The story of Oroonoko was extremely controversial in the time it was written due to the statement it made concerning slavery. The story was presented as factual and took place in a British colony in the West Indies on a sugar plantation. It tells how Oroonoko, a prince in his native land, was captured through deceit, bought, placed into slavery on the plantation, and his treatment once he arrived there.
The initial description of Oroonoko begins the controversy. He is decribed as having a "greatness of soul", "refined notions of true honor", "absolute generosity", and "softness that was capable of the highest passions of love and gallantry". She goes on to say that "the most illustrious courts could not have produced a braver man, both for greatness of courage and mind, a judgment more solid, a wit more quick, and a conversation more sweet and diverting. He knew almost as much as if he had read much: he had heard of and admired the Romans: he had heard of the late Civil Wars in England, and the deplorable death of our great monarch; and would discourse of it with all the sense and abhorrence of the injustice imaginable. He had an extreme good and graceful mien, and all the civility of a well-bred great man. He had nothing of barbarity in his nature, but in all points addressed himself as if his education had been in some European court.His physical description warranted more controversy."
His physical description warrants more attention as a source of controversy. She describes him in a very sexually charged manner. "He was pretty tall, but of a shape the most exact that can be fancied: the most famous statuary could not form the figure of a man more admirably turned from head to foot. His face was not of that brown rusty black which most of that nation are, but of perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most awful that could be seen, and very piercing; the white of ’em being like snow, as were his teeth. His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turned lips which are so natural to the rest of the negroes. The whole proportion and air of his face was so nobly and exactly formed that, bating his color, there could be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome. There was no one grace wanting that bears the standard of true beauty."
The controversy arises from the fact that she compares Oroonoko to white British men in a manner that would imply him to be at the very least their equal. In the same paragraph she states that wit and intellegence like his isn't an attribute that can be confined to the white race or men of religion. She singles out Christian men in a way that implies that he is of a stature even greater than theirs.
This is only the first few examples of how the written account of Oroonoko was a piece that was politically charged and made a stance against slavery. It illustrates the writer's view that slavery was an injustice simply by the way she chose to narrate the events that had transpired.
The initial description of Oroonoko begins the controversy. He is decribed as having a "greatness of soul", "refined notions of true honor", "absolute generosity", and "softness that was capable of the highest passions of love and gallantry". She goes on to say that "the most illustrious courts could not have produced a braver man, both for greatness of courage and mind, a judgment more solid, a wit more quick, and a conversation more sweet and diverting. He knew almost as much as if he had read much: he had heard of and admired the Romans: he had heard of the late Civil Wars in England, and the deplorable death of our great monarch; and would discourse of it with all the sense and abhorrence of the injustice imaginable. He had an extreme good and graceful mien, and all the civility of a well-bred great man. He had nothing of barbarity in his nature, but in all points addressed himself as if his education had been in some European court.His physical description warranted more controversy."
His physical description warrants more attention as a source of controversy. She describes him in a very sexually charged manner. "He was pretty tall, but of a shape the most exact that can be fancied: the most famous statuary could not form the figure of a man more admirably turned from head to foot. His face was not of that brown rusty black which most of that nation are, but of perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most awful that could be seen, and very piercing; the white of ’em being like snow, as were his teeth. His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turned lips which are so natural to the rest of the negroes. The whole proportion and air of his face was so nobly and exactly formed that, bating his color, there could be nothing in nature more beautiful, agreeable, and handsome. There was no one grace wanting that bears the standard of true beauty."
The controversy arises from the fact that she compares Oroonoko to white British men in a manner that would imply him to be at the very least their equal. In the same paragraph she states that wit and intellegence like his isn't an attribute that can be confined to the white race or men of religion. She singles out Christian men in a way that implies that he is of a stature even greater than theirs.
This is only the first few examples of how the written account of Oroonoko was a piece that was politically charged and made a stance against slavery. It illustrates the writer's view that slavery was an injustice simply by the way she chose to narrate the events that had transpired.
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