to a very considerable extent, for nigh three centuries, the black man has had a pro-slavery theology pressing him to the earth, as well as the all-grasping cupidity of man:
"Trade, wealth, and fashion asked him still to bleed,
And holy men gave Scripture for the deed."
To this prevailing sentiment we owe the fact that nearly all interpretations of Scripture, commentaries, works on prophecy, dissertations on Jewish servitude, sermons and theological treatises elicited by the anti-slavery struggle in England and America, nearly all are pervaded by a pro-slavery tone. In legal matters it is an assumed principle "that in doubtful cases the advantage of the law shall be in favor of the prisoner;" but Christian men have reversed this principle, and in their treatises have assumed, as a foregone conclusion, that the spirit of the Bible was in favor of slavery, and not for freedom, and hence ingenuity has been exhausted in order to show the exact similitude between Jewish servitude and Negro slavery; and to prove that when Noah cursed Canaan he was looking right down the track of time upon some fine specimens of "Ebony," in the barracoons of the Gallinas, or some "fat and sleek" Negroes in the slave-shambles of Virginia!
conclusion
In conclusion, the author submits that the preceding examination authorizes the following conclusions:
1. That the curse of Noah was pronounced upon Canaan, not upon Ham.
