Author Topic: The Curse of Ham, or Hamitic Myth  (Read 784 times)

antihellenistic

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Re: Leftist vs rightist moral circles
« Reply #15 on: March 24, 2024, 02:18:34 am »
Root of Western Rightism

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In the beginning, Christianity was one of the main excuses used to justify the human trafficking industry that enslaved indigenous and Black people in the New World. Even though the Jamestown colony was originally founded as a get-rich-quick scheme, these capitalist dreams were hidden under the guise of “propagating of Christian religion to suche people as yet live in darkenesse and . . . to bring the infidels and salvages living in those parts to humane civilitie and to a setled and quiet govermente,”4 according to the 1606 Virginia Charter. In theory, the English colonizers were supposed to introduce civilization to North America’s indigenous natives by teaching them about the European version of an omnipotent deity. In practice, they mostly just stole land, resources, and, of course, labor.

Massachusetts’s 1641 law expressly forbade slavery “unless it be lawfull captives taken in just warres, and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us.”5 This statute was derived from the Levitical law, the portion of the Torah that informed the Jewish priesthood, which would become the book of Leviticus in the Christian Bible:

“Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.” 6

Because the American Pilgrims considered themselves to be builders of the “New Jerusalem,” in this case, “fellow Israelites” meant white people. No self-respecting Christian would enslave a fellow follower of Christ, so it made sense that Africans would have to be excluded from the colonizers’ What-Would-White-Jesus-Do mandate. Therefore, rather quickly, early Americans had to give up their initial cover story of trying to spread the gospel, and became reluctant to introduce their enslaved property to Christianity, lest their double standards be exposed.

When Lorinda Goodwin and her family converted to her master’s faith on a Georgia plantation, she quickly realized the unspoken limitations of Catholic practices for the enslaved.

Source :

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America page 122