Melville’s Take on the Negro Problem in Moby-Dick

I wanted to look at Melville’s attitude toward the Negro problem in Moby-Dick and also in some of his other works--Benito Cereno, Typee, and Mardi. The Negro problem is the representation of African Americans in 19th century literature, and since many of Melville’s fellow authors did not have any African American characters in their novels Melville’s Moby-Dick made it easier to understand the attitudes toward African Americans. Melville did not give careful consideration to the African American character, he based his black characters in his earlier works on the Negro stereotypes--the most common, that they were savages-- that bombarded the 19th century. The black character Daggoo in Moby-Dick is somewhat different from the Negro stereotype. Melville may have considered the Negro Problem in his earlier works and have altered the black character in Moby-Dick so that he (the black character) may stand at the level of the white characters.