There are two possible historical sources for the name John Cabot. The first is that of an Italian navigator who made a 1497 voyage to North America and therefore serves as an allusion to European colonialism that would eventually birth the slave trade. The second is the Cabot family of Boston, MA, who had a reputation for wealth and self-righteousness. Elements of both these personages appear in the poem and, if anything, highlight the character's obsession with their ancestry and their sanctimonious self-perception.