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How Europeans Justified Slavery

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How Europeans Justified Slavery
Being a slave means to be bound in servitude as the property of a person or household, to work for them until you earn your freedom, which is virtually impossible. Europeans used their many beliefs and biased judgments to help them justify slavery as legal and righteous. The Europeans had a slave trade route that was called the Slave Triangle, it started it out in Europe, and then to Africa, there they traded slaves with material and then on to the New World where the slaves would harvest crops and other stuff to bring back to Europe. This paper will talk about how Europeans justified slavery using the bible, their religions and racism. The bible stated that slavery was just and that the sons of Canaan should be enslaved. It all started when Ham saw his father Noah naked and drunk in his tent, whereas Shem and Japeth walked backwards into the tent to avoid seeing their father in that state (Christianity's). When Noah woke up, he was outraged at Ham and therefore as according to the bible, Noah cursed Ham's son Canaan and all of his descendants to live a life of a slave (Christianity's). Thus leading to this quote from the bible: Genesis 9:25-27: 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japeth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave.' Canaan had dark skin, and therefore, the Europeans assumed that the Africans were descendants of Ham (Christianity's). The bible helped justify slavery in Europeans perspective, though the Europeans went further and also used the difference of religion between the two races to support their argument.
 The Europeans believed that slavery was just because by enslaving the Africans, they would be able to convert them to become Christians. By uprooting Africans' religions and heritage, they were able to achieve a few things, depriving them of cultural distinction and their motivation for revolt (Christianity's). They also thought that if they
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