[3] Ham is probably the Egyptian word "Khem" (black), the native name of
Egypt. In the original myth Canaan and not Ham was Noah's third son.
The biblical story of the "curse of Canaan" (Genesis IX, 24-25) has been
the basis of an astonishing literature which has to-day only a
psychological interest. It is sufficient to remember that for several
centuries leaders of the Christian Church gravely defended Negro slavery
and oppression as the rightful curse of God upon the descendants of a son
who had been disrespectful to his drunken father! Cf. Bishop Hopkins:
_Bible Views of Slavery_, p. 7.