Oroonoko: The Royal Slave

“The Autobiography of a Runaway Slave” revolves around the life of Esteban Montejo: who once set his life is the Caribbean island of Cuba; in which this story provides readers with another distinctive approach to teaching the lives of slavery. As the narration progresses through this writing, readers consequently have many opportunities to annotate how the abolition of slavery played a great role in his personal life. Evidently, whether it is intentional or unintentional, the narrator frequently mentions the ending of slavery, as he substantially detailed “…till slavery left Cuba,” (Barnet 38); “… I got to know all these people better after slavery was abolished,” (Barnet 58); and “It was after Abolition that the term ‘effeminate’ came into

The story, Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave, written by Aphra Behn, depicts the main character, Oroonoko, as being an African prince that lives among his people, whom all abide by a code of virtue and fidelity. When Oroonoko is faced with a dilemma in his own country and living among a “civilized” white society, that are devout Christians, he is confronted with the burden to uphold his code of virtue and maintain a title of being a “Noble Savage” by means of loyalty, religious beliefs, and honor.

James Dexter, also known as Oronoco, was a young man of persistence and humanity. After gaining his freedom in the late 1760s, Oronoco took after his master’s name. Over the course of his life, Dexter touched many lives and spread a wonderful message of equality for all. He felt the pain of living as a slave and knew it was unjust. His intentions when doing anything were always out of justice and kindness. Anyone he meet along the way of trying to emancipate slaves would come to be friends with Dexter. He was a fair, selfless man who throughout his life would buy his and his wife's freedom, worked as a live in coachman for a family, petitioned for gradual emancipation, and held a leadership role in an African American church.

“Learned you this from your God who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?”(65) Settling in the New World was a difficult process regardless of how or why one came. People came to the New World for many reasons, such as, to become wealthy, to acquire land, or for religious freedom. Others were forced to the New World in respect of exhausting labor and restricted freedom. Settlers traveled on boat to come to the New World. Hardly any of these trips across the ocean were ideal, especially for those who were captured and compelled to leave their homes. Through the stories of William Bradford, from “Of Plymouth Plantation, Mary Rowlandson, from “A Narrative of the Captivity”, and Olaudah Equiano, from “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”, it

“The prince among slaves” highlights the real story of African prince, Abdul Rahman of Futa Jallon, who was enslaved and eventually sold to a farm in Natchez, Mississippi. His story initially begins with the evils of Atlantic Slave Trade, which incited war among African empires and principalities in order to fulfil the slave demand of newly established colonies. Despite being the successful leader and prince of highly advance African kingdom of Futa Jallon, he was captured sold to slave traders in exchange of few manufactured goods.

Ooronoko: or the Royal Slave is a story of a brave and young West African Prince who was taken from the Ivory Coast and sold into slavery in the northern part of South America by British Colonizers. A Caucasian female, who grew up in a world where people who were not white were barely seen as human beings especially if they were of African descent, narrates the novel. Ooronoko’s tale begins with the readers being greeted by the anonymous English female narrator who is waiting on a trip back to Europe from the plantation on South Africa that Ooronoko was sent. Early on in the story it becomes clear narrator completely intends to give an exceptionally detailed and vivid description of what

He states “Have they vanquished us nobly in fight? Have they won us in honorable battle? And are we by the chance of war become their slaves? This would not anger a noble heart; this would not animate a soldier’s soul.”(6) So essentially he believes that slaves are good and they help with work “around the house”, but the only way to get slaves is through war. One could argue that he was against slavery because later after he is captured upon a ship, he makes this long speech about freedom and wanting all the other slaves to be free. Oroonoko only makes this speech after he finds out that Imoinda is expecting a child and his appeal for freedom is denied. I am inferring that Oroonoko may not actually give two shits about the slaves, but is more so concerned for the safety of his family and he simply uses the slaves to get his family to “safety”. The Author seems to have found herself in Oroonoko. She most likely, inherently believed that slaves were only rightfully owned if they are received through a war victory.

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko: the Royal Slave is portrayed and written as a personal account of the life of Oroonoko. Oroonoko’s life story is told according the narrator’s eye-witnessed account or by Oroonoko’s own testimony to the narrator, “I was myself an eyewitness to the great part of what you will find here set down, and what I should not be witness of, I receive from the mouth of the chief actor in this history, the hero himself, who gave us the whole transactions of his youth…” (2313). The novel reads as if it were a journal and its’ setting reflects the present day seventeenth century colonial times in which it was written. In her work Oroonoko, Behn brilliantly addresses the evils of slavery through the use of a narrator who is both pro and anti-slavery on different levels leaving the seventeenth century audience to challenge their own beliefs about slavery.

In the short story Oroonoko or the Royal Slave by Aphra Behn, Oroonoko is perceived as a noble savage throughout the story. At first, Oroonoko was just a noble who is able to contain his savage fore, but as events unfold, he is almost completely turned into a savage due to the influence of the white slave owners.

Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko; or The Royal Slave, highlights the immorality of European colonization by focusing on how it serves as a means to corrupt the purity of foreign cultures and deliberately disrupts their way of life. There is an undeniable indication of cultural corruption throughout Behn’s work. The title itself, exemplifies the intricacy of Behn’s work, due to her blatant use of binary oppositions, in order to emphasize the conflicting views of both colonizer and slave. Slaves are unlikely to be deemed as royal, especially in the eyes of their oppressors, which aims to convey the absurdity of colonialism because Europeans claim this practice to be necessary for progress. However, the idea of progress does not take into consideration

When talking about who suffered the greater betrayal one must consider the people who betrayed these two characters. The first major betrayal is the betrayal of King Lear towards her daughter Cordelia. When Lear Sais “Here I disclaim all

Many writers use their literary works to convey the message they want society to hear. Often times this is done through strategies such as parallels and metaphors. Aphra Behn was the first known woman of her time to earn a living from writing. Although the majority of her background is a mystery, we do know that Behn had an agenda to teach society a lesson through her literary work Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave. In the time period that Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave was written (late 16th century), women had to submit to their husbands and were treated as if they were objects rather than human beings. As the first female writer of her time, Aphra Behn uses Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave not only to convey that slavery is cruel, but to also introduce the idea that the women of her time period suffer from inequality to men. Behn conveys a message that slavery is cruel and dehumanizing through her literary work Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave. At first Oroonoko did not see slavery to be cruel; it wasn’t until he was sold into slavery and had to walk a mile in the slave’s shoes that he realized slavery was brutal. From Oroonoko’s observations when he is a slave, he characterizes the slaves as basically animals when he says: “They suffered not like men, who might find a glory and fortitude in oppression, but like dogs that loved the whip and bell, and fawned the more they were beaten”(Behn 961). Behn also conveys the brutality of slavery by giving vivid detail of Oroonoko’s death when she states: “…and first cut off his members, and threw them into the fire, after that, with an ill-favored knife, they cut his ears, and his nose, and burned them…Then they hacked off one of his arms, and still he bore up, and he still held his pipe, but at the cutting off the other arm, his head sunk, and his pipe dropped, and he gave up the ghost, without a groan or a reproach” (Behn 970). Many critics debate on whether or not Behn was against slavery because Behn does not clearly state that slavery is wrong and cruel; however, Behn most certainly implies this message through the characters’ experiences in Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave. According to Adelaide P. Amore in Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave A Critical Addition, “Mrs. Behn, on the

The publication of Oroonoko assisted with teaching the seventeenth-century audience about the vicious treatments of the victims of slavery. Behn’s story influenced the audience to feel empathic for the characters in her story who suffered from personal injustice and indignity

Aphra Behn wrote the novel Orrokono in the year of 1688. During this time religion was a large part of everyday life for the people of England. There was major political and religious conflict during this time and it is reflected within Behn’s novel. Within the novel readers experience colonialism, slavery, death and a religion. The ideas of colonialism, slavery and death are up front and well described throughout the novel. Religion on the other hand is hidden and Oroonoko’s life in many ways, parallels that of Jesus Christ. The following will lay out in detail of such parallels.

Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave, a novel by Aphra Behn, is widely known as either the first or one of the earliest ever novels written in English. It is also particularly notable for being written by a professional female writer, containing a mostly abolitionist narrative, and featuring a white female narrator and a black hero- namely, a royal black hero. The novel, originally published in 1688, takes place in the 1660s in Surinam, a British colony in South America that utilizes enslaved Africans. While Oroonoko indeed encourages an overall critique of slavery and racism that took place in Surinam in the 17th