When bringing up slave revolts in the eighteenth and nineteenth century it can be easy to forget the one that happened on U.S soil in August 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. About 25 years before the publication of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno, an escaped slave by the name of Nat Turner had gathered a group of over 70 slaves and free Blacks in an effort to begin a movement of more slave revolts and raids of slave plantations. The revolt quickly became bloody. By the time a militia was formed to deal with the revolt there had been 60 men, women, and children killed. Things went from bad to worst and the militia was later responsible for up to 200 black deaths. By October of the same year Nat Turner was identified and sentenced to death. After the execution, his body was mutilated. Many of those who sided with him in the rebellion were also hanged.
When thinking of the message in Herman Melville's Benito Cereno it becomes obvious to see the allusions to the slave rebellion in Haiti. It is important to remember the similar events that unfolded in Turner's rebellion. Similarly to the accounts of Amasa Delano, the slaves in question showed their ability to organize and fight back to the best of their abilities. The facade that blacks were too loyal and ignorant to form any kind of resistance was quickly falling apart. Herman Melville's short story acts as a more accurate lens to see the audacity behind the racist conventions while revolts such as Nat Turner's serve as cruel motivators for progress.
I like that you chose to delve into this rebellion. It is important to remember the subtle comments that Melville is making about America even though he, purposely, placed the setting elsewhere. It is difficult to make commentary on such a dodgy topic when it is in your time. He had more freedom in his writing because he was "white" but I feel that he would have lost credibility with a lot of his audience if he were to directly attack U.S. slavery....but I feel he was making commentary to slaves in our country, so this rebellion is completely relevant. Kudos
ReplyDeleteI think it is really interesting how neither Amasa Delano nor people during the Nat Turner rebellion suspected that slaves were capable of organizing among themselves to fight back. It goes to show how comfortable white people became in their status of superiority and how convinced people were of the stereotype of African people being "docile." Even when signs showed otherwise like in Benito Cereno, Captain Delano chalked it up as paranoia because slaves are truly happy in their "predisposed" role in life as serving the white man. I agree with your point about how rebellions are cruel motivators for progress - sad because of death on both sides but necessary in some desperate cases.
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