The Hamite

"Showing that colored men are directly descended from Ham and have been once powerful in civilization and glorious history." -Suburban Enterprise (1903)

"Harvey Johnson has stood in the forefront battling for his race's rights." -Ida B. Wells

"No one can read it without feeling a renewed interest in the achievements of his race and a desire to be an honor to it." -Sower and Reaper (1903)

"Exploding the popular fallacy that Ham was cursed, a good book, and well worth reading." -Kansas Citizen (1903)

"Very interesting" -Sunday School Helper (1903)

"Will help remove the idea so long entertained that an eternal curse was put on the colored race." -Sunday School Helper (1903)

"A looking glass in which a Hamite can look and see his origin, struggles, achievements." -Home Protector (1903)


Even from the days of Noah, when he uttered those memorable words, "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren," there has dwelt in the hearts of the other two branches of the sons of Noah, a deep-rooted hatred against the descendants of Ham, according to African American pastor Harvey Johnson.


In spite of Noah's curse, according to Harvey Johnson, if any one will follow the recorded facts of history, he will see that from that very period God began to bless them with name and fame, with power and influence, with civilization and religion.


As the author relates in his short 20-page book "The Hamite," published in 1889, "it is a fact that the very first government the world had after the flood was formed by one of the sons of Ham, namely, Nimrod; for the sacred historian tells us that he began to be a mighty one in the earth, and that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech, Accad and Calneh, four cities. The first kingdom which consisted of the four cities named above, was set up in the land of Shinar, and that Nimrod was its king."


Harvey Johnson (1843 -1923) a leading African American pastor, activist, and longtime leader of the Union Baptist Church during the 19th century and early 20th century, wrote the book to counter racist publication and "to show what that race has been, and what it has achieved in the different stages of the world's history."


In the 1880s, Harvey Johnson became one of the most important African American civil rights protectors.