In Genesis, Ham was the son associated with the incident in which Noah was found uncovered after the Flood.
Genesis 9:20–27 says Noah became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham, identified as the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers. Shem and Japheth then covered Noah without looking at him. After waking, Noah pronounced a curse on Canaan rather than directly on Ham.
The passage is often described loosely as Ham “mocking” Noah, but Genesis itself specifically emphasizes seeing and reporting the uncovered state. The text does not explicitly explain why Canaan receives the curse, which has led to centuries of interpretation.
Later readers sometimes called this episode the “Curse of Ham.” That label and later racialized uses of the story are interpretations, not a statement in Genesis that skin color or slavery is divinely ordained. The narrative names Ham, but the curse in the text is directed at Canaan.