One of Melville's greatest mysteries was his choice to change the historically accurate Tyral ship which the San Dominick's voyage was based on. As cited below, the Tyral was believed to be altered to the San Dominick to reflect the setting leading up to the Haitian Revolution. Melville, also changed the date of the slave mutiny from 1805 to 1799 in order to put it in the exact same time period as the Haitian uprising. Throughout the book Melville also makes reference to Charles V and Saint Bartholomew, who were all heavily involved in the slave trade in Santo Domingo. (Horsley-Meacham 261-262) It is fascinating to think what other liberties may have taken place to accommodate Melville's tale.

http://melvillereader.pbworks.com/w/page/20743997/Significance%20of%20the%20%22San%20Dominick%22

In reference to more work that is listed in reference to "Benito Cereno", " Douglas's "The Heroic Slave" (1853) is the most closely contested example to draw critical differences in representations of Slave Revolts in Colonial History.

"Douglass's novella has often been compared to other accounts of mutinies at sea, including Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast (1846), Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno" (1855) and Billy Budd (1924), Charles R. Johnson's Middle Passage (1990), and Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997). Though all of these narratives demonstrate the unwillingness of enslaved Africans and conscripted whites to submit willingly to bondage, Douglass's text also emphasizes the possibility of changing white attitudes about slavery. Therefore, The Heroic Slave might be said to stage the perfect audience for the abolitionist messages of Douglass and other critics of American slavery. The text invites the reader to emulate the aptly-named Mr. Listwell—to "listen well" to its message and to carry out its mission. Listwell's resolution to stand against slavery demonstrates Douglass's belief that empathetic identification based on words alone might lead to political action and social change."

https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass1853/summary.html

In expansion to my previous annotation referencing this passage ties back to the idea of distancing historical context in association to American/British conflicts in preferences a much more violent, and generic tale of a violent uprising in the French Haitian Revolution context which has historically been misconstrued and utilized as an example to both mobilize and instill fear in prevention of more revolts within the colonial terrain. Tying white morality in tandem to the senseless violence depicted in the court case by Melville is an interesting contrast to the choice to demonstrate the Creole Insurrection in Douglas' "The Heroic Slave".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_case

The Creole Insurrection would be the center of political tensions between the U.S and Britain for decades over the tumultuous negotiations American slave owners attempted to lay claims on lost property during the loss of the 1841 Creole Case, but would also become the most compelling of five noted Slave Revolts which demonstrated the possibility of a revolt to be politically portrayed to the world as a legally legitimate and moral action in means to freedom.

While maps are commonly the site of colonial domain and conquest, this sited interactive map gives context to the chain of slave revolts in Jamaica that provide an understanding to how revolts were formulated. I could not find a similar source to the Haitian revolution, but this shows what can be possible in providing more context to historical fictions.

http://revolt.axismaps.com/map/

What might be considered foreshadowing here, is an interesting perspective on a perceived act of relishing the wielding of violent weapons in indulging. Regardless of interpretation, this is an interesting place to mark an often overlooked perspective of a historical Slave Narrative one might categorize this novella.

"The Heroic Slave" by Frederick Douglass wrote only one work of fiction: this novella, loosely based on a true incident, about a slave who leads a rebellion on board a slave ship. Although it doesn't mention Stowe, it can be read as Douglass' attempt to contest Uncle Tom's Cabin. The novella's description of Madison Washington's appearance closely follows Stowe's first description of Tom. The story Douglass tells, though, allows him to reject her "simple" slave hero (Tom is probably the source for the pious "old slave" Madison encounters in Part II, and whose eloquent praying is a temptation he must resist), and to put in his place a well-spoken black man who fights and kills for his freedom.

Douglass does not, however, dismiss Stowe's audience. He published the story twice in 1853 -- serially in his newspaper, and as his contribution to an Anti-Slavery anthology Stowe's publisher brought out. But he clearly designed the tale to reach the larger white reading public: one of the most interesting aspects of the novella is the strategic way it tries to lead genteel readers not only to active engagement in the abolitionist cause, but also to grant black slaves the same right to rebel against tyranny that America enshrines in its founders. The novella, however, does not seem to have had many contemporary readers, although it was reissued at least once, in pamphlet form in 1863.

While Stowe and other white abolitionists can be found in reference to this novella, it's important to note that Douglass still frequently contested the politics of her beliefs in a way that utilized her name to legitimize and maximize his scholarship to a white audience. How might we draw this comparison to Melville's novella? And additionally, what is the difference is drawing references to Douglas' depictions of the Creole Insurrection in comparison to Melville's depiction of the Haitian Uprising?

https://search.proquest.com/docview/304997646

Because apparently all modes of knowledge and learning are from white Europeans. Bow down in awe of all their creations Melville says!

It's striking how often he references the slave stepping in poop multiple times in association to his actions. "Unwilling to appear uncivil even to incivility itself" sets the constant tone of a racial hierarchy, even to the details of slaves being inescapable from the stench and overall association to savagery in comparison to Melville's protagonists

Melville's lack of regard for human life is particularly noteworthy here. His metaphor of a man being lost in the woods, whilst embarking on "the most civilized" port of Africa continues the relentless theme of comparing the value of white and black lives throughout the narrative.

This echoes an idea from Olaudah Equiano's Slave Narrative in which me constantly refers to the European mindset as a constant victim to their own doings. Tying in the notion of what would be later known as "The White Man's Burden I'm always fascinated by the colonized mentality of a social responsibility over the colonized.

Starting Point

Slightly confused. Would this indicate the eradication of individualized "text" based on the fact that no difference is truly identifiable in the context of written language and experience? Is this about format or expression?

Interesting.. complacency or something deeper? Rather than replicate according to our past, how can we remodel something new while still valuing the work of our past?

note the capitalization of the term. What power do we give words when we capitalize the text. When is it considered incorrect?

note the capitalization of the term. What power do we give words when we capitalize the text. When is it considered incorrect?

Slightly confused. Would this indicate the eradication of individualized "text" based on the fact that no difference is truly identifiable in the context of written language and experience? Is this about format or expression?

Interesting.. complacency or something deeper? Rather than replicate according to our past, how can we remodel something new while still valuing the work of our past?

Meaning of "text" within this context.. as a mention to any physical expression to literature? What does it mean to so broaden the term?