Herman Melville`s attitude toward the darker races

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6-1-1939
Herman Melville's attitude toward the darker races
Helen Emily Price
Atlanta University
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HERZflT IJIV1ILE’ S ATTITUDE T CIEARD THE DARI:FR RACES
A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLABTA UTIflERSITY
IN PARTIAL FLIFILIJEUT OF THE REUUIRLjZ ABTS ECU
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
BY
HELEN Etif LY FRI CE
DEPART RENT OF ENGLIS Ti
ATLANT 4,
GEORGIA
J1flE 1939
V
P
s1
TABLE OF COITETS
cIAPTER
PAGE
PREFACE
iii
I
TIlE LITERARY TREATLiT OF TIlE D:21lER RACES
II
L1’LVILLE PRD THE NATIVES OP JE PACIFIC
27
iii
IlELVILLE ND TI i:r.o
52
IV
CONCL1JS 10
1
BIBLIOGRAPhY
.
PREFACE
Until very recent years, IierL1an yelville, a novelist of the
nineteenth century, held a very obscure piece in Imerican literature; for,
according to Lewis Iumrnrd, when he died in 1C91, the literary journal cf
the c1ay, The Critic, did not even hiow who he was.
I
Recently, however,
the true worth of Thiville’s works has been discovered end he no longer
m9intins his fomer inconspicuousness; hut instead, accorciinp to most
authorities, he is considered one of the reatest writers of his datr.
As
a result of this rapiuly growing appreciation for end recogniti on of
elville as a novelist, numerous studies have been made durirr the last
decade of varicv.s phases of his art and life.
In a recent study by Villard Thorp, the foflowing statennt
appears:
...Neiville’s hatred of man’s inhumertity
to men oririnrted in the sava!Te thoughts
which coursed tkrourh hic mind as he
explored Launcelott’s Hey and the water
front of the godo—like city in the days
of the Chc’tists.
ith this statement as a starting point, and with the realize.tion that
Jelville is regarded by most authorities as a humanite.rian, the nresent
study is an endeavor to determine whether or riot lelville ‘s humaniterian—
ism led him away from the Areri can concept of the darker races and into
a ire realistic and
nderstending portrayal of choracter.
In order to do this, a thorough study of his novels containing
Ne’-ro and native characters is made, with soeci al care heina taken to
observe his fictional treatment of both races.
‘Lewis Muinford, Herman lville, New York, 1929, Prologue, P. 3.
2
illerd Thorn, Uenipii helville, New York, l9, intro., p. xv.
111
iv
As a backround of this study, a brief statennnt concerning
white supremacy and ‘clack suhjuation is given to show how this social
and historical fact has affected Aiirican literature.
In a&lltion to
this, a very brief review is riven of the Hecro in Iinericon fiction from
about 1840 mtil 1.e1ville’s death, 1291, with the ourpose of makinr a
comparative study of e1vil1e’s creations with those of other nietcen
th
century
rican authors.
Because of the little imnortance attached to !elville1s works
in previous years, the only complete edition of his works is the Con
stable edition; and since this edition was unavailable for this study,
two different compilations of his novels were used in an effort to se
cure those having Ie”ro characters.
The Confi
n—au., hever,
which contains one Ner’ro character, is out of orint and was unaccessihle;
conseQuentl’r, it is not included in this study.
T.elville, published by the Tudor Publishinr
The Romances of Herman
Company, was used for the
longer works; nnely, Tynee, Roby flick, Omoo, Thite Jacket, Redbin,
and Israel Potter.
The Shorter 1ovels of Le1vifle, edited by Raymond M.
Teaver, was used for Benito Cereno.
CHAPTER I.
THE LIrERAY TREAT:JPT Of THE DARHER RACES
One of the most lasting d important conf
licts in the history
of mankind is that between tbe races for suorem
acv; hut, according to
one authority, ‘hite supremacy and black subjufati
on has been accepted
so lon n tho social order that it is no long
er cuestioned and has
1
been accepted as one of tho social mores.
Not only is white supremacy
an inter-racial recognition, hut, as the same auth
ority states, among tI
darker races themselves it is to some extent
an intra—racial recognition;
or it has been foid that, among all darker races
, individuals who have
accuired certain Nordic characteristics, throug
h intermrriare, are rone
to feel that because of their nossession of a few
drops of white blood
2
they are superior to their blacker brother.
Thus, it is true that a a
result of this superior feeling on the part of
the white races tovrcrd the
3arker ones, the darker races have naturally
been subjected to in-rior
3
reatITnt in every aspect of life.
The natives of the South seas, being membe
rs of the darker races,
have been subjected
the sane treatment as any minority poup and
since
they are treted as inferiors in actual life, it
is only natural that they
have been, accordingly, atsigned inferior fictio
nal roles in literatme,
1
Edward Fyron Reuter, The Lulatto in the IJnhted
States, New York, 1938,
pp. 30—85.
2
I}id.
3
Ibid.
2
and have become the literary ubjects of biased, prejudiced authors.1
These natives first became a literary subject in the records
of great discoverers who gave many accounts of their relaonships with
them, manr years before the barbaristic pat hems of the savaes ar red2
men had been drawn by Cooper, Aphra Behn or Voltaire.
But it is im
possible to find anywhere among these discoverers’ records enythirg that
would classify the Christian and native in the se order of natiwe.
At
best, these people have been regarded as “contemptible counterfeits of
God’s image”; and their usual role in literature has been associated with
3
treachery, cruslty and profligacy.
among the authors who wrote on the savage, Montaigne
was prob
ably the first to attach any superior virtues to his
already debauched
picture.
Montalgne did what the discoverers failed to do and
that was
to classify the christian and native in the same order;
he makes the
following conment on them:
may call them barbarous in
re-’ard to reasons rules’, he said,
‘but not in respect to us that ex
ceed them in all kinde of barharisme.
‘
Their warres are noble and generous,
and have as much excuse and beautie, as
this humane irifirmitie may admit: they
ayme at nought so much, and have no
other foundation amongst them, but the
meere jealousy of virtue.’
Raymond iI• Weaver, Herman Melville Mariner and Mystic, New
York, 1921
p. 203.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid., pp. 203, 204.
4
Ibid., buotig.. Lontaigre.
3
Follnwin Lontai’rre was Rousseau, who is noted for his crea
tion of the Hoble Savage.
Roussecu’s savae was attoched to no particu
lar place, obeyed no one, had no other low than his own and was more a
1
oictnre of the paradise of ci’ildhood than a fnir of othnoloy.
Chateaubriand, likewise, virote of natives and savapes; but it
appears thot he was more successful in depicting the beauty and loveli
ness of the courtry than he was in contactir and wr:itir about the in
dividual characteristics of the natives themselves.
His first savae
was pictured under a shed, “bepowdered and befnizzled” takin dancing
2
lessons from a F’rnncL:ar.
Thus it may be seen that the natives of the ouh Decd; have
been subjected to two modes of literary treatment: (1) one of inferiority
and ridicule, and (2) another of sentimentality, which was advanced by
Rousseau in his creation of the “Pebie Savane”.
Poss.bly, both the sentimental treatment of the natives ad
vonced by ?ousseau, and the ini’erior treatrent itiated by other Zro—
pean viriters had a cirect hearinr’ and influence on the sentimental and
inferior treatment of the Her’ro character in .AnLe:icen liter ature; for
both races are members of the uinority roup, and both have suffered the
consequences of race prejudice.
As far as the mtives are concerned,
they have suf.Tered, primarily, at the hands of sea roving, adventurous
European writers; while the 1ero has suffered at the hands of irr.rican
writers, who drew their nrejudices from their own environjnenf and
standardized in literature the caricatures of a folk
iors.
1Thid.
Ibid., p. 205.
as infer
4
Politically, socially and economically, the Iegro in the United
States has been subject to subservient treatnnt from the time of his
en—
1
slavennt in the early seventeenth century until the present era.
It is
only natural, therefore, that in literature, which is the reflection of
any national life, he should he presented in the same inferior
2
manner.
By 1840, the Negro was well established as a character in Airri—
can literature, as a type, unfortunately, rather than as an individual. 3
To the average writer of the nineteenth century, the Negro was meraly a
means of adding verisimilitude to southern society and was chiefly per—
trayed as a faithful servant, or a happy, carefree type with the follow
ing characteristics: (1) irresponsibility, (2) whimsicality, (3) intense
superstition,(lack of resentment, and (5) comicalness.4
Beyond these su
perficial characteristics, the Negro as a human beirg was not Imown; for
5
his discovery as a serious human being was yet unheard of.
And no author
thought of taking his “egro characters seriously.
An example of the Negro character in early nineteenth century
literature may be found in James Fenimore Cooner’s The_Spy.
Caesar Thomp
son, the loyal faithful slave of “Massa Harris”, is described in such a
manner as to present humor and condy, which is typical of this early per
iod:
1
Thomas Nelson Page, The Negro: The Southerners Problem, New York, 1904,
pp. vii—ix, 1—75.
2
Benjamin Brawley, The Her’ro in Literature and Art in the United States,
New York, 1929, p. 2O4.
3
John 11erbert Nelson, The Negro Character in American Literature, Law
rence, Kansas, 1926, p. 7.
4
Ibid., p. 23.
5
Ibid.
5
But it was in his legs that
nature had indulged her most
capricious humor. There was en
abundance of material injudicious—
lv used.
The calves were neither
before nor behind, but rather on,
the ouer side of the limb inclin
ing forward, and so close to the knee
as to render the free use of that
joint a subject of doubt....the leg
was placed so near the center, as to
make it sometimes a matter of dis
pute whether he was not walking back
wards .
Edgar Allen Poe, likewise, makes use of the traditional Negro
character in his works; for Toby in The Journal of Julius Rodn,w
hich
was written in 1840, is also an attempt to produce a coirEdy by ridicul
ing the personal apoearance of the Negro.
Toby is described
...as ugly an old gentleman
as ever spoke, having.., swollen
lips, large white protruding eyes,
flat nose, long ears, duble head,
pot belly end bow legs.
Jupiter in Poe’s The Cold Bug is a typical representation of the
faithful,
loyal slave.3
Although a few authors like Sinims and Cooper attempted to
pre
sent the Negro with a note of sympathy end dignity, serious realism
was
still far off; and the Negro in early nineteenth century literatu
re held
his place chiefly as the fabler, the loyal servant, the buffoo
n, the
loyal devoted, simple, dependent slave, the tragic octoroon or the
noble
1
James Feninore Cooper, The 3py, New York,
2
i.
c1, p. 42.
Quoted in Sterling Brown, The Negro in American Fiction, Washington,
0. C., 1937, p. 11.
3
Edgar Allen Poe, “The Cold Bug” in Tales of Njstery, edited by Ernest
Rhys, London, 1925, pp. 69—101.
6
savage, with few references being made to the rebellious Negro.’
During the period which immediately preceded the Civil ‘ar, the
Negro character in fiction became merely a mahnnism of attack around
which the two opposing parties
cry writers
-
-
the antislavery writers d the proslav—
centered their appeal; and as a result, the Negro, for the
most part, lost his identity as a human bein.2
To the antislavery writ-
ers, whose purpose was, from the beginning,to make a moral appeal,
3
the
Negro became a sentimental, religious, good, faithful servant who was be
ing subjected to the heartless treatment of the brutal southern slave
owners.4
Thus in trying to create a sentimental and pathetic picture to
arouse the sympathy of the public toward the slave, the antislavery writ
er permitted the pendulum of sympathy to sway too far; and instead of in
dividualistic creations, there is once again the stereotype treatment of
5
the Negro.
Probably the first antislavery novel was published in 1836 as
the Slave Lemoirs or Hemoirs of Archy Voore which later became enlarged
as The ‘Thite Slave and was reclaimed by Richard Hildreth, the historian.6
In this novel, for the most part, the Negroes are presented as being
1
Sterling Brown, op. cit., p. 15.
2
John Herbert Nelson, op. cit., p. 73.
3
[illiart B. Hsseltine, A History of the South, (New York, 1956, p. 256.
A.
5
uiilliam Stanley Braithwaite, “The ]legro in American Fiction”, in The
New 1Tero, edited by Alain Locke, New York, 1925, p. 30.
6
Sterling Brcrn, op. cit., p. 32.
7
humble9 faithful end sontirnes sullen, vindictive and cunning.
Although
this was probably the first artislavery novel pi1ished, Harriet Beocher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) was the first novel to awaken end arouse
the interest of the public.1
Harriet Beecher Stowe, being a typical example of the writers
of this period, achieved her purpose of arousing the sympathy of her pub
lic in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; but in doing so she stamped the Negro as a sini—
pie, humble, faithful type, a conception which ls been unequalled in its
2
example
Uncle Torn is
hold upon the popular imapination to this day.
of the faithful humble servant;
3
Topsy is a representation of the comical
character vthose cornicalness bears a note of pathos; while Eliza repre—
4
sents the tragic octoroon group.
Later Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote another novel, Dred, in 1856,
}1,1though lacking the sweep of the earlier work, was nevertheless
received with ample enbhusiasrn.
In this novel, George, the “white
slave”, expresses the desire to be a “good, honest, black nig’er like
Uncle Pomp”.5
Typical of the sentinntal loyal slave of the antislave
period are Old Hundred, the coaehirn, end Tiff, who in their love for
6
Like other writ
their little white charges are similar to Uncle Torn.
ers, Mrs. Stowe was unable to free herself from the bonds of the comic—
1
Ibid.
2
Wil]. lam Stanley Braithwaite, op. cit., p. O.
3
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
n.1j
,
p.
159.
4
Ibid., pp. 255—270.
5
Sterling Brown, op._cit., p. 41,, Quoting Harriet Beeclier Stowe’s Bred.
6
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Bred, Boston and New York, 1896, pp. 24, 28,
29—35.
8
al Negro character, and in Dred, she produced Jim, the clrnvn
is}i house—
servant, who wanted to be free chiefly to be able to have a
wife of his
1
omm.
In 1855 the most gruesome antislavery novel was written
, The
Planter’s Victim, in which the Negroes were pictied as underg
oing unbe—
h.evable torture at the hands of their masters.
The sentinnta1 and pa
thetic character in this story is George, who is so humbl
e and abject
2
that he is artificial.
About 1861, Mrs. M. V. Victor published her Llauin Guinea
s Chil
dren, in which she presents both the loorny and bright side
of slavery,
with the loomy side so overpowering and overshadowing the
happy care—
free side that there is no doubt as to where she stands. 3
Mrs. Victor
does present the rebellious Negro, but usually her rebels
ore found only
in the mixed bloods, while the full blood P1frican Negro assum
es the role
of the docile “Uncle Tom” type.
In general Mrs. Victor’s Neroes are
sur)ersttious, excitable, imaginative, given to exaggeration, easily
frightened, improvident end dependent.5
In 1863 J. T. Trowbridge wrote a stirrirg novel entitled
Cudjo’s Cave in which he relates the conflicts between the confed
erates
in East Tennessee during the early years of the war.
1
Ibid., pp. 175—176, 200.
2
Sterling Brown, op._cit., . 41.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Three Negrees play
9
prominent roles: Toby, the traditional faithful servant; Cudjo, ape—like
in appearence, but cunning, powerful end vindictive; Pomp, the digiiified
1
house slave.
Stories in which the traF”ic octoroon type is presented are:
Clotel or the President’s Daughter written in 1253
by William Wells Brown
2
3
a Negro,
and
ela the Octoroonrritten by H. L. HosnEr.
In the same manner that the antislavery writer used the Negro
as a means of creating sympathy to procure the abolition of slavery, the
proslavery writer used the Negro character as a means of counteracting
the argument presented 5y the antislavery writers and while the plea of
the antislavery writers was on a moral basis, the plea of the proslavery
writer was on a social basis.
Lawyer O’connor, a prominent lawyer in
New York, expresses the average sentiment of the southern writer:
Now Gentlemen, nature itself has
ass ined his condition of servitude
to the Negro.
He has strength and
is fit to work; but nature which
gave him this strength denied him
both the intelligence to rule and
the will to work. Both are denied
him, end the s ame nature while h de
nied him the will to work rave him
a master who should enforce this
will and make a useful servant of
him in a climate to which he is
well adapted.
...I assert that it
is no injustice to leave the negro
in the position into which nature
placed him.4
Therefore, the proslavery writer, in trying to show that the Negro was
1
2
J. Saunders Redding:
3
,
To liakeaPoet Black, Chapel Hill, 1939, p. 25.
-
Sterling Brown, op._cit., p. 41.
4
William Edward Burhardt DuBois, Black Reconstruction, New York, 1935, p. 52.
10
naturally ignorartt and lazy, and that he was contented and happy in his
state of benevolent servitude, produced t1 jolly carefree, clownish type
of Negro.1
They glorified the picturesque beauty of the southern planta
tion and centered their novels around this familiar setting:
The old plantation; a great mansion;
exquisitely gowned ladies and courtly
gentlexn moving with easy grace upon
the broad veranda behind stalwart columns;
surrounding the yard an almost illimitable
stretch of white cotton; darkies singingly
at work in the fields; Nero quarters, off
on one side, around whch little pickaninnies
twnbled in gay frolic.
In addition to this, the pro slavery writers played up very viv
idly the dependent simple Negro in order to convinoe the public that the
negro was incapable of maintaining an independent livelihood, and that }
was in dire need of succor from the white race.
Throughout Thomas
Nelson Page book,
eout:er Prohlem,reference is made
3
to the irresponsibility and shiftlessness of the Negro.
J. B. Kennedy’s Swallow Earn, which appeared in 1832, was the
first of these pro slavery writings; and it is a typical representation of
the literature of this faction, in that it emphasized the ‘egro’s in
capability of caring for himself, and in addition, showed how the benevo
lent institution of slavery aided him in his transitional period from
savagery to ristendom.4 Little ton, a northerner, visits the South to
1
2
3
Sterling Brown, op._cit., p. 17.
Thomas Nelson Page, on. cit.
4
Sterling Brown, op.
cit., p. 18.
11
see just what slavery was like; but on seeing it, instead of being utter
ly and sorely disgusted, as he thought he would be, he was very much
1
Kinedy also puts the then
pleased and praised the entire institution.
of his books concerning the Negro into the moulhs of his southern white
aristocratswho admit that they have no love for the ins titut ion of slav
ery itself, but that they approve it, because it is a benefactor of the
Iegro race.
One of his aristocrats says:
am quite sure they could never
become a happier people than I find
them here.... No tribe of people have
ever passed from barbarism to civilization
whose progress has been more secure
from harm, more genial t their charac
ter, or better supplied.
Conforming to the typical proslavery setting, the Negro children are pic
tured lolling on the cabin floor, basking in the sun; while the old Ne
groes were merrily singing at their tasks.3
Although not a very pood example of the proslavery writers,
T. H. Haliburton voices the general theme of the proslavery writers
when he permits. ain Slick, a comic character in Yankee Soldiers, to say
that he objects to enslaving white nn for debts, hu
...those thick—skulled crooked shanked,
flat—footed, long heeled, woolly headed
gentlemen d.o’t seem fit for much else
but slavery.
Typical also of these sent inntal romantic proslavery writers
Soubhworth, all of whose characters are the happy—
is Mrs. E. 13. E.
1
Ibid., p. 19.
2
Ibid., quoting J. B. kennedy, Swallow Barn,
3
Ibid. .2Oe;
S
4
Ibid.,
quotrr
T
li. Halibi.rfoit,
r’cc
Eoldier
12
go—lucky type, with the exception of Henry o Retribution (1849)
,
who
suffers because of the jealousy of a young mistress. 1
Following the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in
1852, aboub
fourteen
vroslavery
novels and numerous nariphiots rose up to refute
the
antislavery representation of slavery as given by Harrie
t Beecher Stowe.
Most striking, however, was W. L. G. Smith’s Life At
the Southor Uncle
Tom’s Cabin As it is which was a direct blow at Harriet
Beecher Stow&s
2
Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
In this novel, Uncle Tom, in addition to being
jeal
ous of certain favoritisms shown Hector by his master, is
primarily jaal—
ous of Hector’s youth and strength and allows himself to
be persuaded by
the tempting plea of en abolitionist to make his escape
into free land.
Alter running away to Canada and Buffalo and witnessing the
suffering of
the Negroes, he concluded that the Negroes in southern
servitude were
better off then the Wretched freedmen of the north.
Disappointed end dis
illusioned, poor old Uncle Tom turns nleadingly to his old
master end begs
to be returned home.
Mrs. Eastman’s greatest contribution to the cause f or
which the
proslavery writers fought was Phyliss, in which the typical
glorified
oubh is pictured; end Aunt Phyliss is one of the first
black mesnmies,
while Bacchus represents the customary happy—o-lucky type
of Negro char—
4
acter which is peculiar to the proslavery writers creatio
ns.
He will seize the smallest excuse
for getting drunk, he is naturally
happy—go—lucky end carefree; he is
most dignified after receiving a new
lot of his masters cast off clothes;
1
2
3
4
John Herbert Nelson, on._cit., p. 29.
Ibid., p. 22.
John Herbert Nelson, op. cit.,
p. 91.
13
when dressed gaudily he can pray or
speak in church with the greatest
unction; he is master at making
excuses and begging for favors;
He is musical to a fault and plays
the banjo as only a Negro can. He
thinks his master the greatest man
in
ithing.1
In John i. Fage’s Uncle Robin, which was published in 1853, the
leading Nevro character, Uncle Robin, is portrayed as a hapoy, carefree
Negro; d when lie is qstioned concerning slavery he says:
Massar, I tell you de p lair
truth when I say yes
I should rather be slave tLrn freej
i)is sir, is no country for free flack
men: Afrca de only place Cf twj
he, sir.
So happy, carefree and contented with his present state is this Negro
character that lie reprimands the vindictive dissatisfied Negro and suggests
that he return to the wilds of Africa where he can have his savage-like
freedom.
Mrs.
caroline Lee Hentz, who was a northerner married to a
Southerner, oroduced some very stirring novels and especially in Linda
does she lorify the Black iEa.mmy:
Aunt Judy’s African blood has not
been corrupted by the base mingling
of a paler strain; Black as ebony
was her smooth shining skin on
which the dazzling ivory of her
teeth3threw gleams bright as the
moon.
In Mrs. Hentz’s novel, The Planters Northern_Bride, published in 1854,
the northern bride comes down South expecting to be the eyewitness of a
pathetic situation; but instead she is won over by the congeniality of
1
Ibid., quoting Mrs. Ti.H.Eastman’s, Phyliss.
2
Sterling Brown, op. cit., o. 25, quoting JohnW. Page, Uncle_Robin.
3
Ibid., quoting Caroline Lee Nt Linda.
14
the slaves who make her the recinient of love and admiration; and in her
praise of slavery she says:
I never dreard
Oh my liusbandl
that slavery could present an
aspect as tender and affectionate.
Happy over her change of opinion, her husband readily assures her that he
is not half as good to his slaves,as the majority of slaveholders are.
His slaves are presented as being robust, unusually “fat”, “sleek” and
tIoodnatiredll; and on Sunday they are fashionahl attired in the cast-off
finery of their master and mistress.
Crissy, one
‘
Mr. Hentz’s slaves,
is persuaded by the abolitionists to runaway, and, like all Negro char
acters who were persuaded by the abolitionists to make their escape,
Crissy sees only the wretchedness and miserableness of the freedman, and
bers to be returned to the home of hr ood “rnas’r” and mistress doirn
South.2
In Mrs. M. J. McIntosh’s novel, The Lofty and the Lowly or Good
in All and None All Good (1854), Mrs. Cato’s faithful slave, who has been
freed end sent to the North, remains loyal to the South and its cause and
becomes highly insulted mhen a Northern abolitionist speaks degradingly
of slavery and offers him succor in shaking off the shackles of this in
human institution.
Make me free how can I free
any more? Den da nonsense,
People, and what dem want take
me from Miss Alice for?...
I wonder if I ben sick and
couldn’t do anyting, ef den would
nuss me and take care o’ me
liken Miss Alice... I tink den
crazy ‘bout free. Free bery good
1
Ibid., cuoting Caroline Lee Hentz, The Planter’s Northern Bride.
2
Ibid., p. 25.
15
ting, but free ent all; when you
sick, free won’t make you well,
free won’t gib ou cia’s, no hom’ny,
let ‘lone meat.
All of Miss Alice’s slaves are pictured bein
g contented and hanoy like
2
this faithful Megro.
Following in the trend of previous proslaver
y creations, Moses,
the Negro character in the Yankee Slave Deal
er refuses to be swayed by the
abolitionist because his religion would not
permit him to do such an un
gracious deed to his master.
In reply to Justus, Moses says:
Well, heah’s sm1pn’ else, mastuh:
we read in the book of Leviticus
dat de childin of Isr’l was told dey
should buy slaves, I marked de place
and I’ll jes read it to you, doe I
s’pose you’s seed it many a time.
It’s in de twenty—f if’ chapcr, de
forty—fif’ and sixt’ verse.’
Thus it is easily seen that the proslaver
y writers, frightened
by the in
terest taken in Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
immediately began work
to counteract any pronaganda that the antis
lavery writers might have es
tablished.
In doing so they created an ideal UtoniR
n Southpictring the
contented, clrniiish, childish, shiftless,happ
y slaves merrily performin
their li”ht tasks and expressing their disli
ke for those troublesome abo
litionists, who wanted to take them away from
their masters and mistresses.
The relations between masters d slave were
pictured as being ideal.
proslavery writer maintains the stereotyp
e Negro
-
The
the contented slavethe
1
ii., quoting Mrs. M. J. McIntosh, The Lofty and
the Lowly or Good in
All and None All Good.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid., p. 27, quoting Mrs. . J. McIntosh,
Yankee_Slave Dealer.
—
16
clown and the wretched freedman.1
3oth the aneislavery writers and the proslavery writers were
guilty of ignoring the Repro’s real characteristics, the latter more than
the former.
In their hands, the 1egro characters wore merely dressed up
white men with the words of the two opposing factors thrust into their
2
mounths.
However, it cannot be denied that the antislavery writer rec
ognized the human qualities of the Negro more than the proslavery writer;
and evidence of this may be seen in the treatment of grief—stricken moth
ers whose children were snatched from their bosoms and sold before their
eyes.
They were not grief—stricken because of any racial characteristic,
but because it was human.
VTith the exception of this one quality on the
part of the antislavery writers, the two factions were on equal basis as
3
far as the ttypett treatment of the Rep’ro is concerned.
Follàwing the antebellum stereotype literature, the reconstruc
tion period brought about very little change, if any, in the portrayal
of the Nep-ro as a literary figure; it was more or less a continuation of
the roceding period with special emphasis being placed on the
ly happy Negro of the proslavery writer creation.
period, with its two opposing writers
slavery writers
——
—-
4
childish—
Like the preceding
the proslavery writers and anti
the reconstruction period, likewise, produced two dis
tinct types of writers: (1) those who glorified the good old days, and
(2) those who did not.
Those who glorified the Sonth were merely the
posterity of the antebellum pm slavery writers, who realized that the
cause for vhich their ancestors had fought had been lost, and that the
reconstruction era was the opportune time to reemphasize the childish,
1
Ibid., p. 22.
2
3
Ibid.
4iilliam Stanley Braithwaite, op. cit., p. 31.
17
hanpy—go—lucky Negro, who was unable to adjust himself to his new environrient and who was continually reflecting on the good old days.
1
Probably the most rsuasive writer in creating a golden glow
2
over the antebellum South was Thomas Nelson Page, whose Negro characters
were the traditional devoted type of slaves, who felt that no risk was too
3
great to take to render service to their masters.
In Ole Virrinia is a typical representation of the types of
novels presented during the reconstruction era; and of this volume, the
three best lmown stories are “arse Chanu, 11eh Lady” and “Unc’ Ddinburs
Dronin’”.
These stories begin in the usual way with a garrulous old Ne
gro praising the good old days, giving a picturesque setting of handsome
men and lovely ladies, with special emphasis being placed on the close re—
4
liarse Chan, the kind mas
lationship existinp between slave and master.
ter, loves his slave so dearly that he loses his
rescue him from a fire.5
sight in an effort to
Unc’ Edingbug’s master saves him from drovm—
ing; while at the same time, he risks his owi life.6
Uncle Billy savs
his master from the brutal attacks of the Yankees d even supports him
after the war.
7
Sam, one of the ‘ep’ro characters, says:
(Dem wuz good ole tines, marster,
Dey vmz in
de bes’ Sam ever see
fac’l T’iers didn’ lied nothin’ ‘tall
B
to do--- ... Dyar warn’ no trouble nor nothin’.
——
1
Sterling Brom’m, op._cit., p. 49.
2
Ibid., p. 51.
4
Thomas ielson Page, In Ole Virginia, New York, 1927, pp. 39—130.
5
Thomas Nelson Page, “Narse Chan”, Ibid., pp. 13—14.
6
Thomas Nelson Page, “Unc’ Edinburg’s Drovmdin”, Ibid., p. 40.
7
Thomas Nelson Page, “eh Lady”, Ibid., pp. 90—03.
8
Ibid., p. 10.
16
Uncle Edinburg s a’rs:
Christmas den, sho’ ‘nough’,
he added, the fires of memory smoulder—
ing, end then, as they blazed into
sudden flame, he asserted, positively:
‘Dese Fech free—issue riggers don’ 1ow
what Christmas is.1
••t
tTj
Uncle Billy says:
I w’uz settin’ in de dot vid
meh pipe, an’ I beak meh kerridge—
horses stompin’ in de stalls, ant
de place all cleared up ag’in, en’
fence all Tour’ de pahsture, an’
I smell de wet clover—blossoms
right good, an’ marse Ph1 and nh
Lady done come back
The maimer in which Page regarded the Negro may be determined by his re
action to a rehellinus,candid I’egro infloHaidPamn, who lacked the
usual docile, amiable, superstitious traits usually attributed to the
Negro.
Page says of him: “Ne was the most brutal Legro I ever saw.3
Negroes who are despisers of Lorthern interlopers id who are contented
and docile, Page treats sympathetically; but any Negro who openly re
bels against his servitude end in any way reacts to his enslaveirent as
any other human being in the clutches of slavery, Page, immediately, pro—
claims to be the most inhuman Ne’ro that he has ever seen.
Such abject,
humble Neroes as Lemmy Kendra, Waverley, Tarquin, and Jerry, who openly
express their antipathy for the abolitionists, are good Legroes accord—
that
irr- to Page’s estimation; vthile Moses, a mulatto, who openly states
inten—
he is equally as good as a white pa rson and further expresses his
to wait up—
tention of marrying a white girl and having the white people
1
2
Thomas Nelson Page, “Uno’ Edinhurg’s Drowndin’”, Ibid., p. 40.
Thomas Nelson Page, “iZeli Lady”, Ibid, p. 138.
3
Thomas 1elson Page, “No ilaid Pawr”, Ibid.
19
on him is likened unto a “hverB in a cage”, “a reptile”, a species of
worn” and a “wild beast”.1
To further impress the public with the ri sk
that they are teking in allowing a Negro, who is nothing more than a re
bellious Sftvage, remain in their midst, he makes this insolent Negro
attempt to assault the heroines of the play, knowing that Southern socie
ty mill gasp in horror at the very thought of sucl a thir2
According to Vi11iam Stanley Lraithwaite, the first writer to
humanize the egro character was Joel Chandler Harris, who as a boy was
shy end timid and found more happiness in the humble
at home.
quarters than
During these escapades, he met Uncle Terrel, the ori”iral Uncle
Remus, end around this venerable, pampered Negro who was cifted with a
poetical and philosophizing speech, Joel Uhandler harris created one of
the best characters in Jrican literature.
However, it must he borne in
mind that Harris was not so much a creator as a reproducer, for the Ne—
gro was his own artist, but he lacked the learning to record these tales.
Although Joel Chandler arris did present a few varied types of
Negro character,the devoted slave tyme was still predominant over the
rebellious; end although his vrks do not contain as much propaganda as
some of his contemporaries’,4 there are still traces of it to be found
scattered throuh his works and esecially his later ones.
In his later
presentation of Uncle Remus, the old Negro was used as a mou’hpiece to
express the Southern attitude toward the Neex, making him lonify and
praise the South, admire the iite folk, end condemn education for
5
groes.
On one occasion, Uncle Remus chanced to meet a young Negro 1y
1Sterling Brown, op. cit., p. 52.
2lhid.
illiam Stanley Braithwaite, op. cit.,
Benjemin Brawley, op. cit., p. 184.
p.
32.
5Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, New ork, 1925,
pp. 255—257.
3
20
coming from school with his books under his arms, and the two became en—
gaged in a heated argunnt.
fter the boy had gone, the policeman asked
Uncle Remus whether or not he was a supporter of Negro education, and he
replied
...Dey better be home picking
J’at a rtirer givineter
up chips.
outen
books? I kin take a
l’arn
barti stave and fling nio’ sense
inter a nig:er in one minnit den
all de schoolhouses betwixt dis en
de state er Midn’ipin. Don’t talk
honevl Wid one bar’l stave I kn
fa’rly hf’ de vail er inunse.
Later during the same conversation, Uncle Remus says:
ITrits de ruinashun or dis country.
De ole ‘oman sont
Look at my gal.
las’
year, an’ now
ter
school
‘aT
‘er for ter
ak
das
hardly
sent
we
Put a
washin’
borne....
kyar de
han’s,
nigrer’s
in
a
spehhin’—book
you
loozes
en right den2en dar’
a plow—hand.
Harris’ faithful, loyal ‘eroes are Aunt Fountain, Lingo and
Pal aem,
In the story Aunt Fountains Fri sone r, the old aunt saves a
Yankee and maneuvers his love affair with a Soubhern girl.
Lange is the
story of a slave of unbelievable humility, who is described as being “a
-
cut above” the 1egroes who rebelled end sought their freedom;
3
while in
Balaam and His Master, Balaam, the faithful servant, rendered assistance
to his master in tavery brawls and even dug into his cell to be with him
4
in imprisonment.
7
Inanias,
another devoted slave, whose master had bern
hid., pp. 255—256.
256.
.
3Sterhing Brown, ou. cit., p. 55.
lbid.
21
ruined financially by the war, remains loyal end true to him until the
end.
Although it cannot be denied that Joel Chandler Harris did por
tray more than the usual comical or faithful, devoted Negro; end although
Free Joe end Mom Bi, found in the two stories bearing the same titles as
these two characters, were rebellious, candid and outspoken, the fact re
mains that Harris was a Southerner, and no matter how he might try to
Eresent an unbiased picture of the ‘egro, he was subjected to his own
Thus, one finds him clinging to the stereotype,
prejudiced environnnt.
2
iaithful devoted slave.
mong the minor contemporaries of harris who glorified the ante
bellum Negro, F. Hopkinson Smith’s Chad in Colonel Carter of Cartersville
(1891) James Lane A1l’s Peter Cotton in Two Gentlemen of Kentucky,4the
loyal 11er’ro women in King Solomon (1691); and Llaurice Thompson’s Negroes
5
are all continuations of the feithfu], loyal, devoted, comical character,
Thus one may see that the iegro in American literature re
mained unchanged in his portrayal, during hellville’s life.
By these
antebellum glorifiers, he was used merely as a nens of vivifying their
novels, and was still treated as a loyal, devoted servant who clearly
loved his master or as a childishly hpy, simple, comical type who was
6
too happy to rebel against his servitude.
‘Ibid.
2Ihid., p. 57.
3Ernest Erin Leisy, Mierican Literature, New York, 1929, p. 186.
4Sterling Brown, on. cit., p. 60.
p. 62.
6
Ibid., p. 62.
22
As Page was the most persuasive of the antebellum glorifiers
in casting a golden glow over the South, so were George ‘‘Iashington Cable
1
and yark Twain the most persuasive anti—antebellum glorifiers.
Realiz
ing that the oublic was rapidly accenting the philosophy of the prejudiced
proslavery writers, who presented only the optimistic side of the slave’s
life, these writers began emphasizing both sides.
In their works which
treat of slavery and the “egro, the legro definitely becomes more human
ized, even though they still portray some of his previously assigned
2
In Cable’s
characteristics.
:i; (isso) Clemence, an old ig
norant, superstitious woman, who is about to be hung for participating in
an insurrection, says:
‘You mus’n’ b’lieve all disyeah
nonsense ‘bout insurrectionin’;
all fool nia talk. W’at we
want to be insurrectionin Law? e
de happies’ people in de God’s
wor]iI’
Yet desiite her ignorance and superstitions, Clemence was not afraid to
say what she thourht even in the face of death; for even when they had her
in the woods and were preparing to hang her, she says:
...Ah no, mawsteh, you
do dat It’s ag’in’ de
laws I’s ‘bleeged to have
my trial ylt. Oh, no,nol
Oh, good God, no Even if
I is a nigP’a You cyan’ jes’
murdeh me hyeh in de woods I
No dis la sizel
I tell de
judge on youl You am’ got
no no biznis to do me so ‘an
if I was a white ‘omen I You
dasent tek a white ‘oman out’n
dePa’sh Prisi’n an’ do
aol
ran
1
Ibid., p. 63—64.
2
Ibid.
3George ashington Cable, The Grandissimes, New York, 1926, p. 426.
23
Still another rebel1ir Nearo in this same novel of Cable’s was
Bras—Coupe, a huge Nearo who was fornr1y the king of the jaloff.
Bras
openly expresses his natural antipathy for the white man and refuses to
1
do any work, and when forced to do so he strikes his master.
Like Grace
King, Cable spends much of his time in showing the sad and uithaopy state
2
of the octoroon, whom he dislikes.
Cable, therefore, is more noted for
his tragic mulatto stereotype; but despite this fault, he is still con
sidered the most outstanding creator of Negro character in the nineteenth
century.
3
Nark Twain, like Cable, was of Soulhern birth, though he openly
declared that he was not swayed 5y the local social prejudices of his day.
In Huckleberry_Finn (lS84), Twain treats Jim in much the sane manner that
he treats his other characters, with one exception and that is he makes
him highly superstitious.
Throughout the journey he blamed whatever mis
fortune befell them on a snake skin that they had encountered on the way.4
Rebellious and resentful toward being sold down the River, Jim runs away
front his Mistress Watson and with the aid of Ituck, he makes his escape to
Cairo.
5
Although Jim possessed his share of the Nepro’s superstitious
ness, he was not the simple, happy—go—lucky, abject type who was satis
fied with his servitude; he was ambitious end rebellious and always clung
to a hope of freedom.
1
6
Ibid., pt. 219—259.
2lbid., pp. 1-427.
3Sterling Brown, on. cit.., p. 67.
4ark Twain, huckleberry Finn, New York, 1912, p. 129.
5.,
c., pp. 19, 190, 294.
6lhid.
24
In later year northern
writers
as well as Southern writers
turned their attention toward the Negro as a literary ficure; but for the
most part, they had seen nothing of the South and were irnorent of the
exact situation; hence, their presentations of Negro characters were
chiefly reproductions of the works of urejudiced Southern writers, and
i
especially of the oroslavery ones.
Contrary to the usual secondary renroductions of northern
writers were the works of Tourgee, who fought in the Civil War on the
Union side and actually obsered the status of the Negro; consequently,
when he returned home he tried to present as real a picture of the South
In doing so, he
as possible, giving due consideration to both sides.
did not make the Ne’ro the simple, childish deoendent type that both his
contemporaries had done; instead he pictured Negroes who had the ability
2
for
reason
themselves.
to think ar to
Jerry, a Negro character in AFool Errand, is a true repre
sentative of Tourgèe’s creations.
Ho was religious, like most slaves,
end devoted to his master; but his devotion was not so much the usual
abject loyalty of slave to master, as it was his gratitude for and appre—
ciation of his master’s plea for the slaves freedom.
3
Vdien the white
people were ridiculing Jerry’s religion, he couraeously td frankly re
plies:
Pin’ when you all laughs at us,
we can’ help tinkin’ dat we mout
a done better if we hadn’t been
kop slaves all our lives by you uns.
1
2Thid., p. 72.
3Ihid., p. 73.
4lhid., quoting Altion Tourgee’ s A Fool’s Errand.
25
In Bricks Without Straw (1880), Tourgee almost goes the limit
in refuting previous conceptions of the Negro.
Nimbus, the outstanding
Neiro character though ignorant, is courageous, industrious and thrifty.
Because of his good managennt, he is able to maintain a livelihood far
suoerior to the whites of his community; and he becomes the object of
hate and envy in the sight of the less fortunate whites.1
Not only does
he maintain a sunerior financial status, but he openly declares that his
wife shall work for no one without recompense.
Jealous and defiant of
his candidness, as well as his prosperity, the whites attempt to frighten
him away by having the Klu Klu. Klan pay him several visits; however,
Nimbus, with the aid of his wife, outwits them but finally decides to
leave this community for his own safekeeping.2
Thiring the latter half of the nineteenth century Negroes them
selves began to take up the pen in behalf of their race; but, unfortunate—
ly, most of them feared the rising poor whites; therefore, they idealized
the ex—planter class and treated the Negro character in the usual maimer.
3
Thus, in sunining up the discussion of the Iegro in irrican
Literature from about 1840 up to 1891, one sees that the 1egro has made
very little progress tard attaining humanized treatnmnt.
part, he has been. merely.
author’s will.
For the most
a portion of the scenery to be shifted at the
In early colonial literature, he was used merely as a
means of adding verisimilitude to Southern society; in antebeihun lit
erature he became the mouthpiece through which the two opposing writers—
the antislavery and proslavery
—
made their arguments more effective.
In reality; he was no longer a ‘egro, but a white man attired in a Ne
gro’s outvrard apparel, with his traditional characteristics thrown in to
W. Tourgee, Bricks Without Straw, New 1ork, 1880,
Ibid., pp. 255, 273, 2E31.
3J. saunders Redding, o.cit., p. 25.
48—49, 50, 54.
26
give life and zest.
To the writers of the reconstructive era, he was
still the mouthpiece of two opposing writers
-
he antebellum glorifiers,
and those who were not2with hiS traditional characteristics of irrespon
sibility, carefreeness, profoimd happiness, humbleness, simpleness end
intensely religious thrown in.
However, it cannot be denied that the
latter group of writers came nearer toward individualizing the Negro than
any.
Frequently, many of their authors varied their characters from the
abject, obsequious Negro, end developed the rebellious Negro with hun
ideas.
Yet, despite these certain slight variations made by Joel
Chandler Harris, George Washington Cable, Lark Twain end Tourgee in their
Negro characters, most of their Negro creations maintain the sne stereo
type characteristics that had been assigned earlier to the Negro by such
writers as Cooper, Poe, Stowe and Page, and the Negro maintained his
sition in literature as a type rather than as a human being.
po
CHAPTER II.
MhI’ILLE AUD TBE HTIVES OF THE PACIFIC
Eciville was, unc7oubtedly, the first literarr artist to write
1arely from first—Land exoerience on the South Sea natives.
Uurina
his day and time, it was an unusual feat for a man to leave tis confort—
able home to penetrate the heart of Polesia.
Few men did; and those
few who did teie such an adventure merely touched the surfaces, and
never oenetrated the heart as nlvil1e; and as a result, a continuous
flow of renorts come hack to the white m an s country p-i orifyinp- the
accoranlishments of Ciristian missionaries and givinp- a hideous nietnre
of heathendori;
::hile, on the other hand, Uelville actually lived vth
these pnnie, enjoyed their hospitality, and in many cases shared in
their festivities.
Haturaily, his reoorts were, for the most part, the
2
results of actual observations.
Since
clville had been held captive in Typee Valley, and had
been the ‘—w3.tress of some of its most hideous festivals, he would
have been r’ly justified in falhinp- in line with his precursors and
contemporaries who built up a biased picture of the nativa
and who pre
sented only the darhr side of his character; but instead of doinp- so
Recent investi-ations have shown that not all of elville’s reports on
the South Sea islands were taken wholly from his own observations, hut
that many were reeroductions of sea stories related by other adventur
ers.
See Thomas Russel, “Yarn for ‘eiviile’s
Philolo’”cal
H1 cr1 ,
v( J rr , 1
op
il7’s Use 01 o’ orae
,
“,
: I He
1 cor
Liti ature, III, (Jai unrr, lS 2), pp 452—
456
cu
lie’s Fenito Opreno and Cata;r
Delano’s ovaes”, Publ;cnt;ors of odern I ‘nu
ocati rn’ 1111,
(June, 1922), P?.
2
Ra!ioml U. eavor,
205.
., p.
)
•
27
28
he made a comolete investigation of every phase of their lives and re
ported what he s an.
Probably, one of the most important phases of the social life
of the natives was their religious life, which i’elvil1e accurately por—
trays.
tian.
Their religion consists of two distinct parts— Dagan end Chris
Unlike st writers, Melville observed their idolatrous
rites just
as carefully as their Christian viorshio, seeing both ‘iath the sne un
He admits that many of their pagan religious ceremonies
prejudiced eye.
were with—held from him; and out of respect for mid appreciab ion of their
reverence of his religion, he did not pry into theirs:
islanders always maintained
• . ,As the
a discreet reserve with regard to my
own peculiar views on reliion, I
thought it would he excessively ill—
bred in n to pry into theirs.
However, he was greatly impressed by one of their pagan beliefs mid gave
an accurate account of it.
Ho described how the effigy of a dead warrior
had been placed in a canoe and statioid in a secluded section of the
valley, as symbolic of a warrior taking his journey to the inikciovn.
Rn
Melville ciuestioned Hory—Kory, his faithful servant, on the meaninp, Kory—
Kory replied:
...the chief was naddling his way to
the realms of bliss, and breadfruit—the Polmesian heaven——where every
moment the breadfruit trees dropued
their ripened spheres to the ground,
and where there was no end to the coco
nuts and bananas; there they reposed
through the livelong eternity upon mats
much finer than those of Typee; and every
day bathed the ir2glowing limbs in rivers
of coca—nut oil.
1llerman Ii!elville, “Typeett, Romances of Herman ielville, iTew ork, Tudor
Publishing Company, 1931, p. 122. For this study the smne edition was
used for Iari, uoo, 1 bite Jacket, Redbin n ,
Israel potter end oh
p. 123.
29
As crude and uncivilized as this sym’r’ol may have appeared to most specta
tors, it held a certain charm and enpeal that demanded respect; and in
stead of laughing at their simple papan atbempts to symbolize man and
the hereafter, elville observed it with reverent, sympathetic compreIn
sion.
For he says himself that he never passed this spot withoub paying
a silent tribute to this dead warrior and saying:
...‘God speed, and a pleasant voyage’
Aye, paddle away, brave chieftain, to
the land of spiritsl To the material eye
thou makest but little progress; but with
the eye of faith, I see thy canoe ole av—
ing the bright waves, which die away on1
those dimly looming shores of paradise.
Although Melville never learned completely the exact signifi
cance of the feast of the calabash, he concluded that it was principally,
2
if not wholly, of a religious character.
In the description of this
festival, Melville related how the natives had been made the victims of
numerous lies told
51r
so—called explorers.
From their reports, one
would ordinarily believe that human bodies were offered as burnt sacri
fices to their gods, and that the ruling body of their pagan church con
sisted of so many bishops, primates, archdeacons, prebendiir±s
and oth
er inferior ecclesiastics that the poor natives were more priest—riddan
than the inhabitants of the papal state.
3
These reports were, moreover,
those obtained not by first-hand experience, but from hearsay, as ll
yule says:
...The fact is, that ti-re is a vast deal of
unintentional hmthury in some of the
accounts we have from scientific men concern
ing the relirious institutions of folynesia.
Ibid.
2Ibid., p. 120.
Ibid., p. 121.
30
These learned tourists generally obtain
the greater part of their information
from the retired old SoixIi Sea rovers,
who have domesticated themselves amo
the barbarous tribes of the Pacific.’
In addition to this, yelville explained how these
retired
tars
sought to cain ponularity n the eyes of scientific men by repeeting
hid—
eos
arns of the savages’ barbarit:.
yenv of the stories told hr these
seamen were untrue, end were told priily for the sake of arousing the
interest of their sitors.
Thinking that they had he-d the truth, and
believing that it was unnecessary for them to further risk their lives
inong these blood—thirsty cannibals by lingering longer in the wilder
ness, these scientific men jotted down a few hanhazard notes end retuned
to their countries to boast of their contact with the natives.
Contra—
dictory to the majority of accusations rde by these men, idelville states:
Jow, all I can say is, that in all my ex
cursions throwh the valley of Typee, I never
saw any of these alleed enormities.
If any
of them are practiced upon the arquesas
Islands they must certainly have come to my
knowledge while living for months with a
tribe of savages, wholly unchanged from their
oni’inal primitive condition, end reputed the
most ferocious in the Soubh Seas.2
Pfter having made several futile attempts to satisfy his curl
osity on the theology and religion of the valley, helville concled that
he was baffled.
Either these people were too lazy or too sensible to
;iaste time tr’-ing to solve the abstract points of rnligion,or else they
rere unconcerned; hub ho did discover that religious toleration was in
3
order.
1
Ibid.
2
7Ihic1.
—
Ibid., p. 126.
31
Frequently lelville saw these people become impatient with
their wooden idols, eid in their anger or disgust, they would kick theni
7
Reliion to them was tjust another taboo.
over or use them for fuel.
HavinF seen the pagan side, elville then tuiiedto observe the
savares who had beon C-hristianized.
One of the first thns that dis
appointed him was the aloof manner in which the missionaries held them
selves, not only from the natives hut from any forlorn hiunan being with
As illustration of this breach existing be
whom they came in contact.
tween the natives and the
missionaries,
Telvi1le describes a typical
Tahitian evening:
Of a fine evening in Tahiti
hu.t they are all fine evenings
you may see a bevy of
there
silk bonnets and oarasols pass—
ing alor the 1room Roaa 1cr
bend of pale, little h’te r
haps
and,
sickly exotics
urchins
oftener still, sedate, elderly
gentlewen, with canes; at whose
appearance the natives, here nd
there, slink into their huts.’
--
-—
——
——
al
Later, Lelville relates how, on one occasion, the missionar5es becairte
most hysterical when he, a lowly
their station in life,
il
whom they considered beneath
reeted them with apleasent good-cvenrp.
‘Good—evening, ladies’, exclaimed I,
at last, advancing winningly; ‘a delight
ful air from the sea, ladies.1
ThTsteries and hartshonil who would
The yoimg lady screened,
have thought it?
near fainting. As
caie
one
old
the
and
for myself, I retreated, in double quick
time; and scarcely drew breth ‘nitil safe
ly housed in the calabooza.
‘Ibid.
2
“Omoo”, op. cit., p. 23.
3
Ibid.
V
32
According to
elville, every effort was made to keep the natives
and the missionaries seoarated in social activities.
Even in schools
the naUves were segregated from the children of the missionaries to pre
vent the white children from beinv morally contsjunated with the wicked
little savages:
...the two races are kept as far
as possible from associating; the
avowed reason beir.g, to preserve
the young whites from moral con—
tanination. The better to insure
this end, every effort is made to
prevent them from acquiring the
native languwre.
They went even further at the
Sandwich Islends; where, a few years
ago, a playground for the children
of the missionaries was enclosed
with a fence many feet high, the
more effectually to exclude the
wicked little Fawaiians.1
elville points out that if the natives were uilty of any iimnoralities
such as the missionaries had accused them of, it was due, primarily, to
their contact with the white man’s civilization:
•..Alas for the poor savages when
exposed to the inflince of these
polluting examoles Unsophisticated
and confiding, they are easily led
into every vice, and humanity weeps
over the ruin thus remorselessly
inflicted unon them by European civilizers.
Thrice happy are they tho, inhabiting some
yet undiscovered island in the midst of
the ocean, have never been brought into
contaminating contact with the white men.’
1
1hid., p. 295.
2
Jintro. piccviii See
Cf. illard Thorp, Herman elville, New Yoik,
also Robert S. Forsytho,”Pook heview of Charles N. -Anderson’s Nelville
in the South Seas” Americanhiterature, XI,(Uarch, l93, p. 85.
T’rno op. cit., p. 19.
33
Yet these missionaries, whose duty it was to enlighten these people and
ous of
to convert these so—called savages into Christianity, were so consci
their moral superiority as well as racial superiority that they wanted to
seregate themselves and to live apart.
As the novelist points out, not only did these spiritual messen
gers segregate themselves hub they made it obvious that the’r felt them
selves to be the natives’ superiors, end that these people should orac—
tically become their slaves in appreciation for the spiritual service that
they were rendering them.
unbelievable.
Melville describes a situation that is almost
One of the wives of a missionary had hitched two natives
en old man and a young one
—-
——
to her cart, just as she would have done any
ordinary horses; and when they cne to hills where the ascension was diff 1—cult and slow she would yell louder for them to pull with all of the
strength available.
By being younger and shrewder than the elderly man,
blows
the young man evaded much of the work and frequently many of the
that were inflicted on his companion’s bare head.
This same women had
here
very willingly rone for the ws hack home in ITew England, but over
,
she assumed the dominating role of a white person; conseonently she
went to the extreme in exhibiting her suoeriority.
Lelville any more than this single act.
1
to a cart like so many dumb brutes.
Nothing astonished
here were human ‘beings harnessed
Nelville, likewise, attac1d the unscrupulous means used by the
missionaries in converting the native.
It seems that many of the mission
aries, being fully aware of the existing destitute condition on the
supersti
islands, and being ecually cognizant of the native’s natural
ng that
tious nature, were seeking to frighten these people into believi
1
Ibid., pp. 138—1939. Cf. Lewis Zumford, op. cit., op. 76—77.
34
their ovnrt’—str chan cordtion was d:e to the an’er of the white God,
who was seeking vengeance on their wicked souls.
heing naturally of an
emotional temperaiint, these natives were so frightened that they hastily
denied all relationship with pagan worship and fell into the ranks of the
Christians without actually knowing what they were doing!
At one island, the natives wore so determined to imPress the
missionaries that they were moved by the Holy Spirit, that they rolled
their eyes, foord at the mouth, and fell into strange fits and had to be
carried home.
Yet, according to Melville, the missionaries could not see
through their hypocrisy; or else they did not want to see through it.
Their urimary puroose was not to aid the natives and to guide them to en
erlightened Christianity by reasoning with them as human beings, but it
was to convert them regardless of how it should be done.
Melville de
scribes the hmocrisy in the island:
The hypocrisy in mators of religion,
so apparent in all Polynesian converts,
is most injudiciously nourished in
Tahiti, by a zealous and in many cases,
a coercive superintenence over their
sr,iritual well—being.
In his final estimate of the work of the missionaries among
the natives, lelville concludes that they deserved credit for translat
ing the 13ible into the native tongue and for building churches and
schools for both children and adults: but, he asserts that, as far as
the abolition of the entire system of idolatry, together with many bar
barous practices, is concerned, not so much credit is due them as is due
1
op. cit., pp. 287—288.
2
Ibid., o. 289.
35
to the civilizing effects of the natives’ actual contacts with the white
man over a period of years.
1
In the same accurate maimer that Melville observed the religiouss
phase of these natives’ lives, he iiwestigated their social life, paying
particular atL;eition to their mode of marriage, their :Form of government,
their feasts and festivals, their social rele±ions with one another, their
economic conditions, their taboos, end their general conduct.
As a race of veoole, these Polynesians were better cisciplined
end conducted themselves more orderly, without being forced by lavrs, and
officers of the law, than the majority of civilized countries.
appearances, Melville concluded that
From all
there were no legal provisions for
the protection of their citizens other than each man’s own honesty and
virtue.
They had an unusual amount of respect for each other’s personal
property and to infrirg,e upon their neighbors’ estate without his per
mission was unheard of.
At night these honest people slept peacefully
without the least fear of anrone’s disthing them or entering their un—
loched doors to take enrbhing from them; while in the so—called civilized
countries, the inhabitants are scarcely safe under the protection of nad—
lock and key.
2
Such a contrast naturafly ie d Melville to reflect:
...These islanders were heathensl
savages
Ay, cannibals and how
came they, without the aid of
established law, to exhibit, in so
eminent a degree, that social order
which is the greatest blessing and3
highest pride of the social state?
1
Ibid.,
p.
293.
See also Raymond I. Weaver, o. cit., p. 222.
2
?ITynee?, op. cit., p. 141.
Cf.
“The invinflErocess by which
regulated had convinced Melville
its precepts as virtue and honor
3
Ibid.
1illard Thorp, on. cit., intro., P.C.:
the ordered lifoTe Typees UTas
that a tacit coIrLnon-sense law had graven
on every heart.”
36
Later he concludes:
Civilization does not engross all the
virtues of humanity: she had not even
her full share of them. They flourish
in greater abundance d attain greater
strength among many barbarous people.
The hosoitality of the wild Arab, the
courage of the North American Indian
and the faithful friendships of some
of the Poljmesian nations, far surpass
anything of a similar kind among the
nolished communities of hurope.
If
truth and justice, and the better
principles of our nature, camot exist
unless enforced by the statute—book,
how are we to account for the social
conditions of the Typees? ...
I will
frankly declare, that after passing
a few weeks in this valley of the
arouesas, I formed a higher estimate
of human natre than I had ever before
entertained.
Probably their good social conduct was partly tlue to their love
for one another, which Melville noted.
Day in and day out, they vorkec1,
olayed end lived together without the least trouble.
In fact, one of
the outstanding characteristics which Melville admired was the unanimity
of feeling exhibited in all of their actions:
• .They showed this spirit of unanimity
in every action of life: everything as
done in concert and good fellowship.
As they went about the ir work or p lay, they sang and 1 au. ghe d like so
many chilclreri.
During my whole stay on the island
I never witnessed a single quarrel, rr
anything that in the slightest de!’ree
approached even to a dispute. The
natives appeared to form one household,
1
Ibid., P. 142.
2
Ibid.
37
whose members were bound topether
by the ties of strong affection.
The love of kindred I did not so
much perceive, for it seemed blended
in the eneral love; end where all
were treated as brothers and sisters,
it was hard to tell who were actually
related to each other by blood.
Melville seems determined to impress this fact upon his
readers;
end not only does he “lorify the harmonious life of the native, but
he
justifies them in any warfare in which they may have engaged to
protect
their internal happiness.
Likewise, he justifies end explains their
hostile treatment of the white man, on the rounds that the natives
were
taught from birth upward that the white man was to be regarded in
eb—
horrerce.
Ilaturally they were going to protect themselves from anything
that they believed to he dangerous to their well—heinr:
Let it not he sposed that I have
overdrawn this picture.
I have not
done so. Nor let it be irred, that
the hostility of this tribe to for
eigners, and the hereditary feuds
they ccri on against their fellow—island
ers beyond the mountains, are facts.
Not so: these apparent discrepancirs
are easily reconciled. By many a legend
ary tale of violence and wrong, as well
as by events which have passed before
their eyes, these people have been
taught to look upon white men with
abhorrence 2
Not only is the native taurrht to fear the white man, but in the majori
ty
of cases where the natives actually molested the white man, the white
man
3
had usually been the agrressor.
1
Ibid., p. 143.
2
Ibid.
3
Thid., p. 27.
32
As further evidence of the superiority, in some instances, of
the natives over civilized nations, elville contrasts their ability to
maintain internal peace with the inability of rrny civilized countries.
In many polished countries
civil contentions, as well as
domestic enmities, are prevalent
at the same time that the most
atrocious foreirn wars are waged.
How much less guilty, then, are
our islanders, who of these three
sins are only chargeable with one,
and that the least criminal
In overnment, elville tells us that the oranization of these
natives was simple, t orderly.
The king, as enthere else, was head
chief and his orders were usually accepted as final.
However, one must
not mistake the meaning of this to be that the king exercised the policies
of the theory of the “Divine Rights of Kings”.
No one seemed to exert any
superior influence; it was just that the people respected his authority
and did his simple requests without any comments.
It was at a festival
that Melville noticed in particular the ranks or classes of people and
their respect for authority:
...No one appeared to assuste any
arrogant pretensions. There was
little more than a sliFht differ
ence in costume to distin”uish
the chiefs from t other natives.
All appeared to mix torether freely,
end without any reserve; although I
noticed that the wishes of a chief,
even erhen delivered in the wildest
tone, received the same immediate
obedience which elsewhere would have
been onl accorded to a peremptory
command.
1
Ibid., p. 144.
2
Ibid., p. 131.
39
Although they respected their king they were never made to fear
In their marriage rites and customs, Melville respected the
nntives equally as much as he had in the other phases of their social ac
tivities, even though many were, indeed, strange.
detail how their marriwres wore conducted.
Melville describes in
When the girl is very young
she is wooed and wed by some young lad residing in the same abode; and
there they remain until both reach maturity.
After reaching this maturer
state, the 4r1 is wooed and married by a man, who, when he marries her,
marries her childhood husband also and all three live happily together
in the same house, both men being, legally, the husbands of the rirl.
As strange as this may seem, the marriages usually turned out success
fully:
....Infidelity on either side is very
rare. No man has more than one vd fe,
and no wife of mature years has less
than two husbands
sometimes she
has three, but such instances are not
2
frecuent:
——
Usually, the families of these marriages were very small and it was very
rare to see a string of children trailing behind a women.
3
Probably much of the success in the married life of the natives
was due, primarily, to the high esteem that the men had for the women.
Iard labor and ill—treatment that confront many women of uncivilized
countries was unknown on these islands, and the tasks that these women
performed were slight and did not require the loss of much energy, such
as polishing drinking vessels or platting mats.
1
Ibid.
2
Ibid., p. 135.
Ibid.
40
...Nowhere are the ladies more
assiduously courted; nowhere are
they better appreciated as the
contributors to our highest en—
joyinents; and nowhere are the
more sensible of their power.
Noticeable here, also, is the fact that Melville, out of respect for
these people, refers to the native women as ladies, as he would have done
in the case of white women, a title which few, if any, of the other Arr—
ican writers have used in reference to women of the darker races.
To Melville, the funeral and burial rites were ecually as pe
culiar, if not more so, than the marrice rites.
Evidently, their ceme—
t-ries were kept in secluded places to prevent the inhabitants from he
jr constantly reminded of that unknown journey to the land
of coconuts
and breadfruit; for Melville never remembered seeing one in the city
oroper.
Thenever a person was to he buried, the inhabitants of that
particular vicinity where the person lived, feasted d made merry in
oractically the same hilarious manner as was done at weddings.
In indnstry, for the most part, these people were far behind
civilized countries; for they would rather spend their time dozing in the
sun then to engage in any form of work.
According to Melville, this is
due to the introduction of a white ian’s civilization into a native en—
viroriment.
For many years, the native’s chief occunation was tappa mak
ing, a slow hand Irocess in which they were able to engage wdthout ax—
penning much energy; but with the introduction of the white man’s improved
machinery and modernized imnle:nents, the poor native beccne the rctim
of social maladjustment.
Consequently, the entire island was taken over
by the white man, leaving the maladjusted native to his own indolent fate:
Robert S. Forsythe, op. cit., pp. 87-88, quoting Charles R.
Anderson:
‘Omoo was an irnnllcit
T6o the ev21 efi’cts of e;vil;zinr the ‘Tohl
Savage”, with Rousseau’s Discourse as a text:’....
41
The fact is, that the mechanical and
agricultural employments of civi1zed
life, require a kind of exertion alto
gether too steady and sustained to agree
with an indolent people like the Poly—
nesians. Calculated for a state of
nature, in a ci mate providentially
adapted to it, they are unfit for any
other. Nay, as a racy, they cannot
otherwise long exist.
Yet, in speaking of the innate indolence of these people, Melville, un
like most writers, took the position of an unprejudiced observer, who
merely states the facts without censuring, satirizing or ridiculing then
in any way.
Not only were these people indolent, but they were hapoy—po—
lucky and Uved for today only.
Free from the cares that infested the
inhabitants of civilized countries, these people lived almost cftrefree.
To illustrate this, Melville describes the native life:
...In my various wanderings through
the vale, and as I became better
acquainted with the character of
its inhabitants, I was more struck
with the lirht-hearted joyousness that
everywhere prevailed. The minds of
these simple savages, unoccupied by
matters of graver moment, were capable
of deriving the utmost delight from
circumstances which uld have passed
unnotced in more intelligent coinmuni—
ties.
Later, Melville re—emphasizes this observation:
Nothing can be more uniform and
imdivorsified than the life of the
Typees; one tranquil day of ease
and happiness folows another in
quiet succession.
‘flrnnd’, op. cit., p. 297.
2
“Typee”, op. cit., pp.lO4—lO5.
3
Thid., p. 108.
42
It is very probable that this tranquil happiness so prevalent
in these islands was due to the absence of many modern inventions, as
Melville says:
There were none of those thousand
sources of irritation that the in—
genuity of civilized man has created
to mar his own felicity. There were
no foreclosures of mortgages, no pro
tested notes, no bills ayahle, no
debts of honour in Typee; no unreason
able tailors end shoemaers, perversely
bent on being paid; no duns of any
description; no assault and battery
attorneys, to foment discord...., or to
no Money
sum up all in one word
“Th root of all evij” was not t o be
found in t1 valley.
——
Every one lived more harmoniously there than the people of civilized
countries
—-
the children and youth included.
Here you would see a parcel of
children frolickinr toether the
livelong day,, and no quarrelling,
no contention, among them. The
same number in our own land could
not have played together for the
space of an hour without biting or
scratching one another. There you
might have seen a throng of young
females, not filled with enrings
of each other’s charms, nor display
ing the ridiculous affectations of
gentility, nor yet moving in whale
bone corsets, like so many automatoms,
but free, inarificially happy, and
unconstrained.
Like most uncivilized people, the South Sea natives induled in
many festivals and celebrations, each of which was symbolic of some out
standing happening in their country.
Many of these festivals were fool
ish and even simple to Melville, bu whenever he was invited to partici—
1
Ibid., p. 92. Cf. Willard Thorp, op. cit., intro., p. ciii.
2
Ibid., p. 146.
43
pate in any, he entered in whole-he artedly with the
deepest respect and
sympathy.
At one of these gala affairs, Melville donned
the natives’
costume and become the beau of the celebration.
On another occasion,
elville participated in the eating of raw fish with
the natives.
[ise1y,
Melville says:
When at Rome do as the Romans
do, I held to be so good a provcrb,
that being in Typee I made
point
of doing as the Typees did.
However, there was one celebration in which neither
Melville
nor any other white man could have participated, and
at was the prac
tice of eating human flesh.
Out of his sense of fairress, L1lville does
sonthing in his explanation that few, if any of the
others, have done;
and that is to explain fully all sides of this custom
.
I)issatisfied with
previous reports made on cannibalism, Melville sought
to find the truth
of the whole affair.
He first suspected that these happy carefree
natives
of Typee valley engaged in cannibalism when he saw
three derate sized
packages about the shape if a human skull, swinging above
his head; and
his suspicion was verified when he accidentally stumbl
ed into a group of
savages, who were busily engaged in unwranping one
of these packages
which, when opened, proved to be a human skull.
But even then, he did
not content himself with evious reports end remark
s on cannibalism:2
The reader will ere long have reason
to suspect that the Typees are not free
from the guilt of cannibalism; and he
will then, perhaps, charge me with admir
ing a people against whom so odious a crime
is char”eahle. But this only enormity in
their character is not half so horrible as
it is usually described..., for cannibalism
to a certain moderate extent is practiced
1
Ibid., p. 146.
2lbid., p. 163.
44
among several of the primitive tribes
in the Pacific, but it is upon the
bodies of slain enemies alone; end
horrible and fearful as the custom
is, immeasureably as it is to be
abhorred and condemned, still I
assert that those who indulae in
it are in1other respects humane end
virtuous.
It is almost unbelievable that an
Asmrican white man could have uttered
the last statement in view of the contemporary opinion of cannib
alism;
and yet this was not the only time that he made such a statem
ent; for
one day the following conversation took place between Toby and
Ielville:
“ihy, they are cannibals said
Toby on one occasion when I eulogized
the tribe.
‘Grantedt, I replied,
‘but a more humane gentlemanly, end
amiable set of epieure do not probably
exist in the Pacific’.
In addition to sayinr
that they are “humane and virtuous”
despite the indulgence of such a practice as cannibalism, Ielviile
goes
even further to show that civilized countries engage in practic
es which
are equally as bad, if not worse.
To illustrate this, iZelville gives an
example of a brutal practice in ich r4end engaged:
•..and I ask whether the mere eat
ing of human flesh so very far ex
ceeds in barbarity that custom which
only a few years since was practiced
in enlightened England
a convicted
traitor, perhaps a man found guilty of
honesty, patriotism, and such—like heinous
crimes, had his head lopped off with a
huge ax, his bowels drarced out end thrown
into a fire; while his body, carved into
four quarters, was with his head, exposed
upon pikes, and permitted to ret end fester
among the public haunts of nien3
——
1lbid., p. 144.
2
Ibid., p. 73.
3lbid., p. 91.
45
Still further, says Lelvi1le, what can be more ghastly then war in which
civilized countries so frequently engage?
life
—
War where men are maimed for
limbs torn from the body, bodies mangled.
And yet, says Melville,
these were the civilized people who shuddered at the horribleness of
1
cannibalism.
After having made a thorough observation of every phase of the
natives’ lives in reneral, elville could not feel that he was doing
jstice to the natives unless he paid some strict attention to certain
outstanding individuals of the valley.
Probably, the man closest to
Melville and dearest to him was Kory—Kory, his faithful bodyguard.
In
anpearence Kory—Kory was almost hideous to behold:
Kory—Kory, though the most devoted
end best-natured serving-man in the
world, was, alas a hideous object to
look upon. He was some twenty-five
years of age, and about six feet in height,
robust and well-made, and of the most
extraordinary aspect. His head was care
fully shaven, with the exception of two
circular spots, about the size of a
dollar, near the top of the cranium,
where the hair, permitted to grow of an
amazing length, was twisted up in two
prominent knots, that gave him the
appecranc of being decorated with a pair
of horns.
In addition to this hideous facial appearance, Melville says that he
was tatooed with horizontal stripes.
However, in descriMn Iory—Kory’s
ugliness and hideousness, Melville once again assumes the position of
an unprejudiced onlooker; and instead of atterting to produce comedy
and ridicule, as was done in James Fenimore Cooper’s description of
Caesar Thompson, he merely gives an accurate picture of Kory-Kory as
he actually was.
1.
Ibid.
2
Ibid., p. 64.
There is a note of genuine tenderness in his feeling
46
for Kory_Kory:
But it seems really heartless in
me to write thus of the poor islander,
when I owe perhaps to his unremitting
attentions the very existence I now
enjoy. Kory—Kory, I Tflflflfl thee no
harm in what I say in regard to thy
outward adornins; but they were a
little curious to my unaccustond
sight, and therefore I dilate upon
them. But to underrate or forget thy
faithful services is sowthing I
could never be guilty of, eren in the
giddiest moment of my life.
In describing Kory—Kory’s father, Lielville tells of his
gigan
tic frame, in addition to his possession of certain native
idiosyncracies:
But despite his eccentricities,
ar.eyo was a most paternal and
warm—hearted old fellow, id in
this particular not a litte re
sembled his son Kory—Kory.
Tinor, the sother of Kory—Kory, was considered by Ilelvill
e as
heine one of the most industrious persons in Typee valley,
whether male
or female.
She was constantly engaged in donstic duties against which
the average native women would have rebelled:
Never suppose that she was a
termagant or a shrew for all this;
she had the kindliest heart in the
world, and acted towards me in
particular in a truly maternal
manner, occasionally putting some
little morsel of choice food into
my hand, some outlandish kind of
savae sweetnat or pastry, like a
doting mother petting a sickly
urchin rith tarts and sugar—olums.
arm indeed are my renEmbrance of
the dear, good, affectionate old Tinor.
1Thid., p. 64.
2
fl-id., p. 65.
3
Ibid..
47
One of
Melville’s most affable comnanions of the female
sex
during his captivity on the island was Fayaway, a
beautiful, young native
girl, who frequently cne to visit Melville and
to comfort him.
During
these visits, he rrew to like her not only for her
beauty, but also for
her intellect:
This gentle being had early attracted
my rerard, not only from her extraordinary
beauty, hut frori the attractive cast of
her countenance, singularlT expressive of
intelligence and humanity.
She was probably the only native who seemed actucl].y to
comprehend the
unfortunate state of Melville and his companion, Tohy;
she seemed to re
alize that these two rn were torn from their friends
and kindred and
prab&ely would never be returned again.
...!henever she entered the house,
the expression of her fce indicated
the liveliest sympathy....
Of the men of importance that Melville encountered while
be
ing held captive, Marnoo, the taboo man, was probably the
best liked.
incc he was a taboo man, vthich in our country would
be tered an am
bassador, he was privileed to travel wherever he pleased
from village
to village without fear of molestation.
As he approached Typee village,
Melville observed his appearance:
The stronger could not have
been more than twenty—five years
of age, and was a little above
the ordinary height; had he. been
a single hair’s breadth taller,
the matchless symmnetry of his
forci would have boon destroyed.
His unclad limbs were beautifully
1
Thid., o. 80.
2
Ibid., p. 81.
48
fornd; whilst the elegant out
line of his firure to”ether with
his beardless cheeks, might have
entitled him to the distinction of
standing for the statue of the
Polynesian Aiollo; and indeed the
oval of his couatenance and the
re-u1arity of every feature
rr
minded me of an antiaue bust.
Through his striking personality, as well as the authority that
he possessed, Zanoo was able to gain the attention and admiration
of
everyone
——
Melville included:
Never, certainly, had I beheld
so powerful an exhibition of natural
eloquence as Marnoo displayed during
the course of his oration. The
rrace of the attitudes into which
he threw his flexible figure, the
striking gestures of his naked arms,
and above all, the fire which shot
from his brilliant eyes, imparted
an effect to the continually chang
ing accents of his voice, of which
the most acconolished orator might
have been proud.2
From all appearance, Melville admired Mambo for more than one thing;
and later this versatile man aided him in makin his escape from
the
island.
Melville was very appreciative of what the natives did for him
while he was being held captive; and he never failed to give then
credit
for anything that they did to make his stay pleasant.
Stranded on this
island, many miles from home, with no means of ever sending
a message
home, Melville probably had nany horrible thoughts as to what would
be
his fate.
As he himself states, he had many a silent shudder when he re
flected on his condition; nevertheless, he never allowed this to
over—
shadàw his gratefulness to them for their kindness toward him.
1Ibid., p. 98.
2d
p. 100.
Regard—
49
ing his treatment, he states:
All the inhabitants of the valley
treated me with great kindness; but
as to the household of Narheyo, with
whom I was now pe rmanently domic lied,
nothing could surpass theif efforts
to minister to my comfoft.
So anxious was Marheyo to please his
st that he would inconvenience
himself to obtain certain food that Melville liked.
Again and again Melville refers to their hospitality in the
same grateful tone.
In lookinr back to this period,
end calling to remmhrance the number
less proofs of kindness and respect
which I received from the natives of
the valley, I can scarcely understand
how it was that in the midst of so
many consolatory cireumstances, my mind
should still have been consumed by the
most dismal forebodins, and have re
mained a prey to the profoundest melan
cholv.2
Hence, from all evidence of Melville’s reports on his stay in
the South Seas, it is evident that he judged what he saw with imoartial
eyes.3
Like other writers who entered into these islands, Melville had
heard conventional reports and opinions concerning the ignorance and in
human qualities which characterized these people; for he says himself
that he fe lt une asy even when he was warmly welcomed into t } village.
...But what dependence could he
placed upon the fickle passions
which sway the bosom of a savage.
His constancr and treaciry are
proverbial .
1
Ibid., p. S4.
2
Ibid., p. 87.
3
Cf. Jillard Thorp, op. cit., intro., p. xx.
a
op cIt.
,
p.
59.
50
Still he was not content to bring bach reports concerning these people
without making a thorough study of every phase of their existence.
Be
ginning with their religious activities, he made a complete investigation
of their social, political end economic existence, never failing to give
the virtues as well as the vices of every practice.
Fe presented the
pagan side of their religion as well as their Christianized side; he ex—
planed many of their customs such as the marriage rites, and cannibal
ism.
In addition he gave the reason for their hostility to the white
man, and explained their indolence.
After having stated the actual facts,
without satirizing, censuring or ridiculing, he went even further to
show how, in certain respects, such as their incessant happiness, free
dom, loyalty, honesty, and respect for authority, they were the white
man’s superior, and pointed out that most of the crime and vice that
these people have acquired has been obtained through contact with the
white man’s civilization.
In describing certain individuals of the viila’e, Lelville
was euafly as accurate as he was in describing the native life.
—
Raymond Reaver states,
1
As
Felville dad not fail to see the loyalty in his
servant, KoryKory, because he was a native; Tinor to him was just as
warmhearted end industrious as any white woman.
io one could have been
more congenial and obliging than Iarheyo; iarnoo, with his versatile
personality was a true friend.
elville expressed more than mere grate
fulness to these people for their kindness to him; he expressed a deep
feeling of love.
Behind those twisted irnots of hair; behind those pe
culiar pagan rites, marriage rites; behind all of their idiosyncrasies,
1
Raymond iI. We aver, op. cit., p. 209.
51
Melville saw what most writers failed to see
——
the man; and from all
evidence it appears that he was sincere when he said:
It is too often the case, that
civilized beings sojourning among
savages soon come to reEard them
with disdain and contempt. But
thouh in many cases this feeling
is almost natural it is not defensible;
and it is wholly wrong. Why should
we condemn them? Because we are
better than they? Assuredly not;
...Te are all of us Anrlo_a:ns,
snrung from
Ovaks, end Indians
imane.
in
one
made
and
one head,
And if we reret this brotherhood
now, we shall be forced to join
hands hereafter. A misfortune is
not a fault; and ‘ood luck is not
meritorious. The savare is born
savage; and the civilized being
but inherits his civilization,
nothing more.
--
Let us not disdain then hut
pity. And whenever we recognize
the image of God, let us reverence
it, though it hung from the gallows.
1
willard Thorp, op. cit., intro., p. cii, quotin Hernian elville’s
‘A Review of Parknian1s Oregon Trail The Literary ?orld, March 31,1849
CFAPTER III
iiELVILE AIID THE PEGRO
After notirj to what extent Meiv:1.lle was rtfluenced by
temporary
opinion
con
in his treatment of the South Sea islands, and being
aware of the superficial manner in which the Nerro, as well
as
the South
Sea natives, has been depicted in American literature from 1840 until the
present time, one would naturally be interested in noting to what extent
Melville’s Negro characters were similar to or different from the ‘on’ral
portrayal of the Negro as a literary figure.
In TMelville’s novels dealin” th the South Sea natives, the
entire plot is centered around the natives and their custorcis; consequent—
ly, Melville not only portrays individual nersonalities of certain chpr—
acters, hut he also gives a detailed discussion of their social customs.
hhile in novels containin.
her-ro characters, the main plot is centered
around the adventures of sa—faring men, and the Negro is merely a nart
of the crew.
?or this r’ason, Melville does not enter into a detailed
portrayal of Negro life, but he merely gives character sketches of Ne
groes on hoard the various shics.
Thether or not Meruan Melville was in
fluenced by the Ajiricon oreudice toward the egro can only be deter—
mined by observinr the Necro character in his works, and by noting
whether or not he clung to the tracJ.itional
type” Negro or created real
istic characters.
Since Omoo was Melville’s earliest novel in which the Negro is
oortrayed, it will be used as a starting point of a study of all of his
works in which Negro characters appear.
The first Negro to make his
apPearance in this novel is 3altimore, the black cook, whose name was
derived from the place of his birth.
52
Baltimore reoresents the typical
53
good—natured Iegro of ante—helium and post—helium days.
In fact, says
yelvilie, he was too docile:
Baltimore ‘a tribulations were in
deed sore; there vras no neace for him
day nor night. Poor fellowl he was
Say
altogether too pood—natured.
what they will about easy—temnered
people, it is far better, on some
accounts, to have the temper of a wolf.
Black ron, on the other hand, was the antithesis of Baltimore.
Contrary to the trnical portra’ral of the 1egro character in imerican lit
erature, he was rebellious, gruff and outspoken, speaking what he thought
regardless of person, place or time, without
fear
of any serious con
sequences; and as a result, Welville says:
.Phoever thourht of taking2lib—
erties with gruff Black Dons
An illustration of Black Dan’s gruffness may be found in one of his
morning oubbursts with one of the sailors.
Flash Jack, the ex—baker,
was very soft—hearted d freaintlv took up much
time
with the eoor
mistreated land—lubber Ropey, who, because of his clumsiness as a sail
or, was subjected to the rebuffs of his fellow sailors.
°n this partic
ular morning, Flash Jack was conversin with hopey on the hard fare
that they had to endure on board the ship and he began to question Ropey
ir rerard to what he would be eating were he at hne at that moment.
enraptured was poor Ropey on reflecting on such a pleasant thought as
eatinr
a decent meal at home, that he forgot how loudly he was talkir.g
and failed to notice that he was attract:ing the attention of the other
1
“flrnoo”
2
Ibid.
op. cit., p. 214.
So
54
members of the crew.
On hearing the nntion of rood food, Blac
k 1’on,
who was seated near, became so disgusted
that he angrily interrupted
Dopey’s ci scourse:
‘A shr1:—steak, and he haned to
voul’ roared Black Dan, with an oath.
Still another instance of Blach Dan’s gruff
tess may he found
in the brusque maimer in which he spok
e to wilson, one of the officers.
The nn on board the shin had had some distu
rbance among themselves end,
as runishment,
thr
and other officers.
had been placed in chains and brourht
before 7ilson
After having thoroughly eyed
every
one of the men,
7;ilson turned to make his departure, but
before he left, Black Dan, wi
had become infuriated over the maimer
in which they were treated, allowed
his anger to overpower his sense of resoe
ct:
‘flh Get along uith your ranuzon,
counsellor,’ exclaimec1. Dlack Den,
ahsolubol’i indignant that his
stendinc’ should be thus insulted.
On another occasion, Black an voiced
the sentiments of the
entire crew in one of his usual outbursts
.
It was the day that they were
carried before the captair.
md consul for trial concernir.r their dis
turbance on hoard the shin.
heny paners which bore lenal evidence
agcinst ever,r one of them were presented
, nong which was a petition
r]r’j1
uo to depose :he cantain.
consul held up the
paper
and questioned the accused as to whether
or not
the sirnatures were renuine.
1
Ibid., p. 222.
2
Ibid., p. 253.
To make his case more substantial, the
But when it came Black Dan’s time to
testi—
55
fy to his own sic’nature, he refused to enswer:
‘tat’s the use of asin’ that?’
said Black Don ‘tantain Guv there
knows as well as we who they are.
Showing more courage and inderendence than the white rjmhers of the crew,
he oke up when the others hesitated to do so.
The very fact that Melville anits that Baltimore was too docile
and further states that he achnred Black )aii’s “riffness reveals that he
was unlike the averac’e merican writer of the nineteenth century, vrho
exalted the docile “Thcle Tom” type end denounced the rebellious Negro.
For instance, Thomas Nelson Page in his No Haid Pawn has a rebellious
Hero whom he called the most brutal Legro that he ever saw.
This seems
to be Page’s eereral at:itude toward all Neroes who in any way are de—
fiont of the white mon; on the other Iond, he exalts such docile Negroes
as anriy Kendra, and Tarrinin.
2
Mention is made of another
ero, Dilly Loon; and although he
is not as fully characterized as the other two, his descriition is
al of the flashy, showy,
tyiic
lolly type of Negro.
Billy Loon, a jolly little
Negro, tricked out in a soiled
blue jachet, studded all over
with rusty bell—butbons, and
c-arnished with shabby gold lace,
is the royal drui r and. pounder
of the tam1:ourine.’
In 1S4E’, Redhurn was published and in it are two Ne%rroes who
1
Ibid., n. 2.
2
Thomas Lelson Page,”No Haid Pawn’ on. cit., n• 172.
3
Ibid., p. 325.
56
are fully characterized, and another, like Billy Loon, of whom merly mei
ion is made.
The two fully developed characters are: Thompson, the cook,
and Lavender, the steward.
Thompson represents the trnical relicious, lazy, shiftless,
sloven 1egro character who ends much of his time poring over a “reasv
Bible reading aloud while the pots are boiling.
Melville describes him
in the following manner:
Mew, our doctor was a seniou old
fellow, much given to metauhysics,
1
and used to talk about original sin.
Frequently, Thomoson would call upon members of the crew to interpret
certain passages for 1im; and when they were unable to do so and would
try to convince him that there was no ecact interpretation, he would
merely chake his rreasy head, and try to puzzle out the situation for
hins elf.
Since Thompson was such a devout reliEious Negro, on board
the ship, it was only natural that Melville should conclude that he was
a member in some Legro church in Mew York; and the freotEnt visits of
his friends on board the ship aided in veriNin Melville’s thouchts;
for he saMs:
lar at the wharf,
• . . For when we
I remembered that a coirniittee of
three reverend looking old darhies,
who, besides their natural canonicals,
wore quaker—cut black coats, and
broad—hrimired black hats and white
neck—cloths; these colored gentlemen
called upon him, and renined convers
ing with him at his cook—house door
1
“Redbui”, on. cit., p. 1518.
57
for more than an hour; and before
they went away they stepned inside,
and the sliding doors were closed;
and then we he ard some one reading
aloud end preaching; and eSter that
a psalm was sung end a benediction
given;1...
As far as Thompson’s cleanliness was concerned, lielville had
his doubts, for he
says:
It was vie 11 for him that he was a
black cook, for I have no doubt his
color kept us from seeing his dirty
faces I never saw him wash but once,
and that was at one of his own soup nots
one •ark2night when he thouht no one
saw him.
3ut despite his unkemot person, Thompson was very fond of his cook house;
and to add to its dignified aPpearance, he placed a mat before the door
and wrote his name on the door in red chalk.
Frindly and chummy with Thnpson was a handsome, flashy, sen—
timental Hegro steward, known as Lavender, who is a rerlica of the usual
ore sentation of the showy Hec’ro “dude”.
th’. Thompson was a great crony of
of the steward’s, who, being a hand
some, dcnd:r mulatto, that had once
been a barber in West—Droadway, went
I have men
by the nune of Lavender.
tioned the gorgeous turban he vre
when r. Jones and I vs ited ie
captain in the cabin. lie never wore
that turban at sea, though; hut
sported an uncorwon head of frizzled
hair, just like the large, round brush,
used for washing windows, celled a
Pope’s Head.
He kept it well pe rfumed with Cologne
water of which he had a large supply,
1
Ibid., pp. 1516—1519.
Ibid., p. 1495.
58
the relics of his West—Broadway trade.
fls clothes, being mostly cast-off
suits of the captain of a London liner,
whom he had sailed with upon nany pre
vious voyages, were all in the hei4it
of the exploded fas Lions and of every
kind of color ad cut. He had claretcolored suits, ad snuff—colored suits,
snd red velvet vests, and buff and brim
stone pazitaloons, ad several full suits
of blackt....
In adilition to his already flashy costume, he always sore an
“imcolnon pursy” ring on his forefinger with a stone in it that he
called a diamond, but which in reality looked more like a piece of glass
than anflhlng else.2
Pesides being flashy, he was, as lelville says:
.a sentimental sort of darky, and reads
the “Tine Spaniards”, and”Charlotte Taple”,
and carried a IV&tWt friszli& hiWrus
pocket, which he frequently vohmteered to
ieople with his hendicerchief to his
show
eres.
p
Here Melville deviates slightly from the general portrayal of
the 1e-ro in hnerican literature and creates a Metro, rtho, despite his
possesainr the usual flashy, shoe characteristics frequently assizmd
to the Negro, was a sentl.mental person to spent much of his time read
ing such books as “Three Spaniards” and “Charlotte Temple”.
also is the fact that Thltlle
ence to Lavender.
Liakea
NotIceable
uee of the term “darky” in refer
t”.’hether he meant it in derision is difficult to say.
It is significant that this tern appears in his works only twice.
I
Ibid., p. 1519.
2
Ibid.
r
Ibid.
Among
59
Southern writers it was a cormionly used apuellation with a connototion of
Tonter.
Every evening these two oid cronies, Thompson and Lavender,
vould sit on the norch of the cook house end gossip on the events that
occurred in the cabin during the day; and then Thonnson mould nroceed to
give one of his lectures.
And sometimes ifr. Thompson would
take dömii his Pible, and read a chapter
for the edification of Lavender, whom
he knew to he a sad nrofliate and
gay deceiver ashoreaddicted to ever”
H would road
youthful indisoreticn.
over to him the story of’ Joseph and
Pot±pharts wife and hold Joseph up to
him as a young mar of excellent princi
ples whom he ou’ht to imitate, and not
he guilty of his indis cretions onyiore.
And Lavender would look serious, and
say that be knew that it was all true——
he was a wickod youth, he know it,
he had broken a good many hearts, and
man o’res were weonin; for kim even in
Tew York, nd Liverpool, and London
and 1Lpyp0.
—
But being as conceited as he was, Lavender blamed his profligacy on his
handsome face and fine head of hair, plus bis graceful figure, which of
9
course, he was not to blanc for possessing.
In addition to these two Negrocs, Thompson and Lavnnder,
yolvillo makes mention of a sunerstitious Terro fortune—toiler known as
DeSouak, whose house the sailors frequented while in Liverool to have
their dreams lateroretod:
Sneaking of one sailor, I.elville says:
And he fronuently related his inter
views in Livornool ‘;ith a fortune—teller,
an old nero WOIlOfl by th name of DeSnuak,
whose house was much ire’erted by sailors;
and how she had two black cats, with re
markably green eyes, end nightoans on their
Ibid., n. 1520.
2i
80
heads, solently seated on a clot-footed table
near the old goblin; when she felt hi? pulse,
to tell that was Toing to befall him.
DeSquak might very easily be classified with the siçersticns Nepro who
believes in charms aid signs; end whose role in American literature has
been very important.
Following Redbirn was wThite Jacket, published in 1850, which
contained fine Negro characters
--
Coffee, Sunshine, !ay—day, Rosa-water,
end en officer on board whose awe Islville failed to
rive.
Tyuical of
the usual comical, happy, carefree Negroes are Coffee, the head cook,
Rose-water, ?Say—day aid Sunshine, his assistants, who sam while perform
ing their chores.
Old Coffee, the head cook, is described in the followingmnner:
.In our frigate, this peraage
was a dgnffied coloured paitlstimn,
whom the men ditbed “Old Coffee”d.
Melville explains in the beginning that the itrk of a ship’s cook re
quired very little skill, as his most important task vas
...to keep brirht and clean the
three huge coppers, or caldrons,
in which many hundred pgunds of
beef were daily boiled.
And yet this dignified old cook, Coffee, always assured the crew that he
lad completed a course in cooking under the stict observance of the
celebrated Coleman and Stetson at the New York Astor House.
His assist
ants, Rose-water, May-day and Sunshine performed their chores to the
1
2
Ibid., p. 1522.
Ibid., 1143.
3
Ibid.
61
tune of some song, usually led by Sirnslilne who was Imown as the hard of
the trio:
...To this end, Rose—water, Sirnshine,
and i!av-day every morning sprang into
artnnt s, strinned
their resne ctive
to the waist, and well provided with
hits of soan—stone and sand. By exercs—
in these in a very viorous msni’er, they
threw themselves into a violent perspira
tion, and put a fine polish upon the in
terior of the coppers,
Sunshine was the bard of the trio;
and while all three would he busily
employed clattering their sean—stones
ar’ainst the metal, he would exhilarate
them with some remarkable bt. Lo]nin0
melodies; L..
Noticeable is the fact that the songs that these Legroes sang were not
the tvnical c’ig orrainstrel songs so frequentl’r found in American litera
ture, but were St. Lomingo melodies; and Lelville not only recognized
their work songs and snirituals, but he appreciated them.
Nere is an
early literary tribute to theTremarkahle melodies’ of the Ne”ro.
Opposed to these hanpy, carefree ITearo servants who, in some
respects, represent the tTTeu Negro, was a Nearo officer on board the
ship, whose name belville failed to ‘ive.
As the main duty of he crew
on board a man—of—war is to fight, it is highly essential for the men to
be well-trained; and as a means of riving the men the best training and
sunervision available, those on board this ship were divided into grouns
movm as tlrunshl with a captain at the head of each Lroui.
describes his carronade:
The carronade at which I was sta
5H
on
tioned was Tmovm as I?C1m No.
1
Ibid.
•
Nelvi lie
62
the first lieutenant’s cuarter—bell.
Among our run’s crew, however, it
was known as “Black Bet”. This
none was bestowed by the captain
in
a fine nerro
of the run
a
honour of his sweetheart,
coloured lady of Philadoluhia.
—-
—-
After the mention of this catain being a Negro, no furher referomce is
made to hi race; end as one reads the novel one would forget that this
officer is a Ne’ro as he is treated with the same respect as enT other
officer, anti performed his duties ecuall:r as well end acsurstely as
anr other captain on nard.
skiriishes
in
which this
ielville describes one of their practice
Nenro
cantain is disolayinn’ his capabilities as
a leader:
sa—mar:inet was our
that sometimes we were
roused from our hammocks at might;
when a s cene would en sue th at it is not
in the eawer of pen and ink to describe.
‘ive hundred men sPring to timir feet,
dress themselves, take up their bec3: ing,
and run to the nettinra and stow it;
each nmn
then hie to their stations
some alow,
jostling hi neighbour
some aloft; some this wa, some that;
and in less than five minutes the frirate
is readr for action, end as still as
the rave; almost very man nrecisely
where he would he wer an enemy actually
about to be engaged.2
Such a
ca,tair.
——
——
L, elville’s most ridel,r iaiovrn and best
In 1850,
appreciated novel, was published.
ly outstanding roles
——
In it four ieroes Play comparative
)ueeaueo, Daggoo, Fleece and Black Pip.
As the story opens, Isbmael, the narrator,
1
Ibid., p. 1140.
2
Ibid.
is
telling how
63
difficult it was on that particular day for him to secure a boarding
place; and when he finally secured one it was lacking in many of the
necessary facilities
——
the most imoortant one being an insuficient
aount of rooms, which naturally forced some patrons to occumy the seine
cuarters.
Unfortunately, it fell Ishmael’s lot to occuny a room with an
Africnn harpooor who was still oi±.
1
Leinn’ very weary from hi hard
day’s search or an abode, Ishmael retired very early, only to be awak
ened and frihtened by the entrance of this iantic, hideous looking
African.
As he lay there, undetected by the African, eyeing this
strange -vrson, watchin” his peculiar nocturnal renarations, end hear
ing his peculiar prayer, cold shivers were racing up and dovin his spinal
column; yet he inaintii;ed presence of mind enough to try to calm his
fear by philos ophizing in the following manner:
...nd w}at is it, thought I, after
all? It s only his outside; a
can he hOnest in any sort of in.’
Just as he had mustered enough strength to sake some sort of noise so
as to let Pueeoueq know that he was in the bed, Queequeq lunged into
bed beside him, tomahawk and all.
ritS,
Ynighened and ternied beyond his
Isbmael made some sort of noise and rolled over toward the wall;
wi-rrupon rueeeueq seized his tomahawk end began to flash it violently
saying that if whoever was in the bed did not speak he would 1:111 him.
Too fri’htened to do anything else, Ishmael called for the landlord,
and when he ceine, he exnlained to iueequeq that 1shmael was his room
mate and scant him no hawn; with this explanation, Ishmal end ruecquec
became stanch bed mates and oth slent ecefully all
“Uoby Dick, on.
2
ibid., p. 771.
3151d., p. 773.
cit., op. 762—773.
ilht.
64
On avra1:cmir the fo1lowin niornin, Ishn
’ael discovered that
cueeciuea’s arms were entwined around him
in a most 1ovinr manner; but
this was too much for Ishrnael; so he awoke
him and told him that such a
position made sleeniiw’ difficult.
Queequeq removed his arms and uroceede
d
to dreas himself i’or the day, and
lust as Ishrtael had watched him nerform
his somewhat peculiar nocturnal duties,
he, likewise, did the sie thing
in ;‘eard to QueeQueq’s mornin duties.
In fact, he was almost rude in
his constant starin, while Queequee treat
ed him with the utmost resnect
and decency, for he
says:
• .Thinhs I, Queenueri, under the c rcum
stances,
this is a very civilized overture; hub,
the
truth is, these savees have an innate
sense
of delicnc:r, say what you will; it is mar
vellous how essmtial1y polite they are.
I
pay this particular comoliment to Oueeauea
,
because he treated me with so much cilitv
end consideration, while I was uilty of
preat rudeness; starin, at him from the bed,
and vratchino all his toillette motions;
for
the time my curiosity rettinr the bette
r of
my breedin. hvertheless, a man like
ueenueq
ver-r dair, and he
and his wairs were well worth unusual re—
you
don’t
see
I?inally, after much deliberation
on the matter, Ishmael concluded that
Queeauoa was not nearly so horrible look
inr as he anpeered to him at
first, and after all he was a human
heinr just as any one else:
..For all his tattoons he was on the
whole a clean, comely looking cannibal.
That’s oil this fuss I have been :iaki
nc
about, thought I to myself, the man’s
a
human beini just
I am: he has lust as
much reason to fear me, as 1 have to
he
afraid of him. Better sleep with a sobe
r
can!lihal than a drunken Christian.2
as
1
Ibis.,
p
775.
2Thid., p. 773.
65
A?t-r lDeec’rt]ng reconciled to Queequeq as a bed mate, Ishmael be—
gem to study him and to try to understand what type of heart lurked be
lung those ‘tatoo marks.
One day when he returned to the Soonter-Inn, he
found Qeequeq alone, idly whittling away at the mose of his little black
idol god and whistling a heathenish tune; it was at this particular time
that he began his analysis, for he
Says:
Tith much interest I sat watch
Savage though he was, end
ing him.
hideously marred about the face——at
least to my taste——his countenance
yet had a sothing in it which was
by no nans disagreeable. You cannot
hide the soul. Throur’h all his un
earthly tatooini-s, I thourht 1 saw
the traces of a simule honest heart;
and in his large, deep eyes, fiery
black and bold, there seemed tokens
of a snirit that would dare a thou
sand cievils. WAnd besides all this,
there was a certain lofty hearin.c
about the Pagan, which even his un— 1
couthness could not altogether maim.
In addition, there was something about his face and head which made
2
Ishmael believe that cueequeo had never had a creditor. ind as he sat
regarctin this African, not as a savage, but as a human being, he began
to reflect upon Queeoueq’s condition,
here was a man thousands of miles
away from his native land, throun in with people who were eoually as
strange and peculiar to hm as he was to them; and yet he appeared to be
entirely at ease, preserving the utmost serenity, satisfied with himself
as a c,rtinn,and as Melville
“Always equal to himself.”
Such
serenity caused yelville to reflect:
...Surely this was a touch of fine
philosoohy; though no doubt, he had
1
Ibid., p. 78S.
2ihid.. o. Th9.
Th
heard there was such a thing
as that. Thit, perhaps, to be true
philsophers, we mortals should not
be conscius of so living or so
striving.
never
Still studying this native, Ishmael seemed to feel a change coming over
hic whole being, for he says:
As I sat there in that now
lonely room; the fire burning low,
in that milt stage when, after its
first intensity has warmed the air,
it then only glows to be looked at;
the evening shades and phantoms
gatherin’ round the casewnts, and
peering in upon u.s silent, solitary
twain; the storm booming without in
solemn swells; I began to he sensible
I felt a melt
of strange feelings.
splintered
more
my
ing in me. lo
hand
were turned
heart and maddened
world.
This
the
wolfish
against
soothinr savage had redeemed it.
There he sat, his very indifference
speaking a nature in which there
lurked no civilized hooricies and
bland deceits...
s wild and uncivilized as Queeuea may have appeared to many other spec
tators, there was something magnetic about him which drew Ishmael closer
ho him; for he lacked those hypocricies so frequently found in civilized
man.
‘.ithout any formalities Ishmael drew his chair before Queequeq’s
and the two began to converse in very friendly, intimate tones; end from
that time on, Ishmeel and Queeaueq became bosom friends.
The significant
fact behind all of this is that it reveals once more how ielville had
seen beneath the surface of superficial things and had found the intrin
sic value beneath.
This friendship existing between Queeouee and Ishmael
was different from the usual bond between the devoted slave and kind
Ibid.
67
master, such as is found in the novels of Melvil
le’s contemporaries.
The
former was on a fraternal basis; while the latter
was more of a sort of
paternalism, with the white man lookinr down toler
antly on his Negroes.
Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom was a lovable devoted slave,
and was well liked by
his master, Mr. Shelty; but the love that Mr. Shelby
had for him was not
so much the love of man for another as it was a master
’s love for his
slave, whom he consiered his inferior.1 The fr5.end
ship existing be—
2
3
tween Sam and his Iarse Chan , and Uncle dinh
urg and his master was on
the same paternalistic basis.
Melville treated ueeoueq as a verr s&rsible human
being with
a logical mode of reasoning: for when Ishmael questioned
him on the re
action of the public to his carryinv a wheelbarrow on
his shoulder like
a basket instead of pushing it, Queequeq replied that
they laurhed just
as his people had laughed at a certain white sea cactain
when he mis
took the bowl of coconut juice, which was used for
blessing the newl—
weds, for a finger—howl, and proceeded to wash his hands. 4
After QueeQueq had. related tLzs story concerning the
sea cap
tain and the bowl of coconut jui-, he and Ishmael boarde
d the schooner,
upon which they were to make their voyage, and stood
breathing the air
torether.
‘Thile they were thus engaged, Ishnael suddenly becam
e aware
that he end cueeaueq were the central attractions
of the jeering glances
TE
In 1arriet Beecher Stone, Uncle Tom’s Uaoin.
2
In Thouas ;elson Page,
arse Chan , op. cit.
-
31n Thomas Nelson Page, “IJnc’ Edinburgh’ Drovmdin’”,
op.
4
“Mohy Dick”, op. cit.,
.
794.
cit.
68
of the passengers, who were evidently bewildered over the companionship
of Ishmael,
a white man, and Queequeq an African;
...So full of this reeling scene were
we, as we stood IDy the plunging bow
sprit, that for some time we did not
notice the jeering glances of the
passengers, a lubber—like assembly,
who marvelled that two fellow beings
should be so companiable; as though
a white man were anything more dii
nified than a white washed negro.
Such evicence as this shows that Melville was fundamentally end basically
unprejudiced toward the Tiegro; for } oubs him on equal basis with the
white man, and says that the difference between the two races lies only
in external annearances.
Unfortunately for one of the jeering soectators, Oueequeq saw
him staring and seized him in his gigantic arms and flung him bodily in
to the air; whereupon, the captain renninanded Queequeq and told him
that he would kill him if he did not cease molesting the passengers.
In
the meantime, while all of this exôitemnt was takinr place between the
cartaip and Queequeq, the puny onlooker that had been tossed into the
air, had been swept overboard by a huge wave, end the entire ship was
in an uproar.
On seeing this, Queequeq with his usual calmness and
comolacency, ran into the wind,
cued the poor little nan.
dashed into the briny water id res
With the
same serenity and calmness with
which he olunced into the water, he came bach on deck and laid his
victim calmly domn before a host of admiring eyes.
Isimiael says:
Was there ever such unconsciousness?
H did not seem to think that he at all
deserved a nodal from the 11unane and
:.cnanirnous Societies. He only ashed
somethirg to
fresh water
for water
—
mid., o. 795.
—
69
wipe the 1rine off; that done, he
put on dry clothes, li4ited his pipe,
and le aning against the bulwarks,
nd mildly eyein those around him,
TIt!s
seemed to he san to himself
a mutal, joint—stack world, in all
We camibals must help
mridans.
11
Christians.
these
——
Just as Ishmael had resuected C,ueequeQ for his calmness, seron
ity, intelligence and ability to adjust himself to hL new environment,
he resrmcted his re1iion, even though it was very peculiar.
Like most
natives, Queequeq was a apan worshioper and paid homae to
Afrcan
his little black idol laiown as yo—jo’.
WIn ueequeq invited Isf’mael
to share in his reliious rites of worshipping the little idol, Ishmanl,
at first, hesitated; but upon reflecting he concluded:
•..But what is worship? thought I?
that
...——to do the will of God?
worship.
whet
is
will
is
And
the
of
God?
to do to my Pci low man what
I would have my fellow man to do to me——
that i s the will of God. Now, Que e que q
And vth at do I wis h
is my fell ow man.
this
Queeauen
would
do to me?
that
with
in
my
particular
Thy unite
me
Presbyterian for:n of worship. Conse
quently, I must then unite with hwi2
in his; ero, I must turn idolater.
——
--
Later, when Ishmael saw Queeeueq observing Zhie1nu, a paran
custom which required prolonged fasting and abject humiliation, he did
not mock end ridicule him in anyrray as most white men would have done;
for he says:
I say, we good Presbyterian Christians
should be charitable in these thinps,
and not fancy ourselves so vastly superior
to other mortals, pac’ans and what not,
1
Thid.,
p.
796.
2
Ibid., p. 790.
70
because of their half—crazy concnits
on these subjects.
Th’re was Queeoueq,
now, certpj,nlv entertazininr the most
absurd notions about vojo and his
Ramadon;
but what of that? ueenuec
thowht he rnew what he wo.s about, I
surmose; he seemed to be content; end
there let hm rest.1
— —
On board this same schooner, wasanother M’ric’m harpooner,
knomi as
bac ‘‘‘j
who rrrnsents the “Noble savae” of Rousseau’s creation.
Third among the harpooners was
Dagpoo, a cinntic, coal—black
nerrosavare w th a lion—like tread an
Ahasuerus
to behold. suspended
from his ears were two tolden hoops,
so large that the scilors caile5
them rin—helts, end would talk of
securw ihe topsail halyards to
then.
At a very early age, Daggoo had voluntarily shinned on board a whaleo,
hut having been nowhere except Africa, Nantucket end the pagan harbor
s
most fren’;onted by whale—men, he still retained all of his barbaric
.end erect as a giraffe, tLvJ moved
about the decks in all the pomp of
cix feet five in his sicks. There
was a corporeal Inwdlity in lookinr
up at him; and a white men standing
before him seemed a white flar came
to ‘g truce of a fortress.
Curious
to tell, this imperial negro, Ahas—
trus fla--’oo, was the Sriuire cf 1.ttle
Flash, who looked like a co—mu;
beside him.3
In his position as harnooner, Dagoo was regarded and treated
as any
1
Ibid., p. ‘08.
2
Ibid., pp. 80—F3l.
3
Ibid., n. 831.
71
other harpooner on board, regardless of race; no
snecial distinction is
made between him and the other members of the
crew.
He performs his
duty with equally as much skill as the othe
rs, and conmarwively speaking,
olays an ianortant role in the discovery of the
white whale.1
In contrast to the individualized
treatment of ‘)ueequeq and
Daggoo, and typical of the traditional treatmen
t of the iTe-ro,is Fleece,
the old, comical black cook aboard the ship
.
He
iS
simple, lazy, sullen
and stubborn, and possesses the same peculiar
ideas concerning his ascen
sion into heaven as the Neroes in the i:orks of
Melville’s contemporaries.
As the sailors were eating their shark steak,
they sudderly
discovered that it was unusually tough and diffi
cult to chew and they
called in the cook to reprimand him for his failu
re to perfect the cul
inary art, and at the same time to have a littl
e fun at his expense.
Having been summoned Fleece stumbled reluctantl
y off to see what they
desired of him.
Melville describes him thus:
The old black, not in any very
hih glee at havinr been previously
roused from his warm hammock , at a
most unseasonable hour, came shambling
along from his r”alley, for, like many
old blacks, there was something the
matfer with his iiee—nans, which he
did not keep well scoured like his
other pans; this old Fleece, as they
called him, come shufflin and limp—
ing along, assisting his step uith
his tons, which, after a clumsy
fashion, were made of s rai’htened
iron hoops;....2
This old Negro presents a typical exariple of
the caricature found in
American literature:
1
Ibid., p. 937.
2
Ibid.
72
...this old Ebony floundered along,
and in obedience to the word of
command, come to a dead stop on
the opposite side of Stubb’s side
board; when, with both hands folded
before him, and resting on his two—
leged cane, he bowed his arched
back still further over, at the
same time sideways inclining his
head, so a to bring his best ear
into play.
After he had entered the ioom, one of the seaman spoke up and ordered him
to speak to those sharks and to tell then in a very dignified, relir ions
manner to stop making so much noise, as it was quite annoying.
Sullenly
taking the old lantern, Fleece limped slowly to the deck and began to
preach his famous sermon.to the sharks:
‘Fellow_critters: I’se ordered
here to say dat you must stop dat
dam noise dare, you beaN Lmassa
Stubh say dat you can fill your dam
bellies ‘rn to de hatehins but by
Gor you must stop dat dam racket
Stuhb, who had been observing the proceedings, and who wished to heighten
the humor, slapped the old cook on the shoulder and reprimanded him for
using such obscene language while preaching
———‘Cooks why, damn your eyes, you
mustn’t swear that way when you’re
preachinr.
That’s n way to con
vert sinners, Cooks’
Still gazing at $tub’os very sullenly, Fleece replied
‘Who dat? Dn oreach to him
yourself. 4
1Thid.
2
rh d.
3
Ibid.
4lbid., p. 737.
73
But as he was turninr to go, $tub1, desiring more fun at the Nero’s ex
pense, bade him to continue as he pleased; and with this command, Fleece
continued his sermon:
t you is all sharks, and by natur
wery woracious, yet I zay to you, fellow—
critters, dat dat woraciousness- ‘top dat
dam slappin’ ob de taiU How you tirik
to hear, ‘spose you keep up such a dam
slapping and hitin’ dare?’1
‘hen, Stubb, still laughing, collared Fleece, and told him that he would
not stand. for such swearing, and that he must talk more g&itlemanly to
them.
Fleece continued his sermon; but finally they both decided that
the whales wore too dumb
Fleece to
tjronounce
to
know what he was sayin, so they ordered
the benediction and to leave the sharks alone.
2
Havini’ had all of the fun that they desired on the sermon to
the sbarks, the crew began to chide the cook about the tourh steak and
had a hearty lauø’h at the ir’norruce and stubbornness of this old Nero.
Stubb, who had taken the initiative in teasing Fleece about his un
gentlemanly sermon to the sharks, also ok the initiative in this cci;—
versation; and to show Fleece how ugh the steak actually was, he made
him eat a piece of it.
Still maintaining his former stubbornness, Fleece
smacked his lips down on a piece and said: “Pest cooked ‘teak I eber
taste; joosy, berry joosy.”3
Seein’ that all of their previous methods of making Fleece re
lent had failed, the crew then began to make use of what they thouht to
he a more practical stratagem; they be’an to aeal to his relipion:
‘Onok said Stubh, squaring himself
once more; ‘do you belong to the church?
1Ibid.
2
31b1 -1.
4lbid., p. 939.
74
‘Passed one once in Cape—Down’,
•..‘4nd
said the old man sullenly.’
yet you come here, and tell me such
a dreadful lie as you did just now,
‘Jnre do you ex
eli?’ aid Stubb
pect to go to cook?’
Fleece replied that he was oing to bed very soon; but Stubb explained
that he meant where did he exoect to go when he died.
To this Fleece re
‘hen dis old brack :nan dies’,
said the negro slowly, changing his
whole air and demeanor, ‘he hisseif
won’t go nowhere; but some bressed
anpel will coiie and fetch iiim
After they had teased Fleece,the crew finally decided to dis
miss him with the instructions that he must learn how to cook a wale
steak and to prepare a different dish for the next meal.
But old Fleece
was still dissatisfied with their teasing and limped away grumbling to
himsolf
‘ish, by gori Whale eat him, ‘stead
of him eat whale.
I’m hrssed if he
ain’t more of3 shark dan massa shark
hisseif.’.
Despite this Negro’s sullenness, stubbornmess and laziness,
there was nothing of the humble Uncle Tom about him; h sooke what he
thought in just as biting a tone as the members of the crew spoke to
him.
Enually as interesting as any person on board the ship,
whether white or Negro, was little Pip, a Negro boy from Alabama who is
introduced in the novel as follows:
1lbid.
21b i d.
3
Thid.
75
...Black Little Pip
he never did
oh, no
he went bef ore. Poor Alabama hoy On the
grim Pecuod’s forecastle, ye shall ere long
see him, beating his tambourine; prelusive
of the eternal time, when sent for, to the
great quarter—deck on his’h, he was bid
strike in a±th angels, and beat his tembourine
in lopr; called a ward here, hailed a hero
there
——
—-
Typical of the usual portrayal of The Hegro, Pip
is pictured
as being an easily frightered, cowardly ierro, who
spent much of his
time furnishing music on his tambourine for the
crew.
His most outstand
ing characteristic, however, seems to he his profou
nd cowardice, Which
is ompiasized throughout the novel.
hhen the squall arose, the other
nmbers of the crew were equally as frightened and
terror—stricken as
Pip; hut Pip revealed his fear nre than the others.
For, like nst He
ro characters in merican literature, he was inten
sely reliious; con—
sequently, in his fear he knelt in prayer to his
aker and said:
...But there they go, all cursing, and here
I don’t.
Fine prospects to ‘em; they’re on
the road to heaven.... Oh, thou big white
God aloft there somewhere in yen darkness,
have nrcy on this small black boy down here
:
nreserve him rom all men that have no bowels
to feel feail
Still another time when Pip’s cowar3ice was reve
aled was when
he was placed in the boat to assist Stuhh to
capture a whale.
Fright
ened to his wit’s end, poor little Pip plunged
into the water and be
came entangled in the whale line2which, of course,
nant that if little
Pip were freed the whale would be lost.
Cursing and swearing, old
Stubb freed poor Black Pip, id told him never
perform such an act
again; for if he did, he was going to keep the
whale in preference to
1
Ibid., p. 231.
2lbid., p. 866.
76
freeing him the next time.
But on another day, Pip did the identical
thinp, and Stubh, true to his promise, allowed hii to remain n the water,
unnoticed by the other members of the
Little Pip was almost drowned.
crew,for
such a prolonged time that
1
In addit ion to his other characteristics, Pip was a very hanrrr
o—lucky type who sang and played on his tambourine; yet Jelville
never
failed to give him credit for having a good mind, even surpassing
that of
a white boy on hoard the same ship; f or in hi s description of him he
says:
In outer aspects, Pip and Dough—Boy made
a match, like a black pony and a white one,
of eoual development, though of dissirilar
color, driven in one eccentric sPan. But
while hapless Dowrh_Poy was h.r nature dull
end tornid in his intellects, Pip, though
over tender—karted., was at bottom very
bripht, with hat pleasant, genial, jolly
brightness peculiar to his tribe; a tribe,
which ever enjoys all holidays and fesLi.vi—
ties with finer, freer relish than any
other race.2 For blacks, the year’s calen
dar should show naught but these hundred
and sixty-five Fourth of July’s and 1ew
Year’s Days. Nor smile so, while I mrite
that this little black was brilliant, for
even blachiess has its brilliancy; behold
you lusrous ebony,
panelled in king’s cab
inets. Tut Pip loved3life, end all life’s
peaceable securities.
Pip’s
care—free
spirit,
his cowardice and his faithfulness
!‘ained the love and sympathy
of
this old
sea
ithab.
had
captain, who, when Pip
was
to
left in the water by Stuhh and when everyone had given him up for lost,
was very worried;
and when Pip
and said:4
1lbid.,, pp. 1000—1009.
2
Ihi-., p. 1007.
Ihid..
was
finally rescued,he grasped his hand
77
...0h, ye frozen hea.vens look
down here. Ye did beget this
luckless child, and htwe abandoned
him, ye creative libertines. Fere,
boy; Ahab’s cabin shall be Pip’s
home hrnceforth, while hab lives.
Thou touchest my inmost centre, boy;
thou art tied to me by cords, woven
Come, lets
of my heart—strings.
prouder
I
feel
Come
...
down’,
than
hand,
black
thy
by
thee
leading
though I grasped on Emperor’s.”
Pnd truly did lack Pip merit the love of old Ahab, for he regained faith
ful to him throughout the journey; and on one occasion he pleaded with
2
Ahab to allow him to accompany him, but Ahab reolied:
-
‘Lad, lad, I tell thee thou must
The hour is com
not follow Ahab now.
scare thee from
not
would
Ahab
hen
ing
him, yet would not have thee by him.
There is that in thee, poor lad, which
I feel too curing to my malady. Like
cures like; nd for this hunt, my malady
Do thou
becomes my most desired health.
serve
shall
they
where
here,
below
abide
thee, as if thou wert the captain..
Little Pip replies:
Ye have not a whole
‘iTo, no, no
but use por me for
do
ye
sir;
body,
only tread upon
leg;
lost
your one
so I remain
I
nore,
no
ask
me, sir;
ye.’4
a part of
Ahab answers:
‘0hz ite of million villains, this
makes me a bigot in the fadeless fidelity
but
of man
and a blacl:1 and crazy
—
Ibid.
2
Ind., p. 1077
.-:‘t-
-
3
Ibid.
--‘
4
--,
Ibid.
-
•
•
•
-:
-
-.
-
••
7P
methinks like—cures—like anplies to him
too he prows so sane apain.’
Still protesting id oleading, Pip tells
Ahab that he will never leave
him.
Ahab still refuses:
...‘True art thou, lad, as the circum
ference tO its centre. So: God for
ever bless thee; and if it came to
that
God for ever save thee, let
what will befall.’2
--
Yet, despite Pip’s cowardice, his intense
religiousness, his faithful,
hangy—f’o—lucky, carefree s’irit, there was
sortthing about him that dis—
tinguished him from the usual portryal of
the Negro in literature.
He
had a bright mind, and in his faithfulness
to b,there is much more
than the mere love of a white captain for
an inferior black cabin boy.
hhen Ahab became extremely moody and would
seek seclusion, the only per
son that he would take with him was this littl
e black boy, who remained
loyally by his side.
Like the friendship existing 5etweenQ
ueeueq and
Ishmael, the bond between Ahab and Elack
Pip was on a fratemalistic
basis rather than a paternalistic one.
It also appears that Pip’s place in this
novel was as sag—
nificant as that of Stubb, Starbuck, Ahab
or the white whale; for he,
too, had a niace 1n the symbolism of the
story.
Of Melville’s novels, Benito Cerno, one
of his shorter novels,
is the only
one
whose main plot is certered around Negroes.
The settng
of this novel is laiti in St. Naria, a smal
l deserted uninhabited isld
near the southern extremity of the coast
of Chile, where captain Amasa
Delano of Duxhury,
ing Negro slaves.
1lbid.
2
Ibid.
Eassachusetts, discovers a Spanish merc
hantman carry
Of the slaves on board, the two most
outstanding Ne—
79
proes are Eaho, the supnosed bodyuard of the Spaniard, Don Benito; and
Atufal, the Negro in chains.
On entering the vessel, Ca?tain Delano was brDressed by the Ne
groes on board the ship; and especially was he impressed with Babo, the
seemingly faithful, body niard of Don Denito who because of his physical
incapability was forced to lean upon someone for support:
Marking, the noisy indodilty of the
blacks in general, as well as what seeired
the sullen inefficiency of the whites, it
was not without hwnane satisfaction that
Captain Delano witnessed the steady good
conduct of Babo.
But the good conduct of Babo, hardly
more than the ill—behavior of others,
se en d to vi t hdr aw the half—lunatic Don
renito from his cloudy lanpuor.1
Freouently Don Eenito was seized with severe cotwhing attacks
and when he was, Eabo always remained loyally by his side until he was
sure that his master was safe from relapse.
Don ‘nito never ‘afled to
let it be known that he owed much to Eabo for assisting him physically
end for calming the vindictive Negroes on board who were willing to rise
2
up against Don Denito and kill him.
Still believinr
that Babo was the faithful, loyal servant,as
both Don Benito and Baho had irferrd, Captain Delano continned to
shower his praises and adiüration for such a Black, and on one occasion
he offered to purchase Babe fran Don Benito.
But before Don Benito could
make any sort of reply to this request, Babo, who was standing by, an—
3
swered that his master would not part from him for a thousand doubloons;
1
in Shorter Novels, of Herman Melville,
Penman Melville, “Benito ‘-inc
ed. Raymond P. Weaver, New York, 1932, p. 16.
2
Thid., p. 16.
naturally Captain Anasa Delano, being an Acrican white
mar, could not
understand why it was that Don Benito, a white man,
would stand peaceably
hr and tolerate this
imnertinept
initiative on the cart of a black.
The existing conlition on hoard the “san Loiairick”
became evei
more complex, and even thouch Captain Delano had seen
many things which
led him to doubt some of the suscicious, unbelievable
stories that Don
Benito told him, he still thought Baho to be a typic
al, hunhle, docile,
“Uncle Tom” Ne’-re of merica, and never once susnected
that he was the
intellir’ert, rebellious Negro that he actually was.
It was not until
he was about to make his denarture that Captain Delano
became aware of
what was actually takinn’ place
d1
the “San Doinick”.
As he was leav—
ing, Don Benito accompanied hm to his boat, and
before he knew what
was hanoening, tids poor, weak, Spaniard threw himsel
f in the boat at
the feet o C
ielano, callin
to ard his
snip
in a ±rnzicd tone
Baff led by Don Benito’s stranve behavinr, and thinkin
g that probably he
was making it anpear that Cantain Delano was attenting
to kicnap him,
Delano ordered his men to row away.
But in the meantime the blanks on
hoard the “San hominick” had armed themselves and
were
rowin out to the
“American”, and on reaching it, Babo raimed his dagger
, and to Caotain
Delano’s surprise he aimed his dagger at Don Benito.
It was then that
Delano realized that it was Don Benito who was the slave
and not the
1
Ne roe s.
‘hen the matter was nvesti’aed,t was found that Don
Lenito
Cereno had set sail vith a cargo of Negro slaves belong
ing to Don Alex—
andro Oranda, a gentleman of the Mondoza.
Among these slaves there was
Babo, “a smart ‘enro”, and Atufal, Ita powerful Ne’ro”,
the latter being
Ibil., pp. 76—77.
81
fonnerly a chief ir Africa.
On the seventh day of their journey, the
TTegroes, under the commend of Babe, rose up against the Snaniards, end
took control of the boat, ordering the deponent to steer toward Sene gal,
a Nerro island, stating that if he hesitated one moment in do:ing so, they
would see that all white persons on hoard wore killed.
continued for man:r d
This situation
,di-ring which time, Babo, who ueered first in
the role of an humble, obedint servant, was the actual leader.
1
He
naid for his bold stroke for freedom with Mc life:
...As for the black——whose brain,
not bocbr had schemed and led the
revolt ... he was c1rar’ed to his
death.2
Cooperating with this Negro, Fabo, was Atufal, who was equally
as clever as the forcer; hut unlike Baho, who was a Dr. Jekyl end Mr.
iBsde, Atufal was a rebellious Nero from his initial appearance in the
story.
As one first sees Atufal, he is heiug hrouc’ht before Don Benito
in chains for the sole nurnose of having him beg Bonito
$
pardon for
some misdemeanor; but wher fln Eenito requested him to ask his for7ive—
fle3S,
Atufal stood motionless and unmoved and replied that he would
never beg his pardon, as he was perfectly contented in his present state
of chains.3 This powerful, stalwart, unrelenting ‘ero worked hand in
hand with haico and1together, these two conducted a craftily planned,
p. 98.
p. 105. In 1839 a similar revolt actually occurred on hoard a
Soonich shin loaded with Ieoro slaves who were heinr taken from Sierra
Leone to the United States.
It is very probably that Lelville may
have used this same incident for the plot of his novel. For an accurate
account of this mutiny see Susan, E. VT. Jocolyii, “The Story of the
Miistad”, Crisis VII—IX (January, 1915), pp. 139—140. See also Carter
Godwin Vooson, The Nero in Our Fistory (ashington, 1922), p. 546.
3
“bonito Cereno”, on. cii., t,p. 6—74.
82
and well—organized mutiny.
Pefore concluding this s bory of a rebellious black folk a’ainst
the white crew, helv lie rives a good description of the Nearoe s and an
excellent analysis of how the Anrican Captain Delano reacted to and
thoucht about Neoroes in p’en@ral, which shows that elville1s travels had
not urevented him from hnowing the m’iln strean of thought on the Negro
question in America.
As he boarded the shio, ‘an iJo!rthIck”, Captain
Delano was particularly imurossed by the picture that these Negroes pre
sented:
...esnecially the consnicuous figures
of four elderly grizzled negroes,
their heads like black doddered
willow tops, who in venerable con
trast to the tumult below them,
were couched sphynx—like on the
starboard oat—head. Another on
the larhoar-i, and the remaining
pair face to face on the onnosfcte
bulwark above the main—chains.
The’r each had Tdts of unstranded
old j unk in their hands, and ml 1±
a sort of sto ca]. self content
vTer O’liflP the junk into cakum,
a small heap which lay by their
They aceoman.ier3 the task
sides.
with a continuous low norotonous
chant; roninr and rroolin’ cwar
like so many :r0: r_hraed1bag niners
nlying a funeral march.
Thile on board the shim, Captain Delano made many noimworthr
remarks concerninr the Negro, among which was one concerning the super
iority of the white races.
Francesco, the steward, was a very handsome
lookinr mulatto 711th all of the characteri stics of a Euroncan; and as
he approcohed, Cantain Delano imagined that he saw a tinge of jealousy
n the eyes of black Baho as he looked upon this mulatto, whi oh, of
Ibid., p. 8.
P3
course,
he attributed to the hostile feeling entertained by the full—
bicoded African for the adulterated !ero.
Delano told Don
LeItltO
When Francesco left, Captain
that he was very haornr to see this handsome mulatto
Possessing such cultured and refined manners; for he had always been told
that such a Nerro was always a devil.
Prancesco was truly a
TriL
hereuoon Don flerito replied that
cultured Negro.
Fully assured that Fran—
cesco was good as well as handsome, the Amorican said:’
‘Ah, I thought so. For it were
strange, indeed, end not very cred
itable to us white—z:.5.ns, if a little
of our blood mixed with the Africans’,
should, far from onroring the
latter’s cuality, have the sad effect
of pauriuc” vitrolic acid into black
broth; imurovin the hue, but not the
wholesomeness.’
Later, Captain Delano made a statement concernim” the natural
abilities of the two races, which reveals a”ain the a”e—ol4 Anglo—3 axon
concention of the Ne”ro.
As has been stated before, Catain Delano was
baffled by the actions of the Nerroes and freauntly doubted the re—
liabll2ty of some of the stories related by Don fenito.
On one oartcu—
icr .ay, Captain Delano saw a Spaniard start out.as if he were going
somewhere, suddenly stop and cautiously look around, and then disanpear
as if he had heard an advancing stop.
This peculiar cetion of the sailor
sat Delano thinkinc, and his mind ran hank to his earlier co?wersations
vrith Don Ienito.
At irst, he began to behave that flenito’s pleas of
indisposition were all a pretense and that in reality, Don Penite was
engaged in maturim”. some plot with the blacks:
1
Ibid., p. 45.
84
.The whites, too, by nature were
the shrewder.... But if the whites
had dark secrets concerning Don Benito,
could then, Don Benito he in any way
in complicity with the blacks? But
they were too stupid. Besides, who
ever heard of a white so far a rene
:“ade as to anostatize from his very
species, by leaguing in agarst it
with Ne’roes.1
Later, in the scene where Baho is shaving his rr ster, Delano
stands lookin on, end the followin thoughts come to him:
There is something in the Negro,
which, in a peculiar way, Pits him
for avocations about one’s nr-rson.
ost
eroes
are natural
valets
end
comb
and brush ‘enialiy as to the castanets,
and flourishing them annarently with
almost ecual satisfaction.
. . .I\nd
above all is the great gift of good
humor. Not the mere grin or lau ‘h
is here meant.
Those were unsuitable.
But a certain cheerfulness harmonious
in every dance end gesture; as though
God had set th whole Negro to some
pleosant tune.
hair
dressers,
taking
to
the
Often, when at home, Delano used to amuse himself by watchind some freed
coloured man at his work or nay; and while at sea, he enjoyed listening
to some garrulous Nerro, who vas chatty with hini.
attitude:
...In fact, like most men of a good,
blithe, heart, Capain Delano took
to negroes, not ohilanthronically,
hut renially, just s other nn to
New ioundland dogs.
Ibid., pp. 44—45.
2
Ibid.,
t.
59.
3
Ibid., p. 57.
elville describes his
85
Among other things, Delano was definitely impressed by the
bright colored flag which Babo used as a shaving towel; for it gave him a
chance to remark about the general belief that Ner’roes love bright and
gaudy colors.
While shaving Don Benito, Babo produced a bright—colored
Spanish flag and flung it over his master.
Caitain De].ano, who was stand
ing near by, re’frd that it was a rood thing that Charles V. did not
see them using a Spanish flag in such a degrading manner.
...‘but’
turning toward the black,-—
titTs all on, I suppose, so the colours
be gay’
——
In the several conversations of Caotain Delano, four outstand
ing racial attitudes are mani.fotod: (1) that a drop of white blood in a
iTepro’s veins elevates him both physically and morally; (2) that the
white race is naturally shrewder than the Negro race; (3) that Negroes
have an ardent love for bright colors;
and (4) that the white man re
gards the Negro not so much as a man as he regards him as sothing to
fondle and pet, whose main purpose is either to serve the white man or to
amuse him.
Captain Delano’s reaction to the Negro represents the trnical
American attitude.
He would not have consented to enter upon such a
friendly and intimate basis with Cueequeq, an frican savage, as Islimael
did
fl
Mohy Dick; neither would he have entertained the some feeling for
Pip as did Ahab.
Nelville in his portrayal of the Negro is, perhaps,
doing what he attempted with the native of the South gea Island.
sen±ing the two extreme
way
——
attitudes
-
—
In nra
the Arican way and the Christian
he makes very clear which one he prefers.
And, consequently,
Cantain Delano stands as a rebuke to the prejudice of his countrymen.
Ibid., p. 59.
Cf1APTER IV.
CONCLUS IOU
The foregoing cha’tcrs have dealt nth the following ohases of
the study: (1) The Darker Races in literature, (2) Nelville aid the Na
tives of the Pacific7and (3) Lelville and the
Negro,
n an attemot, as
was stated in the oreface, to discover to what extent !.elville was in
fluenced
5r
contn
orr’ coinion in ins treatment of the Negro end native
of the South Seas as literary mafrial.
It is
very
evident that ie1ville judged what he saw in the South
Seas with impartial eyes, and as far as nosshle oresented an accurate
account of the existing conditions on the tmlands.
Unlike most writers,
he did not attempt to ridicule or censure the natives for their peculiar
customs which were beyond the whie :nan’s compre}nsion; he merely pre
sented the facts as an unprejudiced spectator.
lie regarded their customs
and festivities with a symnethetic understanding; and this understanding
was not that which a man manifests for something IrC considers his inferior,
hut one that a an has for an underprivileged brother.
In his treatment of the Negro, Nelville evinced evidence of be
ing far more infli.need by contemoorary opinion than in his treatment of
the natives of the Pacific; yet, he was far less prejudiced than the ma
jority of Pmerican writers of his time.
For the seventeen Nec’ro charac
ters found in Nelville’s works may he divided into three Troups: (1) the
“t’roc” Necrroes who maintain their sunerficial role assigned to them by
earlier writers; (2) the ‘egroes who maintain some superficial character
istics, but, in some respects, are individualized personalities; and
(3) the individualized Negroes.
The first group of Negroes consists of Baltimore, Billy Loon
86
87
Fleece, Sunshine, !ose—water, hay—day, Thompson, Coffee and Dc Scuak.
Even the appellations assigned to these ITegroes arc, for the most part,
typical of those previously given the Negro in stories.
The second group of Negroes consisof Pip end Lavender.
Pi
is much more than the usual portrayal of a little black cabin boy, and
his s1aee in the novel is as significent as that of the outstanding white
men; and Lavender is different from the usual ignorant, flashily—dressed
Nero in some respects.
Melville, like many other writers of the nineteenth century,
was a northerner and much of his knowledge of the Negro came from second—
ary sources; yet, unlike many of the other northern writers, who merely
presented the egro in his usual superficial role, Melville varied his
Negroes and gave a somewhat representative assortment.
In addition, it
must he remembered that it is highly possible and probably that Melville
actually saw such Negroes as Coffee and Fleece on board the ships; and.
that he, as in the case of the South Sea natives, was merely presenting a
realistic situation.
Credit should also be n’iven Melville for the diminution of hum
ble Neroes in his works.
Out of these nine “types’ Neroes
Baltimore
was the only docile “Uncle Tomu creation, and Melville admits that of the
two
—
Black Dan and Baltimore
latter.
—
he admires the former much more than the
This is a decided step forward toward the acceptance of the Me
gro as a human being in American literature.
Contrasted to the other two roups of Ne’roes, are Queequeq,
Daggoo, the American cantain, Dabo, Atui1, and Black Dan, who renresent
the more realistic creations.
Noticeable is the facb that four out of these six individual—
88
ized Negroes are native—born Africans; while only two are Americans, a
fact which makes it appear that yelville was caahle of seeing the re
mote African 1enro with less PTejWiCed eyes that the American Negro.
Unusual also is the fact that every one of these individualized Meroes
is black and not mulatto, which is quite differert from the genra1 belief
of most Anericans; for in the works of the majority of Arrican writers,
the black Negro has been assigned the role of the humble “Uncle Tom”;
while the mulatto, because of his possession of a few drops of white
blood, has been considered the rebellious, “d.nr’orous” Negro.
In conclusion, it may be stated that Melville’s later works re
veal a more humanized and individualized Negro character than his earlier
ones.
The Negroes in Omoo and Redhurn assume, for the most part, their
usual superficial roles; while in White Jacket, Iohy Dick and Benito
Cereno they become individualized personalities.
‘ith Melville, then,
the recognition of the Negro as a human being was a matter of growth
and maturity.
He says himself in one of his earlier works:
Being so young end unexperienced
then, and unconsciously swayed in
some degree by those local and social
prejui ces that are the marring of
most men, and from which, for the
mass, there seems no possible escape;
at first I was surprised that a
coloured men should be treated as he
is in this town; but a little reflec
tion showed tlat, after all, it was
but recognizing his claims to humanity
and normal equality;...’
1
op. cit., p. 1520.
B IELIOGRAPIP(
liELVIIJE ‘S !CViLS
lelvifle, Herman. Romances of Herman Melville. New York. Tudor Publish
ing Company. 1931.
i.e1vil1e, Herman. Shorter Novels of Hernan Melville. ed. Rarnond Li.
Weaver • New York. FEace Liveright. TW
BACKGROUND
Trawley, Tnnj arm. The Iie1ro In Literature and Art in the United States.
New York. Duffield and Company. 1929.
Brorm, Ster1in”. The_Negro Ir tmerIcan Fiction. New York. J. B. Lyon
Press. 1937.
Cable, George Ti.
1926.
The Grandi ssimes. New York. Charles Scribrer’s Sons.
Cooper, Jnes Fenimore.
The_ky. New York. A. L. Burt Comoany. .d.J
DuBois, WilHem Edward Eurghardt. Black Reconstruction.
Iiarcourt, Trace end Company. 1933.
New York.
harris, Joel Chancilor.
1925.
Uncle Remus. New York. P. ppleton and Company.
Hesseltine, William B.
1936.
Inc.
A History of the $oubh.
Lelsy, Eiiest Erwin.
1929.
Locke, A1:k,
Jrmrican Literature.
ed. The NewNegro.
Hew York.
Prentice—Hall
New York. Thomas Y. Crowell,
New York. Albert and. Charles Toni. 1925.
Nelson, John Herbert. The Negro Character in Prricon Literature. Law
1926.
rence, Kansas. Derartcrorit of Journalism Press.
The Nerro: The Southerier’s Pro1le:.
Page, Thomas Nelson.
1904.
Charles Scribner’s Sons.
In Ole Vir’iric.
New York.
New York.
Char1s $crbner’s
Sons. 1927.
Poe, Edgar Allen. Tales of hstery.
1925.
Button arid Coany.
89
ed. Ernest Ehys.
London. E. P.
_____
90
Chapel Fill, North Carolira.
Reddins, J. Saunders. To kaLe a Poet Black.
1939.
Press.
Carolina
North
of
University
Neuter, Edward Byron. The rJulatto in the United States.
Richard G. Bad5er rGorham Press). 1910.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher.
Dred.
Twain, karl:.
.dj
Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
flo1ton k5fflin end Company. 1096.
Boston end New York.
Harper end Brothers. 1912.
New York.
Huckleberry Elm.
New York.
Tourcee, ANbion k. Bricks LTithout Straw.
1080.
HuThert.
New York.
VToodson, Carter Oodwin. The e€ro in Our kistor:.r.
l2P.
The Associated Pul 1 kers, Inc.
Fords, Howard and
ashinrton, D. C.
CR1 TIC ISUS
B0OFS
Heruan UelvS lie.
Mumford, Lewic.
1929.
Inc..
New York.
Earcourt, Brace and Company,
Thorne, killard. ‘1erman kelvlle. Representative Slect5ons, ei5.th
Introduction, B5bliograohy end Notes. .merican Uriters Series.
1938.
New York. Aierican Book Company.
Meaver, Raymond U. kariror and Ltic.
1921.
Comranv.
New York.
Georie H. Loran
PIRIODI CARS
Fors:’±he, Robert S.
the South Seas”.
pp. 7—9.
11T
ocR Review of Charles U. nderson’s keiville in
Imerir.cxz Literature, vol. I. (Uarch7,”
“TLe Story of the kintad’..
Jocelvri, Susan E. VI.
(January, 1915) pp. 139—140.
“Yarn for Melville’s Tyee”.
Russel, Thomas.
vol. XV (Jenuory, 1936), pp. l6—2E.
Crisis, Vol. VIl—IX.
PhiloloFical uarter1r,
“Melville’s Use of Some Source in the Ea1ibados”.
•
EerlcnnIUterature. Vol. III (January, 1932), pp. 432—456.
Scudder, II. F. Melville’s Fnito Cere;’o ord Cenain Delano’s Voyapes.
PuThlicatioym n5 the Lnderr Laiv a’e As ccci at 5cr. vol. XLTIII
pp. 02—9S2.

Herman Melville`s attitude toward the darker races

Transcription

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