Imoinda's Rebellion: Sovereignty, Slavery, and the Ancient Constitution in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko.

The English slavocrats' colonial power is further challenged in I Oroonoko i when Behn reintroduces Imoinda to the plot: Trefry tells Oroonoko that he has become sexually captivated by a "she-slave." "Several English gentlemen" are with Oroonoko during this display, observing the popular appeal of Oroonoko to enslaved Africans, despite that Oroonoko "was that Prince who had ... sold most of 'em to these Parts" (70). In 1654, Henry Whistler noted on Barbados the condition of the "miserabell Negors borne to perpetual slauery thay and thayer seed", indicating the English adoption of color-based ("Negors") hereditary ("thay and thayer seed") slavery in that other colony.[48] The replacement of Oroonoko and Imoinda's noble lines with hereditary chattel status will make them and their child racially identical to other enslaved Africans in the colony, who are defined only as being Negro and unfree, despite the fact that they are of "several Nations" (70). Press 17 Karen E. Fields; Barbara J. Fields; Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life; 2012; Verso 18 Hunt; Inventing Human Rights: A History; 35; 2007; Norton 19 Richard Kroll; "Tales of Love and Gallantry": The Politics of Oroonoko; Huntington Library Quarterly; 67; 573; 2004 20 Janet Todd; Oroonoko; Or, The Royal Slave; 2003; Penguin 21 Vincent Brown; Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War; 2020; Harvard Univ. [Extracted from the article]