ... Treat the slaves kindly and let them live, for Ham must be the servant of servants until the curse is removed. Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot. Yet our Christian brethren think that they are going to overthrow the sentence of the Almighty upon the seed of Ham.
  8. ^ a b Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Salt Lake City: Collier Publishing. p. 42. ISBN 9780934964012.
  9. ^ a b c Bush, Lester E. Jr.; Mauss, Armand L., eds. (1984). Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-22-2. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  10. ^ Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Colliers Publishing. pp. 41–50. ISBN 0934964017. Retrieved August 19, 2017. The Lord said, I will not kill Cain, but I will put a mark upon him, and it is seen in the face of every Negro on Earth. And it is the decree of God that that mark shall remain upon the seed of Cain (and the curse) until all the seed of Abel should be redeemed; and Cain will not receive the Priesthood or Salvation until all the seed of Abel are redeemed. Any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the Priesthood and if no other Prophet ever spake it before, I will say it now—in the name of Jesus Christ, I know it is true, and others know it! ...Let me consent today to mingle my seed with the seed of Cain—it would bring the same curse upon me and it would upon any man. ... The Negro should serve the seed of Abraham—but it should be done right—don't abuse the Negro and treat him cruel. ...As an ensample—let [some] say now, "We will all go and mingle with the seed of Cain.... I will never admit of it for a moment. ... The Devil would like to rule part of the time, but I am determined he shall not rule at all, and Negros shall not rule us. I will not admit of the Devil ruling at all—I will not consent for the seed of Cain to vote for me or my brethren. ...The Canaanite cannot have wisdom to do things as the white man has.
  11. ^ Skousen, Cleon (December 5, 2011). Treasures from the Book of Mormon, Volume Two: Enos 1 to Alma 29 (3rd ed.). Brigham City, Utah: Brigham Distributing. pp. 2–214. ISBN 978-0934364171. Retrieved August 20, 2017 – via Google Books. Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7.
  13. ^ Byron, John (2011). Cain and Abel in text and tradition: Jewish and Christian interpretations of the first sibling rivalry. Leiden: Brill Publishers. p. 93. ISBN 978-9004192522.
  14. ^ a b c Homer, Michael W. (2006). "'Why then introduce them into our inner temple?': The Masonic Influence on Mormon Denial of Priesthood Ordination to African American Men". The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal. 26. John Whitmer Historical Association. ISSN 0739-7852. JSTOR 43200245.
  15. ^ a b Smith, Joseph (April 4, 1831). Old Testament Revision 2 – via The Joseph Smith Papers.
  16. ^ a b Willingham, A. J. (April 29, 2023). "What do Mormons believe?". CNN.
  17. ^ Webster, Noah (July 23, 2022). "Black". American Dictionary of the English Language (published April 14, 1828). Retrieved July 10, 2024 – via 1828 Webster's Dictionary.
  18. ^ Watt, George D. "Brigham Young, 1852 February 5" (5 Feb 1852). Historian's Office reports of speeches, 1845-1885, ID: CR 100 317, p. 2. Salt Lake City: LDS Church History Library.
  19. ^ "Mormons' new true believers". Chicago Tribune. July 26, 2005.
  20. ^ Young, Brigham (October 7, 1857). "Testimony of the Spirit—Revelation Given According to Requirements—Spiritual Warfare and Conquest, Etc". Journal of Discourses. 5: 332. Archived from the original on August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2017 – via BYU. You can see men and women who are sixty or seventy years of age looking young and handsome; but let them apostatize, and they will become grayhaired, wrinkled, and black, just like the Devil.
  21. ^ Taylor, John (August 28, 1881). "Duties of the Saints—The Atonement, Etc". Journal of Discourses. 22: 304. Archived from the original on August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 – via BYU. And after the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced upon Cain was continued through Ham's wife, as he had married a wife of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary that the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God ....
  22. ^ Taylor, John (October 29, 1882). "Men Powerless Except as God Permits—Ordeals Necessary to Purify—Zion Will Triumph". Journal of Discourses. 23: 336. Archived from the original on August 20, 2017. Retrieved August 19, 2017 – via BYU. Why is it, in fact, that we should have a devil? Why did not the Lord kill him long ago? Because he could not do without him. He needed the devil and a great many of those who do his bidding just to keep men straight, that we may learn to place our dependence upon God, and trust in Him, and to observe his laws and keep his commandments. When [God] destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order that [the devil] might be properly represented upon the earth.
  23. ^ Winter, Arthur (June 3, 1889). "Discourse Delivered by President Wilford Woodruff at the General Conference, Salt Lake City, on Sunday Afternoon, April 7, 1877". Millennial Star. Vol. 51, no. 22. p. 339. Retrieved August 20, 2017 – via BYU. What was that mark? It was a mark of blackness. That mark rested upon Cain, and descended upon his posterity from that time until the present. To day there are millions of the descendants of Cain, through the lineage of Ham, in the world, and that mark of darkness still rest upon them. ... The Lamanites, on this continent, suffered a similar experience. ... [T]he Lord put a curse of redness upon them. Hundreds of years have passed since then, but wherever you meet the Lamanites to-day, you see that mark upon them.
  24. ^ Abraham 1:26
  25. ^ a b c Smith Jr., Joseph Fielding (1931). "The Seed of Cain after the Flood". The Way to Perfection: Short Discourses on Gospel Themes. Utah Genealogical Association.
  26. ^ "Race and the Priesthood". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS Church. 2013.
  27. ^ Thompson, John S. (2022). "'Being of that Lineage': Generational Curses and Inheritance in the Book of Abraham". Interpreter. 54. The Interpreter Foundation: 65. ...[S]ome within the Church speculated that Ham's wife Egyptus in the published Book of Abraham was Cain's descendant. ... the idea that Egyptus is a descendant of Cain has become so ingrained in the modern Church's thought and dialogue that aging but currently utilized official Church sources still make this point. ... See also the 'Old Testament Student Manual' Genesis–2 Samuel, which mentions that Ham's sons were denied priesthood because he had married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain.
  28. ^ "Genesis 4–11: The Patriarchs". Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel. LDS Church.
  29. ^ Moses 7:7
  30. ^ Kidd, Colin (2006). The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521793247 – via Google Books.
  31. ^ Bringhurst, Newell G.; Smith, Darron T., eds. (2004). Black and Mormon. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02947-X – via Google Books.
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