Slavery in the ancient times Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Slavery in the ancient times - Term Paper Example He was one of the three sons of Noah, and he just happened to see his father drunk and naked. When Noah realized what had happened he cursed Ham and his descendants. This is recorded in Genesis 9:18. The Bible tells how the sons of Noah spread out in what is now the Middle East, and founded the modern peoples that we know today. As a result of this curse, Ham was forever regarded as being inferior to his two brothers, and this curse was passed on to future generations: â€Å"God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.† (Genesis, 9:27, King James Version of the Bible). There is no mention of the color of anyone’s skin in this story, but when Jewish scholars taught the scriptures, they tended to add meanings to the basic narrative, increasingly linking the descendants of Shem with Jews (Semites) and early Arabs in the area to the East, the descendants of Japheth with Europeans to the north and west, and the descendan ts of Ham with Africans to the south and west. Unfortunately there was some confusion about the meaning of some words in the passing down of these stories, and Goldenberg reports that the word Ham became associated with the the word for the color black.