Curses of Cain and Ham (LDS Church)

Teachings on the biblical curse of Cain and the curse of Ham in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and their effects on Black people in the LDS Church have changed throughout the church's history. Both church founder Joseph Smith, and his successor Brigham Young taught that Black people were under the curse of Ham, and the curse of Cain. Smith and Young both referred to the curses as a cause for slavery. They also taught that dark skin marked people of African ancestry as cursed by God. In Smith's revisions of the King James Bible, and production of the Book of Abraham he traced their cursed state back to the curses placed on Cain and Ham, and linked the two curses by positioning Ham's Canaanite posterity as matrilinear descendants of Cain.

Prior to the Latter Day Saint settlement in Missouri, Smith, like many other Northerners, was opposed to slavery, but softened his opposition to slavery during the Missouri years, going as far as writing a very cautious justification of the institution. Following the Mormon Extermination Order and violent expulsion of the church from the slave state, Smith openly embraced abolitionism and preached the equality of all of God's children, in 1841 stating that if the opportunity for Black people were equal to the opportunity provided to White people, that Black people could perform as well or better than them.

Young, while seemingly open to Black men holding the priesthood under Smith's leadership and praising of Black members of the church, later as Smith's successor used the curse as justification of barring Black people from the priesthood, banning interracial marriages, and opposing Black suffrage. He stated that the curse would one day be lifted and that Black people would be able to receive the priesthood post-mortally.