The Empire of Necessity : Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World

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Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-342) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Fast fish. Hawks abroad ; More liberty ; A lion without a crown ; Body and soul ; A conspiracy of lifting and throwing ; Interlude : I never could look at death without a shudder -- A loose fish. A suitable guide to bliss ; The levelling system ; South Sea dreams ; Interlude : black will always have something melancholy in it -- The new extreme. The skin trade ; Falling man ; The crossing ; Diamonds on the soles of their feet ; Interlude : heaven's sense -- Further. Killing seals ; Isolatos ; A terrific sovereignty ; Slavery has grades ; Interlude : a merry repast -- If God wills. Night of power ; The story of the San Juan ; Mohammed's cursed sect ; Interlude : abominable, contemptible Hayti -- Who ain't a slave? Desperation ; Deception ; Retribution ; Conviction ; Interlude : the machinery of civilization -- General average. Lima, or the law of general average ; The lucky one ; Undistributed ; Epilogue : Herman Melville's America.
Summary, etc.:	Documents an early nineteenth-century event that inspired Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno," tracing the cultural, economic, and religious clash that occurred aboard a distressed Spanish ship of West African pirates.