Benito Cereno: Racism and Colonialism

The plot of Benito Cereno takes place on a ship. America was the last country where slavery was abolished. Together with the rest of the writers of American renaissance Melville was very much against slavery and the reason why he wrote the story of Benito Cereno was to warn the nited !tates that if they follow the ways of the "uropean countries# especially !pain# they are going to end up with the same kind of cultural problems. That is why one of the mottos of the story is follow the leader. The story takes place on a !panish ship called !t. $ominic which was transporting slaves from Africa. !ince slave trade was abolished in most of the "uropean countries new roots had to be made and it was called trade triangle because what happened was that they transported slaves from Africa to !outh America and sold the slaves there because the industry in !outh America depended on salve labor. There were huge sugar plantations and working on those plantations was very hard and white people did not want to do# so in order to make a profit they needed free labor. %atin American countries kept importing slaves from Africa or actually kidnapping salves. They would attack African countries and they would &ust take people and transport them on slave ships and usually they would recruit more people than they actually needed and could cramp on the ships. Around the middle of the Atlantic' referred to as the middle passage'ocean ships would stop and &ust throw overboard the number of slaves that they thought they will not need or who were weak or sick# so this way they threw around ()* of people off the ship. +t is considered that ,) million people died that way. !laves who arrived in %atin America would be bapti-ed# sprinkled with water and given different names to confuse "nglish authorities who were trying to stop slave trade. Than they would be taken to the .est +ndies to !outhern !tates because those states also depended on free labor because those states were agricultural sates and usually there were plantations of coffee and tobacco. /ne of the two main characters of the story is the !panish captain and his occupation is slave trading so he picks up slaves in Africa transports them to %atin America and the story of Benito Cereno takes place on a voyage between these two continents. Things get out of control and the slaves rebel. The slaves managed to overpower the !panish troop and kill most of them. They wanted the !paniards to turn the ship and get them back to Africa0 however what they did not know was that the !paniards were constantly navigating the ship towards the they did become free but the trial lasted 1) years. .!. /nce they arrived to the port# a trial took place in order to make these people free or not and eventually

Melville wanted to inspire Americans to abolish slavery because he sad that slavery is one of the greatest flaws of the .!. +n first part of the story the reader can be 2uite confused by the way Captain $elano is dealing with the whole situation because he goes on this ship where he sees slaves running around on the ship and for him that is very strange and he thinks that Benito is a very bad captain and he blames the whole situation on Benito. 3e blames for not being capable of keeping order and he never thinks about the fact that maybe the slaves rebelled. !o we can see in action the opinion of the .!. towards "urope. "urope at the time in the 14th century was seen as corrupted# too catholic and actually . !. did not like Catholics because puritans were persecuted by Catholics. That is one of the reasons why Captain $elano does not like Benito. Through the first part of the story we see that Benito is being linked to !panish Catholicism he is even compared to one of the !panish kings who persecuted 5rotestants. $elano sees that ship as the embodiment of the catholic religion. And that is why he has these negative feelings toward Benito and the sailors. Also we have the evidence of inter'white racism. .hile slavery serves as an e6ample for racism# inter'white racism is portrayed through the relationship of Benito and $elano because they hate and despise each other because they come from two very different countries# continents# cultures and religions. Benito does not like $elano# he thinks that $elano is too arrogant and the same opinion fro the .!. # that the states are too young a country and that they are ignorant they are not developed. .e may also see the interpretation of different perception of colonialism. Colonialism as a movement started from "urope and introduced salve trade and with this idea that one nation is more important than the other surfaced. This gives them# the better ones# the right to impose their tradition# religion and culture on other nations. The !panish and the 5ortuguese concurred America# and bapti-ed the people and developed the country# by destroying the culture of the Mayas and imploring their own culture. .e have the same ideas as far as Africa is concerned. .hile in America they did not like these colonial trends in "urope# they did the same by taking the !panish territories that is why the war of the Me6ican 7ulf broke out. .hen Captain $elano is talking about slaves he calls them dogs and he thinks that the only possible occupation for a black man is to be a servant # that black men are stupid and even when they are benevolent they are like 8ewfoundland dogs and he also compares African women to antelopes. Melville9s portrayal of the .! is very ironic# because while the .!. tries to pro&ect this positive image of themselves as a free country# as a country where everybody is e2ual# and free e6cept black people and 8atives. The figurehead on the ship is Christopher Columbus# which is a bit ironic and which is later on taken of and the skeleton of Ale6ander :. is replaced with it. !o the ship is sailing with a skeleton as a figurehead# which is another comment of Melville on the whole situation# because ;

Ale6ander :. is the captain of the ship before the slaves kill him and on his skeleton they write <ollow the %eader. They want to tell Benito C. and all the other sailors that if they try to be aggressive they are going to be killed. Melville is trying to tell his leaders that if you follow political leaders who are slaveholders it will not going to end well. The story can be read on various political and social levels. Melville9s work which is regarded as the most contemporary one on the treatment of slaves gives a clear picture of how slaves were perceived by slaveholders# and how contradictory the situation was concerning the states of slaves in the .!. and last but not least how ignorance is a blessing which he marvelously introduced through the character of Captain $elano.