W. W. Phelps states that the mark and curse of Cain is black skin.

Date
Feb 6, 1835
Type
Periodical
Source
W. W. Phelps
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reprint
Reference

William W. Phelps, "Letter 5," Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate 1, no. 6 (March 1835): 82

Scribe/Publisher
W. W. Phelps, Messenger and Advocate
People
W. W. Phelps
Audience
Latter-day Saints, Oliver Cowdery
PDF
Transcription

Is or is it not apparent from reason and analogy as drawn from a careful reading of the Scriptures, that God causes the saints, or people that fall away from this church to be cursed in time, with a black skin? Was or was not Cain, being marked, obliged to inherit this curse, he and his children, forever? And if so, as Ham, like other sons of God, might break the rule of God, by marrying out of the church, did or did he not, have a Canaanite wife, whereby some of the black seed was preserved through the flood, and his son, Canaan, after he laughed at his grand father's nakedness, heired three curses: one from Cain for killing Abel; one from Ham for marrying a black wife, and one from Noah for ridiculing what God had respect for? Are or are not the Indians a sampling of marking with blackness for rebellion against God's holy word and holy order? And can or can we not observe in the countenances of almost all nations, except the Gentile, a dark, sallow hue which tells the sons of God, without a line of history, that they have fallen or changed from the original beauty and grace of father Adam?

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