What argument used to justify slavery appealed to people's religious beliefs?
1 Answer
A misinterpretation of the Bible and Progressive beliefs of the Enlightenment.
Explanation:
Slave owners loved to quote Gen 9:25 to justify slavery. Wilberforce and other Christians opposed to slavery attempted to point out the fallacy of this argument.
Gen 9:25 says that the fourth son of Ham ( who was dark) Canaan would be cursed and his descendants would serve as slaves to the Jewish people who would be stronger than them.
The false interpretation was to apply this verse to all the dark skin descendants of Ham instead of just Canaan of the land of Canaan now Israel and Palestine. The Canaanites were conquered by the Jewish people and served as servants. The prophecy did come true. However it was only for the Canaanites not all the sons of Ham and only for their Jewish conquerors for a few generations. Few of the slave owners would have claimed to be Jewish.
The philosophical beliefs of the Enlightenment also were used to justify slavery. Voltaire called Negros the descents of Monkeys, beings with little or no intelligence. Hume stated that he suspected that Negros are naturally inferior to whites. Kant said Negros have not received any intelligence that rises above foolishness.
Slave owners used the enlightenment belief that Negros were inferior to whites and needed to be "cared for" by a superior race for their own benefit.
Both the Biblical and Enlightenment justifications were false arguments used to rationalize the greed of the slave owners.
