Just as a cherished vase may shatter if knocked to the floor, in a like manner a lie can also be shattered by the truth. Lying is comparable to a death-dealing poison. Thankfully, though, we can do something about it. We can stop the practice of lying; by telling the truth. In this book The Faces of the Hamitic People, I have presented the truth; that there is a Hamitic branch and that there was never a curse of Ham, also the Kushites were the fi rst Hamitic branch to institute kingship and political governments. No white lie originates with the truth, it has only served to plunge the Hamitic branch into misery and death; the history of the slave trade well proves this. Racial prejudice and discrimination are products of mans lies and selfish desires. It was lies that led European colonists to view the natives as nothing more than animals with the gift of speech.

Fascinating study examines Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, Israelites, Persians, others. "...a valuable introduction, perhaps the best available in English." — American Historical Review. 32 halftones. 5 figures. 1 map.

How old is prejudice against black people? Were the racist attitudes that fueled the Atlantic slave trade firmly in place 700 years before the European discovery of sub-Saharan Africa? In this groundbreaking book, David Goldenberg seeks to discover how dark-skinned peoples, especially black Africans, were portrayed in the Bible and by those who interpreted the Bible--Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unprecedented in rigor and breadth, his investigation covers a 1,500-year period, from ancient Israel (around 800 B.C.E.) to the eighth century C.E., after the birth of Islam. By tracing the development of anti-Black sentiment during this time, Goldenberg uncovers views about race, color, and slavery that took shape over the centuries--most centrally, the belief that the biblical Ham and his descendants, the black Africans, had been cursed by God with eternal slavery. Goldenberg begins by examining a host of references to black Africans in biblical and postbiblical Jewish literature. From there he moves the inquiry from Black as an ethnic group to black as color, and early Jewish attitudes toward dark skin color. He goes on to ask when the black African first became identified as slave in the Near East, and, in a powerful culmination, discusses the resounding influence of this identification on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinking, noting each tradition's exegetical treatment of pertinent biblical passages. Authoritative, fluidly written, and situated at a richly illuminating nexus of images, attitudes, and history, The Curse of Ham is sure to have a profound and lasting impact on the perennial debate over the roots of racism and slavery, and on the study of early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Revised, Second Edition.