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Slavery Dbq Essay

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Europeans, after the rise of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, vindicated the enslaving of Africans by depending on religious authority because they supposedly followed God’s will (notes). According to Pope Nicholas V, the African enslavement has helped the Catholic Church (source A). In a 1455 letter, he wrote, “... A large number of these have been converted to the Catholic faith…” (source A). The quote suggests the pontiff held a positive outlook on slavery, but he only supported it for the conversion of the slaves (notes). Over 100 years later, a letter surfaced from Jesuit Brother Luis Bandaon to Father Sandoval that read he and other educated Fathers from Brazil support slavery for the purpose of more conversions and labor (source B and …show more content…

Europeans were bound to give more justifications on why slavery was only intended for Africans, thus they turned to the Bible. The controversial “Story of Ham”, from Genesis 9-10, reads the tale of Ham, a son of Noah, who saw his father intoxicated and sleeping bare (source C). When Noah awoke, he claimed, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers” (source C). In the passage, he cursed Ham’s son, Canaan, and his descendants to be the slaves of his own brothers, Shem and Japheth (source C). Historians have debated about the story, in which some believed Ham or Canaan was of African descent, even though it was never mentioned (source C). Others supported the idea that Noah’s sons symbolized a continent’s residents; Ham personified Africa, Shem of Asia, and Japheth of Europe. Ham was also supposedly derived from the ancient Hebrew words that meant black, brown, or dark. Philosopher Robert Boyle from 1644 is one to oppose the theory of Ham’s descent

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