e he must have come out of the ark, and he could not come
out, unless he had previously entered it; and if he entered it, that he
must have _existed_ before the flood, and that, too, just such negro as
we have now, and consequently not as a descendant of Adam and Eve; and
if not the progeny of Adam and Eve, that he is inevitably a beast, and
_as such_, entered the ark, though having the _form_ of man, and _man_
he is, being so _named_ by Adam. Such is the logic, and such are the
conclusions to which their premises lead, if legitimately carried out;
and by which it is plainly seen, that the position assumed by the
learned of the present and past ages--that the present negroes are the
descendants of Ham, and were _made so_ by his _name_, or by the _curse_
of his father--is false in fact, and but an unwarranted assumption at
best. But while this conclusion is inevitable, it also reveals to us
another sad fact, that the good men of our own race (the white), though
learned and philanthropic, exhibit a weakness, alas! _too_ common in
this our day, that anything they wish to believe or think will be
popular, that it is very easy to convert the greatest _improbabilities_
into the _best_ grounds of their _faith_. The word used by God, used by
patriarch and by prophet, is the _same_ word used by Noah. If the word
thus used by God, and by holy men, did not produce the effect as is
charged by these men, how can the _same_ word, when used by Noah, do it?
And yet, on these assumptions, the faith of more than half the world
seems to be now based. To expose these cobweb fabrics, called by _some_
reason, on this subject, and _Christian_ philanthropy by others, in
which are involved, such tremendous conclusions, for weal or for wo, of
so large a portion of the biped creation, that we feel like apologizing
to our readers, for answering such _learned_ ignorance, blindness or
weakness. But the meaning of Ham's name in Hebrew is not _primarily_
black. Its primary meaning is: 1. Sunburnt; 2. swarthy; 3. dark; 4.
black--and its most _unusual_ meaning.

Having now disposed of these _fancies_, for they are nothing better, of
the effects of Ham's name, and Noah's curse, in making him a negro; and
having examined them, for the purpose of allowing on what flimsy grounds
this mightiest of structures of air-built theories rests, and for _this_
purpose _only_, as what we have said about them is not connected with,
nor germain to the way we intend to pu