Blog #5
Aphra Behn was trying to understand men of color, but she chose a certain kind of colored men. She wanted the glory in her documentary, because her heart was on her assignement and not on her subject. This is the way the Americans looked at African and any other race that wanted white. All races other than white, were prospects for future captivity.
"Far from condemning slavery, however, Behn seems to take its existence for granted … The enslavement of Oroonoko and his companions is lamented because it is based on the kind of treacherous overreaching practiced by tradesmen, but slavery itself is condoned … The narrator (Behn) objects to the royal class of people being enslaved, not to the act of enslavement itself." Behn never really saw slavery as a bad thing. she looked at slavery as a way of life. Slavery was just another way Americans stole and sold to become wealthy. This was not her fault, she only believe what she was taught by her parents. She looked a Oroonoko as a royal prince, who had power and authority amongst his people. Behn was in awe with how Oroonoko looked and how he carried himself. Many Americans thought that this was an act of being a good Christian. They felt like slavery was what God put men here to do. The strong conquer the weak and made them serve in harsh bondage. "There is another sort of Servants, which by a peculiar Name we call Slaves, who being Captives taken in a just War, are by the Right of Nature subjected to the Absolute Dominion and Arbitrary Power of their Masters. These Men having, as I say, forfeited their Lives, and with it their Liberties, and lost their Estates; and being in the State of Slavery, not capable of any Property, cannot in that state be considered as any part of Civil Society. Animals are the way slaves were treated or less than animals. Americans did not capture the African, instead they manipulated them in the slave trade. They treated them less than animals. They took away their entire identity and stripped them of their families. Oroonoko was key in this story because of he lordship as a prince amongst his people. Behn only saw a royal slave being stripped of his power, but she never saw a culture being changed right before her own eyes.
Aphra Behn was trying to understand men of color, but she chose a certain kind of colored men. She wanted the glory in her documentary, because her heart was on her assignement and not on her subject. This is the way the Americans looked at African and any other race that wanted white. All races other than white, were prospects for future captivity.
"Far from condemning slavery, however, Behn seems to take its existence for granted … The enslavement of Oroonoko and his companions is lamented because it is based on the kind of treacherous overreaching practiced by tradesmen, but slavery itself is condoned … The narrator (Behn) objects to the royal class of people being enslaved, not to the act of enslavement itself." Behn never really saw slavery as a bad thing. she looked at slavery as a way of life. Slavery was just another way Americans stole and sold to become wealthy. This was not her fault, she only believe what she was taught by her parents. She looked a Oroonoko as a royal prince, who had power and authority amongst his people. Behn was in awe with how Oroonoko looked and how he carried himself. Many Americans thought that this was an act of being a good Christian. They felt like slavery was what God put men here to do. The strong conquer the weak and made them serve in harsh bondage. "There is another sort of Servants, which by a peculiar Name we call Slaves, who being Captives taken in a just War, are by the Right of Nature subjected to the Absolute Dominion and Arbitrary Power of their Masters. These Men having, as I say, forfeited their Lives, and with it their Liberties, and lost their Estates; and being in the State of Slavery, not capable of any Property, cannot in that state be considered as any part of Civil Society. Animals are the way slaves were treated or less than animals. Americans did not capture the African, instead they manipulated them in the slave trade. They treated them less than animals. They took away their entire identity and stripped them of their families. Oroonoko was key in this story because of he lordship as a prince amongst his people. Behn only saw a royal slave being stripped of his power, but she never saw a culture being changed right before her own eyes. 
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