If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters.
Douglass challenges the scriptural justification for slavery by pointing out the widespread reality of mixed-race children fathered by white masters, rendering the "curse of Ham" argument moot.
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It was in the air, and men breathed it and were permeated by it, often when they were quite unconscious of its presence.
It only abolished slavery where it did not exist, and left it intact where it did exist.
Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.