Oroonoko Explored
Slavery in the New World
The institution of chattel slavery is critical to Oroonoko's experience in the New World, and, indeed, is the sole reason he was betrayed and sold in the first place. Aphra Behn presents an accurate picture of chattel slavery in her work, most likely relying on first person accounts that she had read or heard in person. The narrator in Oroonoko describes slavery in language similar to that which appears in many Caribbean accounts. In Antoine Biet’s narrative, for example, he notes that the slaves were forced to do hard labor by their masters, prodded on by the whip. They also performed their work in little or no clothes, and were usually only given potatoes by their masters to fuel their bodies. Slaves had to be resourceful to find other ways to feed themselves, such as raising poultry or stealing animals from other plantations.
Candide encounters a maimed slave from Surinam, from Voltaire's Candide
However, theft and other crimes such as leaving the plantation by a small distance could earn extreme punishments. Biet, much like the narrator in Oroonoko, considers these practices, as described below, to be extremely inhuman. After a slave was caught for stealing a pig, “The overseer had him whipped by the other negroes until he was all covered with blood. The overseer, after having him treated this for seven or eight days, cut off one of his ear, had it roasted, and forced him to eat it. He wanted to do the same to the other ear and the nose as well (Lipking 106).” Even though Biet interceded on the slave’s behalf and prevented further maiming, one can clearly see the historical accuracy that Behn draws on to flesh out her novel.