In Benito Cereno and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the issue of slavery
and simple control over other human beings is brought up multiple times. One of
the arguments for the continuation of slavery in the United States was that
slaves’ lives were better off the way that they were. Douglas wrote that the
Americans thought that the slaves’ singing was “evidence of their contentment
and happiness” (Douglass 58). On the other hand, most slaves were certainly
mistreated and miserable with their lot in life, particularly on the plantations.
However, the lot of the slave owners, or if not owners, the ones that still had
control over others should be brought up. While slavery was damaging to the
slaves, it also had serious consequences for those that held slaves.
In Benito Cereno, the damaging effects of slave owning is most evident
in both the Africans on the San Dominick and in Captain Cereno. The Africans
went from being the slaves to the masters in a very short period of time,
following their rebellion aboard the ship. While it cannot be said for certain
what their overall temperaments were prior to being taken aboard the San
Dominick, there is a certain corruption that can be attributed to them once we
encounter them in the story. The women are described as exceptionally vicious
by the account that “they
would have tortured to death, instead of simply killing, the Spaniards slain by
command of the Negro Babo”(Melville 251) It is exceptionally unlikely that they
would have had these feelings of such violence prior to their slavery turned
control over their slavers. Similar transformations can be observed in the case
of what the Africans did to Don Joaquin; “as upon the approach of the boats, Don
Joaquin, with a hatchet tied edge out and upright to his hand, was made by the
Negroes to appear on the bulwarks; whereupon, seen with arms in his hands and
in a questionable attitude, he was shot for a renegade seaman.” (254) This
evidences a decent into cruelty in which the “masters” were not simply content
to kill the man, but to force him to be killed by his allies.
In
the case of Benito Cereno, it can be plainly seen that slaveholding, and then
being the subject of slavery, caused an extreme change in character. Cereno
answered Captain Delano’s query “what has cast such a shadow upon you?” with “The
Negro.” (256) While his stint as a slave under Babo helped to cause the change,
and his subsequent death, the fact that he was transporting slaves was the main
cause of his decline. What his answer means is not just the trauma he underwent
aboard the ship, but the mental guilt that he underwent at what he had forced
upon countless slaves during his tenure as captain.
Frederick
Douglass gives a prime illustration of the effect that slaveholding has on a
person. His primary example was Mrs. Auld, whom he initially describes as “a
kind and tenderhearted woman” (Douglass 81). Douglass describes slaveholding as
“The fatal poison of irresponsible power” (77) and goes on to discuss how this
power turned Mrs. Auld into an overly controlling and almost vicious woman.
This case most clearly illustrates how slavery corrupts the mind and spirit of
the slaveholder, turning a nice, innocent woman into a monster. Douglass also
describes the effects that slavery had, or would likely have on the children
that he learned from in Baltimore. He states that had he divulged their names,
it would have been cause for great shame to them. They could not even take any
pleasure or satisfaction in having helped to teach a young boy.
Melville, Herman, and A.
Robert Lee. "Benito Cereno." Billy Budd, Sailor: And Other Stories.
London: J.M. Dent, 1993. 161-258. Print.
Douglass,
Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave.
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
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