Although Oroonoko was embraced a century after its publication as a forward-leaning anti-slavery narrative, Aphra Behn was no flamethrowing abolitionist. Rather, the narrative illuminates the commonly-held perception among Europeans that native cultures were morally superior to Europeans but lacked the education and refinements necessary to advance civilization. The tragedy of Oroonoko heightens because he was educated, conversant in history and politics, and a master of two languages. In their view, he was more European than African.

The novel celebrates the indigenous peoples and their exotic garb, rich cuisine, and intricate handcrafts. The narrator views the natives as simple, humble, and virtuous—uncorrupted by Western civilization’s vices of greed, self-interest, and violence—“like our first parents before the Fall.”

The narrator acknowledges that the British colonials were far outnumbered by these amiable locals and could not rely on them to do the hard work of plantation farming. For that, the British relied on the trafficking of African slaves as an economic necessity. The narrator reveals Africans themselves participated in the trafficking business. Warlords (including Oroonoko) sold their prisoners to slave traders. Indeed, when Oroonoko returns from a fierce battle, he presents Imoinda with a gift of 150 captured slaves.   

As the narrator learns, however, the problem primarily lies with those who run the slave business. Although Trefey, the Parham overseer, treats Oroonoko and Imoinda with dignity, the narrator makes clear that other colonial agents—including the deputy governor Byam (based on an actual historical figure)—abused their position and mistreated the Africans.

After the failed revolt, Oroonoko is whipped brutally and left bleeding and naked in the street, a “thousand wounds all over his body,” which were then rubbed with Indian pepper to enflame the pain. For Behn, Oroonoko’s dismemberment reveals her outrage over the corrupted Westerners in charge of the British outpost. That is the lesson learned by the narrator, whose own father was part of that authority.

The novel reflects the chaos and moral confusion inevitable when a king is weak and corrupted, the rightful heir to the throne is usurped, and most dramatically, when free reign gives way to mob rule.

As a parable of corruption and palace intrigue, the novel reflects the political upheavals of Behn’s era. Behn was a prolific political writer whose incendiary broadsides asserted her ardent support for the British monarchy, not for what it was but for what it had once been. Behn’s generation of royalists looked nostalgically at the history of strong, moral British monarchs, most recently Elizabeth I. Theirs, by comparison, was a tempestuous era in which a series of weak Kings were openly challenged by an upstart revolution of religious conservatives headed by General Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).

Behn was only a young child when Charles I was beheaded by an act of Parliament on charges of treason (1649). The execution was followed by a decade of chaotic governance through a Parliament controlled by Cromwell’s minions.

After Cromwell’s death and the failure of his son to run a government, the monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles II (1660-1685) whose throne was in turn challenged by his illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. Behn was deeply troubled by the reign of James II (1685-1688) who proved weak and ineffective. Even as Behn drafted Oroonoko, James II was removed without violence by an act of Parliament, and power was given to his daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William, ushering in an era of peace and stability that Behn, who died in 1689, never knew.

As a political parable of a morally bankrupt king, a rightful prince denied his throne, and power-hungry hypocrites...