Benito Cereno And The Heroic Slave

Intro: Revolutions tend to have a negative connotation to them, seeming bloody and fighting against logic. However, revolutions can be a positive thing and they sometimes are such as the American Revolution, but revolutions only tend to be positive things when you have the correct person who is in charge to manage everything that happens. In Benito Cereno by Melville, Into the Wild by Krakauer, and The Heroic Slave by Douglass the characters become the people leaders of their respective rebellions. Although their success varies, Chris, Babo, and Madison all have the capability to rebel because the intelligence that they display throughout their active rebellions, which are isolated from society.

Body 1(success): The success of their revolts
Babo temporary owned the ship and had began to move towards Senegal as his plan initially intended, however, when he saw Delano’s ship the possibility of staying in charge decreased immediately. After the slave rebellion was discovered, Babo and his men quickly lost control of the ship and soon Babo’s “body was burned to ashes; but for many days, the head, the give of subtlety, fixed on a pole in the Plaza, met, unabashed, the faze of the whites”(Melville 112). Babo’s crew lost control of the ship and his hopeful revolution came to a sudden crash as his head became a signature of the result of future attempted revolutions. Although Madison as had his revolution on a boat at sea, he was able to succeed completely because he realized that the needed to quickly become free. He decided to quickly go to Canada where he could become a free man with other fellow slaves and they all “bid farewell to all on board, and uttering the wildest shouts of exultation, they marched, amidst the deafening cheers of a
The intellect needed to temporarily have a successful revolution is a difficult thing to find and our characters found it in completely different ways. Babo found his education through his multiple years he spent in Spain with his master, he uses this education immediately in his revolution by surprising the Spaniards and making the difficult decisions about the value of their lives. However, he used his intellect most when he had to deal with the adversity of Cereno’s ship, “these arrangements were made and matured during the interval of two or three hours”(Melville 106). Unlike the rebellion which he had plenty of time to plan, his knowledge of the sea and people was put under the stress of only having 3 hours to plan an attempt to remain in charge. The plan was thoroughly thought out and was successful in diverting Delano’s attention for almost his entire visit until Cereno jumped onto his ship alerting him of the actual situation. Madison had become an educated man from his years as a slave, but additionally from the time he spend as a free man because being caught again. Madison knew that his knowledge was essential to his success so he hid it, “none of us knew the extent of his intelligence and ability till it was too late”(Douglass 48). Madison’s knowledge was not only expansive, but he withhold it from the sailors