Reversing the Master and Slave Role in Benito Cereno
White men held within an inch of death or even more tortuous fates at the hands of black slave-mutineers, kept alive solely to navigate the blacks to freedom--is this concept something so preposterous that it isn't conceivable? It depends upon whose eyes the insurrection is viewed through.
In "Benito Cereno," Captain Delano's extreme naivete and desensitization towards slavery greatly affect his perceptions while aboard the San Dominick. Delano's racial stereotypes, views of master and slave relationships, and benevolent racism mask the true reality of what was occurring on board despite his constant uneasiness and skepticism. At a time when slave revolts were not unusual, the slave conditions aboard the San Dominick should have made more of an impact on Delano.
Upon first boarding the mysterious ship, Delano gave but a brief thought to the fact that the many blacks roamed freely under the control of very few Spaniards, a number which was so small, we later learn, because of scurvy, or so he was told. The ominous black men performing the task of polishing axes that they would make sound at opportune times, never were more than a passing observance. Also, the fact that there were so many of the slaves, all in relatively good health, not lacking anything but water, never provoked Delano to analyze further. Despite the fact that the San Dominick was not specifically a slave ship, but only a ship transporting one man's slaves, on the average slave ship the
conditions aboard ship were dreadful. The maximum number of slaves was jammed into the hull, chained to forestall revolts or suicides by drowning. Food, ventilation, light, and sanitatio...
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...ns it held. Melville creates a character who never sees the reality on board the ship in his many speculations, particularly because Delano sees the slaves as too ignorant as to be able to devise such a thing, when the grand irony is the he is too blind to see it. Melville reverses the master and slave roles and brings them before a very slavery-conscious audience to whom he leaves the interpretation open, but laden with subtle messages about the horrible institution of slavery.
Works Cited
Bennett, Lerone. "Black Resistance... Slavery in the U.S.". Before the Mayflower. http://www.afroam.org/history/slavery/revolts.html. 25 Sept. 97.
Melville, Herman. "Benito Cereno." The Piazza Tales. Northwestern University Press. 1996.
"The African Slave Trade." Slavery. http://www.usbol.com/ctjournal/Slavery2.html. 18 Sept. 97.
Comparison between Because I Could Not Stop For Death and Come Up From the Fields Father
In 1805, seal hunter Amasa Delano came across a ship call the Tryal that he mistook for a slave ship. Unknown to Delano, The slaves aboard the ship had already risen up and taken over the ship, killing the captain and most of the crew, and simply feigned slavery so as not to get caught. In author and historian Greg Grandin’s The Empire of Necessity, the slaves aboard the Tryal took part in a new era where for the first time, the tables turned, and the oppressed became the oppressors. Throughout his novel, Grandin argues that among men, there will always exist oppressors and oppressed. According to the author, every human has potential to become a slave in some way, as slavery is a necessary evil of mankind.
Before delving into the specifics of enslavement conditions in the New World, a peek into the slavery
I believe many more would very soon have done the same if they had not been prevented by the ship's crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most active were in a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion among the people of the ship as I never heard before to stop her and get the boat out to go after the slaves. However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other and afterwards flogged him unmercifully for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery. I can now relate to the hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together.
He does this by showing the awful conditions on the transports ships, the savagery of their masters, and the spread of disease on the ships. In an effort to show the terrible conditions of the ships, the author writes,” The fresh air being thus excluded, the Negroes ' rooms soon grow intolerable hot. The confined air, …soon produces fevers and fluxes which generally carries off great numbers of them” (2). The author is directing his document to the general public, as slavery was rampant at this time. He wants to show people that slavery is wrong and inhumane. He writes about how inhumanely the African Americans were selected by the Europeans in order to become slaves for them. The document is a firsthand account, and the author describes being on some on the ships himself while the slaves were being transported. Like the slaves, the author gets sick while he is on the ship. On his time on one of the transports, he writes,”…I nearly fainted, and it was only with assistance I could get back on deck. The consequence was that I soon after fell sick of the same disorder from which I did not recover for several months” (2). This article was written in a time where it was not very popular to be Anti-Slavery, so the author had a lot of courage to do what he did. His neighbors and a few family members were likely utilizing slaves at the time,
There are other contrasting aspects of the stories that call for attention. Most significantly Benito Cereno – ultimately – portrays slaves as evil and Babo as the mind behind the cunning plan that deceives Captain Delano. The reason for this one-sided representation is naturally the fact that we experience the story from Delano’s point of view. In the beginning, we perceive Babo as the typical docile, helpful, and faithful servant so often portrayed in other slave characters such as Stowe’s Uncle Tom and Jim in Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. Babo is more than just a slave; he is a “faithful fellow”, “a friend that cannot be called slave” . And despite all the underlying hints of a slave insurrection, Delano does not grasp their meaning. Examples are the slaves’ treatment of the Spanish sailors and the hatchet polishers , but in Delano’s narrow-minded world, only the white man is capable of conceiving plans of ‘evil’. And when he – and the reader too – finally sees “the mask torn away, flourishing hatchets and knives, in ferocious piratical revolt”, he is embarrassed and “with infinite pity he [withdraws] his hold from Don Benito” . From this moment on, Babo is a malign devil and Melville removes speech from Babo’s mouth. This strengthen our opinion of Babo as ‘evil’ even more, for how can we sympathise with him without hearing his version of the story? Apparently, Melville proposes no other alternative for the reader than to sympathise with the white slave owner Don Benito, whom Babo so ingeniously deceives.
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship A Human History. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2007. Print.
The typical life of an indentured servant was not a convenient one. Their journeys to the Americas were miserable. The servants were packed into large ships carrying thousands of people as well as, tools, food, etc. Not only were the people densely packed, there were various diseases flooding the ships, and many people would die from them. “I witnessed . . .
As Edgar Allan Poe once stated, “I would define, in brief the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.” The two poems, “Birthday,” and “The Secret Life of Books” use different diction, theme, and perspective to give them a unique identity. Each author uses different literary devices to portray a different meaning.
On some day, the slaves were made to do jumping exercise and to entertain the crew of the slavers, which was their only time the slaves got opportunity to get fresh air and to do some kind of movements. Some slaves use this opportunity to escape by jumping overboard, for this reason nets were placed to cover over top deck and the sailors was also armed with guns. Also the woman was brought on board to get raped at
...er the revolution, the mentality of the people of San Domingo was foreover changed. Slavery would never be accepted again by the inhabitants. "Any regime which tolerated such practices was doomed, for the revolution had created a new race of men" (242). This new race of men were aware of their self-importance. "There was no need to be ashamed of being a black. The revolution had awakened them, had given them the possibility of achievement, confidence and pride. That psychological weakness, that feeling of inferiority with which the imperialists poison colonial peoples everywhere, these were gone" (244).
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Thoreau, Henry D. "Slavery in Massachusetts." Reform Papers. Ed. Wendell Glick. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1973. 91-109.
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