Slavery, The Royal Slave, And 17th Century Surinam

The origins and development of slavery within Britain’s North American colonies in the period 1607 to 1776 was majorly in part by the English need for economic power. England had just arose as the strongest naval of the North Atlantic had they had to keep their high standing in the world. Bacon’s Rebellion, the profit received by cash crops, and the ability to easily purchase slaves through trade highly boosted Britain’s economy. The colonists within the British colony kept through economic standing and power by making themselves higher than any other through slavery.

Legal treatment of the slaves changed marginally from colony to colony, as indicated by the territory’s economic structure. For instance, the northern colonies had less slaves an inevitably banned slavery. In spite of the fact that slavery was abolished in 1804, they were stilled financially reliant on the institution. A considerable lot of the northerners vested in guaranteeing that slavery in the south kept on developing because they relied on the export of fish, liquor and dairy products

Throughout history, slaves have been treated like animals and thought of as property, not human beings. Even Oroonoko, a handsome, statuesque prince is turned into a slave because of his race, and is degraded and mistreated. To racist slave owners, the horrible treatment of Africans was acceptable because they were a different species, and no amount of education or beauty could save them. Behn shows how unjust and brutal slavery is in Oroonoko. The treatment of slaves is comparable to the treatment of the poor, as both have few rights, and both are unjustly judged and mistreated based on social status.

Slavery in the Americas was the action of human imprisonment, where all rights and freedoms were taken, that lasted over a thousand year. It was brutal and affected many people. The Arab slave trade was a major part of the imprisonment also and the beginning of slavery which started in 700 AD (1). The Arab Slave Trade was the practice of capturing and selling slaves in the “Arab World”. Since the Arabs controlled the sea routes it was easy for them to transport and trade. The Arab traders captured Africans known as “Bantu”. Then these Africans were sold throughout the Middle East.

The slave trade in the North American colonies began to grow in the 1600s. The African slave trade sourced their slaves from many different West African villages and countries. The business of slavery was a growing and profitable field, not only for the slavers, but also for the slaveholders. With the decrease of indentured servants, settlers in the English colonies looked for a new source of labor to satisfy their growing labor demands. The next source was Africa. “By the 1690s slaves outnumbered indentured servants four to one” (45). Europeans largely disregarded the ethical dilemma posed by slavery due to the European view of Africans and their culture as uncivilized, foreign, and heathen (44). The largest forced migration in history (44)

For slaves the transition to the New World was at times isolating and difficult. There were rotten, terrifying, and sometimes inhumane experiences that the slaves’ experienced as they transitioned to the New World. Slaves dealt with loneliness when their families were separated because they were sold or because of situations where the owners were controlling their lives.

By the 1630s, about 1.5 million pounds of tobacco was hauled out of Chesapeake Bay (and almost 40 million towards the 1700s). The Chespeake was hospitable for tobacco cultivation and it blew up the tobacco economy.

Slavery of the "Peculiar Institution" was a way of how life was in the South. African Americans were treated poorly in slavery, and they were brutally beaten. In slavery, their lives involved resistance and survival.

In Barbados and Jamaica (the sugar islands) sugar was a major crop. The owners of these sugar plantations were badly in need of laborers to work for them year round, and because the natives died off so speedily, they needed to bring in someone to do the grueling tasks for them. They tried to use indentured servants, but this was extremely difficult because sugar is a year round, demanding sort of crop and nobody sought after work on those plantations. Any person who had any other kind of alternative would choose to go anywhere else.

The beginning of slavery in the Caribbean can be traced back to the emergence of piracy in the 16th and 17th centuries. This eventually led to the promotion of slave trading and sugar plantations. While enslaved on the sugar plantations, slaves were treated very poorly. Plantation owners treated their slaves so poorly that most were undernourished and diseased. Slaves were even forced to work on their "spare" time to provide for their own needs. Needless to say, slaves encountered cruel punishment that we can’t even comprehend. The slaves however, continually resisted white supremacy causing much tension between the two social classes. Despite this, a new social class was emerging, the free coloureds. This

As Spengemann noted, Behn “crib[s] from Warren and Tryon [and] simply adds one more item to the list of conventions…the use of Indian words to describe unfamiliar things…bind her narrative to the earliest American literary form (Spengemann, 69-70). Although Behn tries to incorporate these things, Tyler ridicules her “attempt to pass off a romantic hero as an actual, historical personage” (71). The fact that Tyler questions the realism of Behn’s claims that Oroonoko is a royal slave brings the question of the realism of the New World narrative. Tyler’s work also utilizes the concept of True Relation, and “that the use of this form led him into difficulties very much like those that Oroonoko had caused Behn” (71). Behn’s narrator attempts to memorialize Oroonoko and connects her hero’s name with one of nobility and one of longevity. “Mr. Trefry gave Oroonoko [the name] of Caesar; which Name will live in that Country as long as that (scarce more) glorious one of the great Roman” (Behn, 28). Ortiz hypothesizes that Behn’s narrator explores historicity and imperialism (1). After Oroonoko and Imoinda are reunited on Surinam, the narrator states that Trefry was “pleas’d with this Novel” (Behn, 31). The fact that Trefry is pleased about the slaves being happy could connote a positive environment and thus the reader would be satisfied by the positivity.

Aphra Behn’s novel, Oroonoko, gives a very different perspective on a slave narrative. Her characters embody various characteristics not usually given to those genders and races. Imoinda’s character represents both the modern feminist, as well as the subservient and mental characteristics of the typical eighteenth-century English woman. Oroonoko becomes an embodiment of what is normally a white man’s characteristic; he is the noble, princely, and sympathetic character that is not usually attributed to black men in general throughout most novels of slavery. The complete opposite character style is given to the slavers; the English are viewed as the barbaric, cunning, brutal characters that are usually portrayed in opposite and more generous

For ages, man exemplified their desire to perform inequalities to those weaker than they. From the oppressor in the congregation, to the monarch and his crown court, it appears that man have a will to take over and dictate others. Oroonoko, by Aphra Behn, shows us that slavery is immoral, shameful, disheartening, and worse than death. Liberty is an assured human right. Oroonoko is a controlling story about the sufferings of a chivalrous, gracious prince named Oroonoko. Through the novel, Oroonoko is presented to be a heroic prince and a friend to numerous people especially to his fellow slaves who looked up to him and respected him like he was a special person to them. He is given command over an army and validates his soldierly and strategical skills by winning his battles and conquering his enemies. In the beginning of the novel,

Oroonoko is a novel by author Aphra Behn, in which Behn tried to illustrate the life of the African Prince, who was captured and made slave, Oroonoko. Behn offers criticism for the cruelest of Europeans, while still holding a bias against people of color. She ignores self-identity while focusing on the exotic other that fills the pages of her book. Though she tries to make the African character relatable, she maintains her sense of European superiority. She also portrays a somewhat accurate depiction of slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Finally she often relates religion and Christianity the lack of society and civilization or barbarianism. This work will prove the themes of otherness, European superiority, slavery and the slave trade, and religion as it relates to barbarianism.

Aphra Behn presents us with an extensive parody in her novel Oroonoko: a complete slave narrative, depicting the enslavement of both man and woman. She uses historical fact as well as semi-anthropologically accurate setting to reveal the truth in her words. Historically speaking, women were slaves for centuries before the white man enslaved the black man. Women were bartered and sold into marriage, abuses and forced to work under the watchful eyes of her husband. Aphra Behn demonstrates this though Imoinda’s character development, or lack thereof. The fact that this is considered a “historically” accurate text validates the reality of the issue