Fear and Morality

Herman Melville, born in New York City in 1819, left his family’s failing business in an attempt to revive the family fortune. After much relocation and many failed attempts, Melville’s only chance to gain financial success was taking part in a whaling voyage in 1941. After Melville’s many travels he decided to write books about his adventures. Melville is famous for many of his works but his most recently published novel, appearing in 1924 thirty years after his death, was Billy Budd. Billy Budd’s accurate accounts of sea travel and slave culture gained the attention of many scholars. They’ve used his narrative to better understand our countries history.
In chapter 9 of Melville’s final novel, Billy Budd witnesses a life changing event. Billy is placed in the foretop, a platform at the top of the ships foremast, where he has a full view of all the activity taking place on the deck. While sitting at his post on his second day aboard the Bellipotent he witnesses slave violence for the first time. A novice forgets to show up on time to his assigned post and is whipped until he bleeds. This incident makes a significant impression on Billy and he states “never through remissness would he make himself liable to such a visitation or do or omit aught that might merit even verbal reproof.” Billy Budd decides to make sure that he will always perform his duties efficiently and on time so that he will never be the subject of the master’s beatings.
This passage exemplifies the fear that masters evoked on their slaves to keep them under control. They made examples out of misbehaving slaves, many times punishing them more severely than they normally would, to scare the other slaves into always following orders. This same kind of fearful relationship between mater and slave is shown in Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass and in Kristen McKenzie’s article about slavery and transportation. She talks about the strict rules and schedules placed upon the slaves by the master of the ship in order for the voyage to run without any chance of disobedience or sabotage by the abused slaves. Her article also discusses the morality of the “whites” and “blacks” during the time period and the duties of each party. The whites feel as though they need to prove superiority to their slaves in order to keep them under control so that they will do their job without any complaints. The blacks see this to be cruel and inhumane.
In addition, it provides support for the limited amount of slave revolts. Even though we know the slaves were miserable with their oppressed lifestyle and inhumane living arrangements, we don’t have much evidence of organized revolt. This could be due to the fear the slaves had of their masters. Being the subject of such violence and cruelty and seeing the lack of compassion the “white man” had, gave slaves the impression that there was no hope and that any attempt to better their situation would end in greater hardship.

McKenzie, Kirsten, 1970-. "Discourses of Scandal: Bourgeois Respectability and the End of Slavery and Transportation at the Cape and New South Wales." Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 4.3 (2003) Project MUSE.