Curse of Ham the ark and "was smitten in his skin"; according to another, Noah cursed him because he castrated his father. Although the Talmud refers only to Ham, the version brought in a midrash goes on further to say "Ham, that Cush came from him" in reference to the blackness, that the curse did not apply to all of Ham but only to his eldest son Cush, Cush being a sub-Saharan African. Thus, two distinct traditions existed, one explaining dark skin as the result of a curse on Ham, the other explaining slavery by the separate curse on Canaan. The concepts were
Kentucky Ham Burroughs' father's work, the Beats and Jane Bowles, befriended Billy and reported that his third novel included material about his liver transplant in 1976. Material from the third novel was edited into his third published work, "Cursed From Birth". As with "Speed", "Kentucky Ham" is often erroneously listed as part of the Burroughs, Sr. literary canon. In 1993 it was republished in an omnibus edition alongside "Speed". Kentucky Ham Kentucky Ham, first published in 1973, was the second novel by William S. Burroughs, Jr., the son of Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs. Like its predecessor, "Speed", the book is