Oroonoko

 Aphra Behn short novel Oroonoko, sheds light on the English slave trade of the 1600’s, which they would have rather kept in the dark. The most interesting part of the novel is that it follows the story of Prince Oroonoko which translates to royal slave. Having Oronooko tricked into slavery shows what little regard the English had for the indigenous people of the countries they came to. Slavery in itself is bad, but by having the prince also be sold into slavery shows that no one was safe from the English slave trade. Along with the slave trade, this novel also shows what little regard men showed to women at the time. After Oronooko met Imoinda and decided he wanted to marry her and she wanted to marry him, his father saw Imoinda and decided that she would be one of his wives because of how beautiful she was. The king was old and had other wives. Oronooko saw this and made a plan to have a secret affair with her. The king found out and sold her into slavery because of her transgressions but did not punish the prince. At the time selling someone into slavery was worse than killing them. This showed the kings lack of regard for Imoinda as a person. Behn’s use of slavery in this novel was also a way for her to put some of her own life experiences into her work. After the death of her husband, she was left in so much debt that she was in “debtors prison” because she had no money she had to start writing to survive.