The evil of slavery in Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

The evil of slavery in Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

Slavery is one of the longest inhuman activities that were common in the United States and other parts of Europe, including Spain. It was believed to be one of the means of getting the workforce to work in their farms under dangerous conditions that were not recommended for a human being. Africans were the victims of these activities in which they had to endure working under harsh conditions. However, this activity was associated with evil deeds leading to illegal actions against the slaves in terms of legal oppression, inhuman treatment leading to the development of revolts, especially after World War 1.  The revolution of African slaves against legal oppression, human betrayal, as well as race-based violence, was viewed as an evil action of slavery when it was meant to restore their freedom.  Melville, in his story, depicts the states of betrayal humanity slaves in the United States, leading slaves to commit social crimes.

Benito cereno, by marvels, gives account on how slaves were exposed to oppressive legal actions. These activities exposed most of the slaves in the united to the unfair treatment of these individuals, especially when there were revolts among slaves.  According to marvel, in his novels and poems, as he tries to unravel what slaves went through, exposes much in terms of treatment. Legal institutions unfairly practiced their legal actions, especially when the incident of the Spaniard ship. During this scenario, slaves were under the influence of anger owing to what they were going through in the hands of their master (Death of Klinghoffer 372). However, when they revolt, leading to death after they tried to force Don Benito to transport them back to Africa. The legal justice does not find it necessary to spare them for their action; rather takes them through legal justice that was unfair. “Delano’s dangerous role as an unwitting intruder only deepens the paradox, for simply looking at the knot causes one to fall into it. For a moment, with “knot in hand and knot in the head,” he “stood mute,” managing to push back his stunning puzzlement only when “a good-natured…elderly Negro” informs him that “the old knotter was simple-witted, but harmless” (Benjamin 10). The actions lead to violence, which is considered to be the evil of slavery when their actions were a result of the oppressive treatments.

Similarly, the evil of slavery was evident, especially on slaves retaliated on the actions they felt they had endured. The Benito Cereno on the ambiguity of terrorism, it is evident that slavery as the practice had resulted in evil activities ranging to the killing of the innocents who became the victims of circumstance. Slaves find it normal to act in a given manner despite the magnitude of the repercussion it will cause to the victims. They were not remorseful to their actions to them; it was justified. Betrayal of humanity was evident for both slavery and masters of slavery.” A manifestation of pure evil, ‘a malignant brain’ committing atrocities ‘for the happiness of hatred,’ evil for the sake of evil” babo enjoys evil for itself alone; evil incarnate, blackness made manifest….” They felt they had nothing to panic about since the actions they had endured far much had to bear for any individual rather engaging themselves in inhuman activities.

Consequently, the evil of slavery was one of the criminals as a result of oppression. Most blacks were oppressed by both their masters, whom Melville tries to make people understand.  Out of the activities that were happening in the United States concerning the treatment of slaves and their masters were uncalled for in which blacks saw as oppression. Events in the Benito Cereno ship, which was branded as slave ships, articulate how oppression had manifested that Melville thought in his essay of Madness and mastery in Melville’s “Benito Cereno” in which African felt the need for liberation. All action by Captain Delano’s against the slaves was at the center stage of development of evil thoughts in the African. The race had become the talk of the day, according to Melville, which made most of the slaves to become uncontrollable. This warfare was evident that slavery was something needed special attention to control rather than retaliates as the colonial master would do. The uprising of African slaves was considered an evil mind. “How is it that Delano reads a slave uprising as an epidemic of mental illness? Discussions of both racial unrest and insanity shuttled anxiously between schemes for confinement, assimilation, and, in the last resort, exile. Crucial to these discussions were questions of obedience and rebelliousness” (Benjamin 2). Their deeds by slaves illustrated how slavery could turn to evil, especially when oppression is the subject of the day.

Slavery manifested into retaliation among Africans and their slaves master in which violence becomes the tool to realize salvage from what they were going through. There was needed to stand out in bringing sanity into the way of treatment to become free at last. The evil on how they were treated controlled them on how they perceived other races. It was evident these races made suffer, and the events at the Spaniard ship illustrated how frustrated and oppressed the mind can be violent. Delano’s action was at the ship were viewed as rude, and the one portrayed slaves as persons with no right to freedom.  This galvanized the slave’s revolution, which was more violent.  Melville, in his poems, takes on the accounts leading to revolts and why it was the time for the slaves’ oppressed minds to explode into serious evil actions to reclaim their freedom. “But this the American in charity ascribed to the harassing effects of sickness, since, in former instances, he had noted that there are peculiar natures on whom prolonged physical suffering seems to cancel every social instinct of kindness” (Melville 7).  This illustrated how African slaves had anticipated for the moment, which will help them change for better and attain freedom through the hard way, which was portrayed as acts of evil.

Therefore, the evil of slavery, as put by Melville in Benito cereno and other authors stated in world history that lead to the development of the revolution.  The actions by Africans against legal oppression, humanity betrayal as well race that had been widely used to oppress them translated to the act of violence and death portraying slavery as the home for the evil person. As put forward by Melville, evil deeds done to some is reciprocated back by the very person, especially when it reaches a point of no return. Slaves in the Spaniard ship were under this bondage, and they felt the oppression had taken part in their life for long, pushing them to retaliate. This action illustrates how a revolution against slavery was characterized by evil deeds both by the slaves and slave masters.