Reading and Writing the Ship in “Benito Cereno” and “The Heroic Slave”

Abstract

Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” and Frederick Douglass’s “The Heroic Slave” both explore the ways in which power is inscribed into maritime technologies. A focus on the role of ships within these narratives reveals the way systems of power operate, and invites inquiry into the way those systems can be disrupted. The hapless qualities of Melville’s central figure, Amasa Delano, and the hypermasculine heroism of Douglass’s protagonist, Madison Washington, have received much scholarly attention. These aspects of the characters come into sharper relief when we consider the ship itself to be a legible, authoritative text. Delano’s notoriously poor reading of his situation stands in contrast to his accurate and detailed reading of the ship in its disarray. Relatedly, Washington’s nautical literacy parallels Douglass’s own well-known history with the printed word. The two stories present opposing looks at the nature of power as inscribed in the ship. For Douglass, power is there for the taking, systems can be overturned, and their technologies subverted. Melville’s text offers a dimmer view; his story and its concluding legal documentation suggests that systems of power are supported by a self-sustaining and self-justifying logic. These two visions imply different prospects for Black agency.