Oroonoko Explored
Africans Enslaving Africans
In Oroonoko, one of the key things that separates his West African culture from that of the Europeans is that his people believed one must be made a prisoner through war in order to earn slavery status. It was this practice of Africans making and selling slaves through warfare that first introduced Europeans to African slavery. In the novel, Oroonoko sells his prisoners as slaves, not caring the least for their fate as they were honorably won in battle. To the very captain that eventually betrayed him, “he sold abundance of his slaves (Behn 30).” This kind of practice is well known to be historically accurate (Beach, 217). According to Hans Sloane’s account A Voyage to the Islands, he notes that the Africans from the Gold Coast “have wars, and besides those slain in battles, many prisoners are taken, who are sold for slaves, and brought hither (Lipking 112).”
An African selling African slaves in Goree, by Senegal Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur
The numbers of slaves available to Europeans in demand entirely depended on the state of warfare in these African kingdoms. Jean Barbot notes in his account Description of the Coasts of Africa, that he was only able to pick up eight slaves in an entire voyage to the African coast, whereas in previous years other ships had carried away 300 in a single day (Lipking 117). Another reason why some years might have been less successful than others was if a West African kingdom was in short supply of labor themselves, perhaps due to population loss through warfare with other peoples. In such times they kept the slaves they already had for themselves to “work their lands and carry their goods (Lipking 117).” Here we can see that Behn’s use of an African prince seeing captured enemies is rooted in historical practices, though what might be more confusing to the reader is why the captain chose to jeopardize many future successful slaving voyages by betraying the crown prince of Coramantien.