Make a study of the horror of slavery and the harsh attitude of the European colonists in 'Oroonoko'.

Make a study of the horror of slavery and the harsh attitude of the European colonists in 'Oroonoko'. [N.U.2017]

Or, How does Behn portray her attitude to slavery in her novel, 'Oroonoko'?

Ans. In the second part of the novel where Oroonoko the Prince of Coramantien becomes a slave at Suriname narrate the horrors of slavery through three dominant groups of people. There are three power groups in the hierarchy of the colony: British, natives and slaves and there another subdivision of gender, in the plantation of Suriname.

The colony is officially run by the Governor and his council acting on behalf of the British Government. Behn later describes these men as “such notorious villains as Newgate never transported” saying that they “possibly, originally were such, who understood neither the laws of God or man, and had no sort of principles to make them worthy the name of men.”

There are others within the colony (such as Trefry) to whom Behn grants more respect, but in the end they are as powerless to stop Byam from killing Oroonoko as the narrator herself. In other words, the colony is being run by those who would be accorded neither power, nor respect if they had remained in England.

The colonizer’s relationship with the native Indians is presented as a precarious one. Whilst the narrator clearly admires them, she is quite blatant about the possibility of treating them as slaves. She describes them as too powerful to be turned into slaves and too important to be made into enemies as they are “on all occasions, very useful to us, we find it absolutely necessary to caress them as friends, and not to treat them as slaves; nor dare we do other, their numbers so far surpassing ours in that continent.” More than once, we are reminded of the horrific acts of violence perpetrated by the natives on the white settlers and their slaves, that occurred once the Dutch took control of Surinam. In contrast to this, most of Behn's descriptions of the Surinam Indians suggest an unspoilt utopia. She describes them as having “a native justice which knows no fraud, and they understand no vice or cunning, but when they are taught by the white men.”



The slaves are kept in order by a mixture of brute force and threats of whipping and punishments. Also as soon as slaves arrive they are given different clothes, a different name and presumably spoken to in English. On arrival Oroonoko is dressed in "a sort of brown holland suit" and renamed Caesar by his new 'owners'. The reason Behn gives for renaming slaves is that their native ones are "likely very barbarous, and hard to pronounce."

The white’s treatment of Oroonoko demonstrates that although they are the dominant power in the colony they recognize his potential to lead others and to disrupt their world. Even the narrator, who praises him, promises his freedom and is writing his story, took measures to curb his freedom and keep him watched. The way that the Europeans treat slaves and savages alike stems from two concepts: the first of these is their fear; both of what is different and its power as a threat to their own, and the second is the assumption that Europeans are superior and that they have the right to force their culture on to those whom they regard as savages.

The notion that Western culture is superior and should be appreciated by the slaves is not only enforced by violence. When the narrator describes how she entertains Oroonoko with the lives of the Romans and Imoinda with stories of nuns and Christianity she too is forcing her own culture onto them. Behn appreciates Oroonoko's integrity and accepts that he does not like the riddles of the Trinity, but teaches it instead to Imoinda who, as a female slave is lower in terms of power and is not given the chance to make her own choice.

Oroonoko arrives as an outsider to the colonial system. He is accorded some respect because of his high position of power in his native country where he was a prince and great war leader, but he is nevertheless a slave and as such has the rules of the colony enforced upon him as well as the indignity of not being a free man As an outsider from a different culture, Oroonoko can see the truth of a system that he is not truly part of. Long before going to Surinam, he had learned to admire the values of the West from his French tutor, but he is disappointed to discover that the high notions of justice and honour that he had heard about did not exist in reality. In Surinam justice and honour were no more than a front that covered the white men's lies.

Oroonoko chooses death for both himself and Imoinda, rather than let his child be born into slavery. In death the problems that the pair cause by being beautiful and royal are finally resolved. Oroonoko literally defaces his wife's corpse, and Oroonoko himself is cut into pieces and finally his body is quartered and nailed up as a warning to other slaves.

Behn, like other Restoration writers, saw barbarism as an evil lurking in the hearts of the English people. She was outraged by England's inability to tolerate the late king Charles I, who was beheaded on the order of Parliament after it took over the government in 1649. She also looked upon with horror the recent countless assassination attempts on his son, the restored king Charles II. In this context, Behn saw the British (if not all humanity) as possessing a collective predisposition towards violence, greed, and restless disobedience.

Thus, almost every white character in the text is either positively evil or at least, weak-willed and passive. (It should be noted that Willoughby, Byam, Trefry and Colonel Martin were real people.) For instance, at the beginning, the British slave-trading captain first befriends and then betrays Oroonoko by asking him to be his guest on his ship--but after getting him drunk, he shackles him into irons. The captain lies to the prince again and assures him he will set him free upon their first sight of land. But he does this only to ensure that his cargo of slaves will arrive in a somewhat healthy condition after they refuse to eat. Hardly surprising, the captain betrays Oroonoko once more when he sells him to Trefry, overseer for Lord Willoughby, the lord-governor of Surinam and the owner of Parham Plantation--who never arrives. Byam, the deputy-governor, also pretends friendship with the African prince and similarly assures him of his freedom. But later he hunts him down, whips him, and orders him killed. Behn scathingly refers to Byam's greed--"he was one who loved to live at others' expense"--and illustrates how to Oroonoko's face he was kind and friendly even while, behind Oroonoko's back, he nefariously plotted the man's death.

The barbarism Behn illustrates is particularly apparent in Bannister's elected council, which condemns Oroonoko to death. Bannister captures Oroonoko and tells him honestly that he will "die like a dog"--to which the condemned man replies that he has finally heard a white man tell the truth. Others are less brutal but lack in their care for him. Trefry, who has been a true friend to Oroonoko, remains blind to the plight of all the other slaves in his charge, and although he attempts to contain the situation until the arrival of the lord governor Willoughby, he never takes action to protect Oroonoko's or Imoinda's life. Furthermore, even the British narrator, who voiced her friendship and love of Oroonoko, runs away at the first sign of trouble. Recall that, after assuring him of her undying devotion, she reflected that she "neither thought it convenient to trust him much out of our view, nor did the country who feared him".

The awful scene of punishment, though, makes the white barbarism stand out most: "when they thought they were sufficiently revenged on him, they untied him almost fainting with the loss of blood, from a thousand wounds all over his body...and led him bleeding and naked as he was, and loaded him all over with irons and then rubbed his wounds, to complete their cruelty, with Indian pepper which had like to have made him raving mad" (67). Oroonoko is set up as a Christlike patient sufferer, the alternative King whom the reigning polity cannot accept.

Thus, Behn displays Oroonoko as a truly noble and honorable leader. This hero can hardly be compared with the rapacious British colonists and the monstrous mercantile slave traders who barter in human lives. In Oroonoko, then, Behn on the one hand seems to be a royalist who completely supports the ideal of a strong, stable monarchy, while on the other hand she attempts to educate her readers about the realities of the slave system, the barbarism of those involved in the trade, and the need for a more noble system, a heroic absolute monarch who will withstand the British urge toward violence and chaos.

Source: Shuvashish Mallick | Lecture Guide

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