How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"…but poor Babo here, in his own land, was only a poor slave; a black man's slave was Babo, who now is the white's." (3.107)
Is this true? We don't actually know enough about Babo to be sure whether he was a slave in his home or not. This is perhaps one sign that Melville was, in fact, on the side of the slavers—you never really learn very much about Babo or his background. The story seems as little interested in him as a person as Delano does.
Quote #5
There's naked nature, now; pure tenderness and love, thought Captain Delano, well pleased.
This incident prompted him to remark the other negresses more particularly than before. He was gratified with their manners: like most uncivilized women, they seemed at once tender of heart and tough of constitution, equally ready to die for their infants or fight for them. (3.183)
Delano says that the black women are ready to die or fight for their infants—but he doesn't consider that those infants are in danger of being sold away into slavery. He's telling himself why the black women would be willing to kill him, but he's too dense (and racist) to realize it.
Quote #6
But if the whites had dark secrets concerning Don Benito, could then Don Benito be any way in complicity with the blacks? But they were too stupid. Besides, who ever heard of a white so far a renegade as to apostatize from his very species almost, by leaguing in against it with negroes? (3.191)
Here's a point where Melville seems anti-racist. Delano explicitly says that black people are stupid, and too dumb to plot against him. But that's false, as you learn in the story. Black people aren't stupid; they're certainly, in this story, much smarter than Delano.