Analysis of the Slave Trade and Slave Owner Attitudes in Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and Melville’s “Benito Cereno”
Number of pages:
6
ABSTRACT:
This is a 6 page paper discussing the slave trade and treatment of slaves in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno”. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” show different sides of the slave trade and slave life in the 18th century and colonial America. Although both stories are fictional, they nevertheless accurately reflected the slave situations at the time. Subsequent articles researched on the slave trade have found that largely slave trading was a considered a prosperous commodity in Europe and the colonies and despite the fact that both Stowe and Melville write accounts which show their opposition to slavery, it was considered acceptable in the 18th century. What surprises readers however in Stowe’s account is the cruelty of the slave owners to their slaves, not only on moral grounds but because they basically ruined their financial investments by beating the slaves until they could no longer work or be traded. Additionally, in Melville’s novella, the character of Captain Delano shows the tremendous racism at the time while at the same time allowing his naiveté in the future of the slaves and the slave revolt depict the presumptions and prejudices of the “good American”.
Bibliography lists 6 sources.
FILE NAME:
File: D0_TJUTCab1.rtf
Send Me This Paper
Back to Papers