Stolen Flesh, Borrowed Fresh: Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno Deposition

Canadian Review of Amencan Studies/ Revue can11d1rm1e d'et11dt's 11mr>11rnmes Volume 28, Number 1, 1998, pp. 63-78 Stolen Flesh, Borrowed Fresh: Herman Melville's Benito Cereno Deposition Mark C. Anderson 63 Historians employ a variety of materials to forge interpretations of the past, and frequently such evidence takes the form of official, legal documents such as the depositions appended to Herman Melville's 1855 novella Benito Cereno 1 (hereafter cited as BC) and the memoir upon which it was based, the eighteenth chapter of Amasa Delano's 1817 Voyages imd Trauels (hereafter cited as VI). One role of historians is to interpret the past in order to make better sense of the present. In Benito Cereno, Melville employed the former, in part, to achieve the latter. However, while this minor classic of American literature has received considerable attention from critics, the question of Melville quc1historian remains unexamined. This lapse is curious, given that scholars have applauded Melville's masterful re-rendering of American sea captain Delano's tale of a slave uprising at sea. Few have ventured to ex- ,imine the actual relationship between the two narratives. 2 Delano's first-hand account of the "generous" role he played in quashing the uprising comprises the bulk of the historical tale. In 1805, in waters off Chile, Delano, commanding an American sealer out of Massachusetts, came upon a Spanish slave vessel captained by one Benito Cereno. An earlier slave 64 Canadian Review of Amencan Studies Revue canadterme d' etudes anrerrcames rebellion aboard Cereno's ship had led to a reversal of fortunes for its occupants-the slaves were now in full control, the whites reduced to carrying out the blacks' wishes on pain of death. Delano spent the better part of a day aboard the Spanish craft blithely unaware of anything there amiss. Only upon attempting to return to his own ship did Delano gain knowledge of the slave rebellion-after Cereno dove headlong overboard and into Delano's departing boat. In short order, thereafter, Delano's crew retook the Spanish vessel for Cereno and assisted in returning the ship to port. Melville's tale echoes Delano's. Both begin with a central narrative dominated by the events of Delano's day aboard Cereno's ship, Cereno's abandonment of craft, the retaking of the Spanish vessel, followed by legal documents (Delano proffers ten to Melville's one}.3 At this point, Delano condudes his version, while Melville continues briefly with summary remarks. This paper will focus on the two narratives' respective depositional texts because both authors attempt to use the depositions as do historians-to verify and substantiate an historically based narrative. Delano employs the documents to demonstrate that his presentation of events is fair and true, but Melville's case is more complicated. First, the very fact that Melville appropriated the shell of an historical accounting of a slave rebellion implies historiographical intentions (this seems unavoidable in a postmodern world}. That he alters and adds to the tale in no way discredits his version as history any more than does Delano's imperfect recollection of reality (moreover, as will be discussed, Delano also altered the documents). In fact, in so domg Melville attempts what all good history writing does-to interpret the past in order to make sense of the present. Melville even prefaces his depositional text with the claim that "the following extracts ... will, it is hoped, shed light on the preceding narrative, as well as, in the first place reveal the true port of departure and the true history" of events already described. In this paper, my approach will be to examine Delano's use of depositions, followed by a direct selective comparison of Delano's and Melville's depositions including an assessment of the relationship between the documents. 4 Scholars have critically dealt with the depositions in two ways. 5 The first addresses them directly. Max Putzel (1962, 190} charges that Melville included a single deposition at the end of his tale merely for the sake of verisimilitude . David Galloway (1967-68, 252) argues that Melville employs the Mark C. A.. udt'rson I 65 depositions to prompt the reader to "draw back...