Babo And Captain Cereno Relationship

This indifferent attitude seems to reflect Delano as possibly It is hard to say what Delano’s stance is, but it seems that Melville is posturing Delano in a position that would render him indifferent to slavery and/or abolition.

It is as though Melville is saying that this attitude is just as dangerous as believing that blacks are evil and mean. Like dehumanizing them in any way is wrong. I think this overt patriarchal indulgence is Melville mocking such ignorance among the whites.

I have to disagree with the “caring relationship” between Captain Cereno and Babo. Indeed, it is an “unusually close and caring relationship” meaning it is a little too much so. There seems to be something very menacing and manipulating about Babo’s servitude. I’m not sure that this is indicative of

the Spanish treatment of slaves. Everything about this ship seems to be at odds with what is ‘right’ or ‘normal’. This indifference seems to accentuate society’s ignorance at the time. People were ill-aware of the actual capabilities of their black counterparts, which made the idea of slavery seem like SOMETHING for them to do since they can’t do much else. This ignorance seems to be Melville’s stand against slavery; the ignorance of society is no excuse for human trafficking and kidnapping which, by today’s standards, would land a person in jail for nearly a lifetime.
The Fugitive Slave Law and the
Compromise of 1850 are also in the context of Melville’s work due to Benito Cereno being
published in 1855.

The mutiny implements the temporal status of freedom because the Spanish become subdued, and the slaves grant themselves temporary freedom by overtaking Cereno and his crew. At the end of the story the roles are again reversed when the Spanish and Delano’s men recapture the ship, and nslave

Babo and the rest of the rebellious slaves. This is particularly interesting when considering the Fugitive Slave Law and Compromise of 1850 had been interested just five years prior to Melville’s publication of Benito Cereno. A fugitive slave also had a temporal status of freedom depending on what part of America he or she was in, and could gain or lose freedom according to location until the stricter limitations in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 were brought into legislation. Melville opposed slavery throughout his life, but American perceptions of slavery were mixed at this time, which is why Melville uses characters to reinforce the evils of the slave trade.Melville uses Delano’s narrative to tempt the American reader, which reveals how racially blind one may

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