Earlier in his revision, Enoch, according to Smith, saw a vision of "the world for the space of many generations," and seemed to allude to Africa: "For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people."

Smith therefore described a separate cursing of Canaan rather than a transmission of the curse through Ham's inter-racial marriage. In the intervening years between working on his Bible revision and dictating the text of the Book of Abraham, Smith modified his ideas about the origin of the Black race, possibly the result, in part, of Phelp's influence.