Benito Cereno

“Benito Cereno,” a story of atmospheric Gothic horror and striking political resonance, represents Herman Melville’s most profound and unsettling engagement with the horrors of New World slavery. Narrating the story of a slave revolt using materials drawn from Amasa Delano’s non—fictional account of the Tryal Rebellion from earlier in the nineteenth century, Melville’s story probes the moral complexities of the antebellum United States and its position within the Americas. Melville explores...