SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON "BENITO CERENO" 

  Published in 1855-56, based partly on Delano's "Narrative," partly on accounts of the Amistad slave revolt of 1839, depicted in the 1997 Stephen Spielberg film.

  Melville moved date of the incident from the actual Delano's 1805 to 1799, approximate midpoint of the Constitution's 20-year prohibition on Congressional restriction of the import of slaves. And the central date of the 89-day voyage is July 4. (See p. 211 for departure date, 216 for date of meeting Delano's ship.)

Ship names: 

A. American - "Bachelor’s Delight": name of ship of 17th Century British buccaneers Wm. Dampier/ Wm. Cowley, who helped Britain sap Spanish hegemony in the New World by preying on Spanish treasure ships (such as the San Dominick in its prime would have been). 

B. Spanish - "San Dominick"

1. Name of founder of the Dominican order, leading participant in Spanish Inquisition, to which allusion is made in the shaving scene. (Inquisition was originally directed against Manichean sects who believed in the sharp duality of good & evil, with Satan as men's co-ruler. In the story Babo seems to play Satan, inflicting tortures reminiscent of Spanish treatment of American natives as well as slavery and the Inquisition.)

2. Dominicans popularly called "Black friars" - which those on board are said to resemble in Delano's eyes as he approaches it (146).

3. Also the name of island [Santo Domingo] in W. Indies that was site of Columbus' 1st landing (Columbus = original figurehead of San Dominick.) There Columbus introduced slavery to the Western Hemisphere in 1493. (Whereas San Dominick is named after Columbus's landing site, island past which it enters harbor is St. Maria, recalling name of Columbus' ship.) (Columbus established slavery in Santo Domingo at the behest of a BENEDICTINE monk named ST. BARTHOLOMEW; at end of story, Babo’s head looks across square towards CHURCH of St. Bartholomew, in which slaveowner Aranda’s bones were buried.)

4. That island was the scene of fearsome slave rebellions from the 1790's to mid-1800's - discussed even in one of the same issues of monthly magazine in which "Benito Cereno" was first  published.
 

Character names: 

A. "Amasa" - name of original captain as well - in Bible, met bloody death at hands of treacherous Zoab as result of his own trusting nature (2 Samuel 20:9-12). Sounds like "master" in black dialect. Was member of notable American family, ancestor of FDR. 

B. "Benito Cereno" (only 1 of 3 main characters whose name Melville changed from Delano's narrative): means "pallid Benedictine" (name of character in the original narrative was, ironically enough,  "Bonito Sereno" - "Blessed Serenity"! As noted above, monk who encouraged Columbus 2 establish slavery in Santo Domingo WAS a Benedictine.) 

  Parallels between Benito Cereno and the Spanish 16th century Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (referred to at p. 152), subject of an 1855 magazine article on which Melville evidently drew: 

- Like B.C. (152), Charles retired to monastery, renouncing rule.

- Monastery to which Chas. retired was in Pyrenees - and the San Dominick initially looked 2 Delano like "whitewashed monastery in Pyrenees" (146).

- Like B.C., Charles V had to be carried to monastery in a litter.

 Note also that Charles V was active in persecuting heretics as the result of monks' influence. Also during his rule, Spain gained wealth from the New World (represented here by San Dominick's original figurehead, Columbus, p. 215). And Charles was said (in an article from which Melville appears to have drawn) to have delighted in "conversing with Benedictines." (Benedictines were the first monastic order.)

[Note, however: in 1550 Chas. V sponsored debate on slavery with the priest Bartolomew de Las Casas, suspending further conquests in New World until question of the moral status of Indians resolved - though when council of theologians was unable to resolve the issue, conquests continued. Nonetheless, Charles revised regulations to bar slavery and urge kindness towards the natives.]