1851 edition
Religion and racial ideologySupplement
Josiah Priest’s Bible Defence of Slavery promotes racist theology
United States
Priest’s proslavery writing used biblical interpretation and racial claims to justify Black enslavement. Appeals to Ham and his descendants turned religious narratives into arguments for enslavers’ authority.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The 1851 date refers to an edition, not the origin of proslavery theology. The claimed biblical justification is a historical racist interpretation, not a factual account of ancestry or divine endorsement.