Curse of Ham.

So this is worth knowing. One of the purported Biblical justifications for slavery was the "Curse of Ham;" the idea was that all black Africans were living under an ancient curse which made it all right for white people to own them. According to a short review Mark Noll posted today at Books & Culture, the "Curse of Ham" was first specifically linked to Africa in a book published in 1498; before that, biblical commentators had only treated the passage as an explanation of serfdom as a general condition, not specifically tied to race.

Here's the upshot:

You do not have to look far today to find continuing efforts to apply the "curse of Ham" to Africans and use it as vindication for slavery. None of it is true. It has been made up out of whole cloth. It is a depressing tale from first to last.