Forced Atrocious Thralldom of Human

Forced atrocious thralldom of human beings, doesn't just arouse, in them, the dire lust for freedom but also injects the praxis and bravado to make this a reality. Benito Cereno, is yet another tale depicting the atrocious practice of subjugating blacks and trading them like mere 'commodities' where they were not only denied physical liberty but also the right of cognitive existence/freedom.

The account starts off describing the situation where a huge vessel carrying 'slave freight', apparently, encounters some functional complications and hence is forced to halt near the harbor of St. Maria. In the same vicinity was another boarded ship captained by Amasa Delano. Delano decided to go to the misery-stricken 'San Dominick' just to notice that it was carrying 'Slave freight'. It was quite prominently chalked on the front side: 'Follow your Leader' which then again forwarded the notion that this very ship was a Negro-transportation ship.

The crew and the general 'order' of the vessel were both hard to find. The overall condition of the blacks onboard was quite debilitated by disease and hunger. As is quite evident from the following statement: But, in one language, and as with one voice, all poured out a common tale of suffering." Although San Dominick was a slave-carrier, the general setting and atmosphere did not show any such elements of Black subservience (towards the White). The Negroes seemed to be quite indifferent to their surroundings and even their command.

This was quite evident in the statement by Delano regarding his first impression of the 'setting' and 'order' of San Dominick.: "Long continued suffering seemed to have brought out the less good-natured qualities of the Negroes, besides, at the same time, impairing the Spaniard's (captain) authority over them." This reveals that the negroes had since a long time been under this tortuous enslavement and now it seemed that there patience had already reached the threshold and this extreme mental frustration had, since long planted the seed of 'revolt' in their minds.

The event in which a white boy attempted to abuse a black lad verbally, and in reaction the black kid injured him with a 'dagger', whereas the Spaniard captain quite helplessly called it a 'regular sport', quite conspicuously reveals the chafe Negroes experienced due to the prolonged slavery. He was struck by one of those instances of subordination previously alluded to.

Three black boys with three Spanish boys were sitting together on the hatches Suddenly one of the Black boys enraged with a word dropped by one of his white companion, seized a knife,...and struck the lad over the head." very immediate impact of this slavery is 'hatred'. This emotion might be felt and even expressed.

The event mentioned in the following quote tends to enlighten us as to how this very subservience caused antipathy to be cooked in the hearts and eventually expressed in form of ruthless intolerance and aversion: "Two blacks, to all appearances accidentally incommoded by one of the sailors, flew out against him with horrible curses, which the sailor someway resenting, the two blacks dashed him to the deck and jumped upon him.." The character of Babo, who apparently was just a loyal personal attendant of Don Benito, but actually he was the person first-in-command of the throng of slaves, and tended to be a constant eye on Benito, and influenced (in fact controlled) all his actions/decisions.

As it was revealed in the latter portion of the story, that it was Babo, who took the dire initiative to overrule the enslavement, which was literally destroying his kins, both mentally and psychologically. Hence Babo was that Black who actually channelized the thirst of freedom which was a direct effect of slavery.

Even the old Oakum-pickers, who according to Delano: "Seem to act the part of old dominoes to the rest," tended to further support the notion that Don Benito's role of being the ship's Commander had turned into a symbolic one. The passive character of Don Benito itself, illustrated the fact that he had already realized that its not humanly possible to dictate/enslave human beings (like animals or even worst than that) for a very long time as this actually does arouse a reaction i.e.

The desire of liberty, which gradually transforms that lot of defenseless slaves into such a formidable force which, like a ruthless tide, destroys everything that.