English writers mapped skin color onto divine evil-versus-godly worth in biblical paraphrase

Evidence

In a 1620 paraphrase of Genesis, future politician Thomas Peyton wrote of Cain, or “the Southern man,” as a “black deformed elf,” and “the Northern white, like unto God himself.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 86

Categorization

• XREF: The Cain/southern-man/black-elf conflation is an early ‘color = moral worth’ mapping that connects to how the same logic recurs in later scientific racism.