Jacqueline Medina

Professor Micheal Rumore

ENG 302

May 15, 2020

Period Recap: Finding the positive in a grime situation

Throughout the period of time the world has battled with different struggles and if you were lucky some found a way to look past their situation and find a way out or a way to make peace and survive it. Slavery was one of these downright awful situations. Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa, and still continues today in some countries.

Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the ancient world. In many African societies where slavery was prevalent, the enslaved people were not treated as chattel slaves and were given certain rights in a system similar to indentured servitude elsewhere in the world. When the Arab Slave Trade and Atlantic Slave Trade began, many of the local slave systems began supplying captives for Slave Markets outside Africa.

Slavery in historical Africa was practiced in many different forms: Debt Slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, slavery for prostitution and criminal slavery were all practiced in various parts of Africa. Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa. Plantation slavery also occurred primarily on the eastern coast of Africa and in parts of West Africa. The importance of domestic plantation slavery increased during the 19th century due to the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Many African states dependent on the international slave trade reoriented their economies towards legitimate commerce worked by slave labor. Slavery and slave trading had been part of European experience long before the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. It was most widespread in the continuing conflict between Christians and Muslims in the Mediterranean. There, and around the Black Sea, slaves were created as each side enslaved the other as part of the spoils of war. The numbers were enormous – indeed as late as the mid 17th century, far more European slaves were held in Islamic regions (where the ownership of Muslim slaves was prohibited) than Africans were shipped into the Americas.

There was, however, one striking difference to the transatlantic trade: no one really associated slavery with race or colour. Slaves could be Black or White, Christian, Muslim or pagan. Moreover, despite the fact that significant slave trading by Arabs to Black Africa had been going on since ancient times, the link between slavery and ethnicity (or, more popularly, ‘race’) – that is, between slavery and Blackness – was more or less non-existent … until, that is, it was forged by maritime Europeans in the form of chattel slavery.

One of the materials that relate to slavery and finding a solution while may not have been ideal, but the only option and ultimate sacrifice was in Oroonoko by Aphra Behn. Oroonoko’s tale is one of an exemplary man who falls in love with an exceptional woman, Imoinda. However, their love is thwarted by Oroonoko’s grandfather, the king, who desires Imoinda for himself. Despite the fact that Oroonoko and Imoinda are married, the King forces her to become part of his Otan, or harem, separating them. Imoinda refuses to submit to his desires, and Oroonoko manages to break into the Otan and consummate his marriage. As punishment, the King pretends to put Imoinda to death, when he has actually sold her into slavery. This sends Oroonoko over the edge with grief and leads him to find comfort in what he believed to be a friend but betrays him. He is bamboozled by the English sea captain, who ultimately tricks the prince into slavery, taking him to Surinam where he is sold to the plantation where the narrator resides. There, his true identity is discovered even as he is renamed Caesar and he is promised his freedom. There, too, he discovers Imoinda, now named Clemene and the reunited lovers finally live as husband and wife. But their joy is bittersweet. Soon after Imoinda conceives a child, Oroonoko begins to suspect further treachery on the part of the English and stages a slave uprising, attempting to lead his fellow slaves to freedom. The uprising does not succeed and Oroonoko is betrayed by the Deputy Governor Byam, who promised him his freedom only to mete out a cruel punishment instead. Jere is where we see Oroonoko come to terms with the fact that he and his family will never be free. But wants to do what is best for his family. He sees he must sacrifice everything he loves to be free the turmoil of slavery and to rid his unborn child from this lifestyle. So, he sacrifices his family and kills his wife and unborn child to save them from a life of torture and slavery. And plans on killing Byram but loses his strength after unwillingly killing his wife for what he thought would save her. He is then Brutally killed by Byram’s associate. And ironically freed from his life as a slave but he lost everything he loved and himself to be free. While this ending is awful it truly depicts the life of slavery in the 18^th century. Oroonoko was willing to do and sacrifice anything for the freedom he was promised but when pushed to the edge he realized he was just a fool and gave the ultimate sacrifice his family. He murdered them to free them from slavery, in his mind this was the right thing to do but in the end they all lost their life to slavery, but the royal Prince saved his wife and unborn child from a brutal life of pain and slavery and ended their misery.  

Phyliss Wheatley poems take on another approach to slavery she uses her religion to emphasize the trials and tribulations of slavery but has a way with words that makes seem survivable in a sense because God has her back if that makes sense.  Phillis Wheatley was the first African American woman in America to publish a book of poems. If that’s not enough, she also survived being kidnapped from Africa and shipped to America as a slave, where she was taken in by the Wheatley family and eventually learned to read Latin and Greek. All this was in the late 1700s. So, although everything was against her in society back then wrong race, wrong gender, wrong country she succeeded as a poet despite all odds. I found the way she described her journey from Africa to America so uplifting yet painful as the same time. Although her poems typically address Christianity and avoid issues of race, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” is a short, but powerful, poem about slavery. In fact, people could hardly believe that a slave could actually read and write, let alone write poems. She introduces Christianity in the very beginning of the poem. When the speaker says “‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, taught my benighted soul to understand”. Her conversion to Christianity parallels her transition from Africa to America, and while it becomes a source for her belief that all people are equal spiritually, she urges Christians to truly follow their Christian principles. Not only that, but the use of Christian imagery allows the speaker to discuss racial inequality in her aim to defuse assumptions about race differences. Pagan land which is referring to a polytheistic pre- Christian religion. She goes on to depict the images of slavery when she says “their colour is diabolic Remember, Christians, Negros black as Cain “, these lines emphasize her faith during a grime time of her slavery. I believe she is describing the slave owners and their slaves, and the injustice based solely off of the skin color. When she says their colour is a diabolic die which means showing cunning or ingenuity or wickedness. When she says black Cain is similar to when she uses “benighted” to describe the dark state of her soul. She could also be referring to “niggers” (as they were called during this time) as black as Cain because they are separated from God. While this connects the black race to the devil, readers could also interpret that the black race will still be protected by God because he doesn’t judge them by their skin color and therefore is their salvation. While we all know from countless history lesson how horrific slavery was reading it from her perspective and experience shows you that power of faith and how it can make any situation tolerable in a sense.

And I think a lot of victims of slavery all had their way of coping mechanisms to get them through each horrible day of being captive, beaten and constantly sold to a new owner. But even through tragedy they found a way to be at peace with the unfortunate events of slavery. Oronnoko fought until his last breath for freedom and while it cost him his life, he saved his wife and unborn child from slavery and a brutal dead. Even though he killed them it was for their own salvation in his eyes. And the speaker in Phillis Wheatley’s poems her salvation was God because he was the only one who didn’t judge her by her skin color and only, he knew her inside and out.

Jacqueline Medina

Professor Michael Rumore

ENG 302

                                                            Annotations

1. “Twas mercy brought me from Pagan land”- Phillis Wheatley opens up the poem with religion when she says twas mercy brought me from Pagan land. Pagan land which is referring to a polytheistic pre- Christian religion. Pagan comes from a Latin word paganus, meaning villager, rustic, civilian and itself comes from a pagus which refers to a small unit of land in a rural district. When Christianity came on board the Roman Empires, those who practiced the old ways came to be called pagans.

2.” Their colour is diabolic Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain”– these lines emphasize her faith during a grime time of her slavery. I believe she is describing the slave owners when she says their colour is a diabolic die which means showing cunning or ingenuity or wickedness. When she says black as Cain is similar to when she uses “benighted” to describe the dark state of her soul. She could also be referring to “niggers” (as they were called back then) as black as Cain because they are separated from God. While this connects the black race to the devil, readers could also interpret that the black race will still be protected by God.

3.” brought me from my Pagan land “– when the speaker writes “brought me from my Pagan land” the speaker is a slave that was brought from Africa to America by Mercy. And its mercy that converts the speaker to Christianity which she knew nothing about in Africa. It is what is giving her hope and peace through all the trials and tribulations that come with slavery. Her faith will get her through it as long as she believes it will.

4. “die”- we know that “die” is awfully close to “dye” so this could be a play with words, alluding to the dyes and goods that slaves were valuable in producing and/ or the color of the speaker’s skin is evil (diabolic) color. It’s as if she’s tainted with evil and godlessness because of her race. At least that’s how they were viewed back in the day. Die is also death. She could also be saying that people think her skin color has condemned her to death. But this could be more of a spiritual death saying that she is inferior because she is black and outside of god’s grace. As she told us she has been enlightened spiritually by Christianity.

5.” maybe refin’d and join’d the angelic train- here the speaker is talking about Christianity, race and heaven. The speaker’s tone is authoritative, as if addressing an audience that doesn’t believe quite what the speaker believes. She is calling all Christians refin’d meaning free of impurities can imply God’s colorblindness to offering salvation.

Reading Community Blog

Growing up in NYC all I saw was injustices against blacks and minorities. Being a minority and growing up in the South Bronx a lot of stereotypes are placed on you. You must be poor, a thief, rapist, killer or a good for nothing. Even are so called President sees us as worthless. But I am neither of these things. Nor are about 95% of my community. We are all out here working hard to make a name for ourselves. And finding meaning in our struggles because to survive is to find meaning in the struggle. By doing this you will find your way out of the struggle and gain your strength to overcome it. While reading Phillis Wheatley’s poems of her struggle as a slave, she shows the true definition of strength and embracing her struggle. She connects her struggles to her religion and faith in the Almighty God. In the poem “On being brought from Africa to America” Wheatley incorporates her religious beliefs into her struggle when she describes her transition from Africa to America.  She describes the battle of slavery and the evilness of it while still remaining holy to her beliefs of Christianity. In the poem, Wheatley uses Christianity to shed light on racial inequality that she experiences firsthand, aiming to break down notions about race.

Throughout the poem she references religion while discussing her struggle with slavery or the speaker I should say. From the very beginning of the poem she shows the speaker’s religion and the importance it has in their life. 

‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand (1-2)

The poem goes right into the holiness with we got mercy Pagan and soul. The speaker says that it was mercy that was responsible for her conversion from being a pagan. She’s had a spiritual experience, we could say, and this change in her life has a particularly religious bent to it, because it came through her conversion to Christianity. The physical change from Africa to America and the spiritual change from pagan to believer parallel each other nicely as well, so that speaker can talk about race and religion at the same time.

The speaker continues to show her transition with Christianity when she says

That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew (3-4)

I like these lines because they emphasize the high power that she is praising her savior “our savior” of the world. The significance for the speaker in this poem is that she’s been changed, and this change has opened her eyes to new truths about her life. Just like she changed from living in Africa to America, she changed from someone who never knew about redemption to someone who now believes in a saving God. This religious experience is vital to her new faith and intertwines her identity as a black woman with her identity as a Christian. And it’s that intertwining that the poem so expertly handles to express the speaker’s feelings about equality and faith. With her belief in her Savior and the higher power she can now overcome the injustice she is going through due to her race, sex and hell of slavery.

Remember Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,

May be refined and join the angelic train. (7-8)

The lines can be read both as an address to white Christians to remember that blacks can be “refined,” but it’s also punctuated in a way that sounds like “Negroes” are the “Christians” she’s talking about, and that since she was converted and believes in redemption, other slaves can be converted, too. Her subtlety in meaning and emphasis on religion becomes a gateway for her statement against racism: if she can be converted and saved like any other Christian, then every other slave should be equal on Earth as well.

Her faith and Christianity beliefs got her through all her obstacles in life. In some ways she made seem as if her struggles were needed for her to grow and embrace her Savior. if she could overcome racism and slavery then everyone could.

In the story Oroonoko by Aphra Behn tells the story of the African prince Oroonoko and his beloved wife Imoinda, who are captured by the British and brought to Surinam as slaves. Oroonoko is set in the 1600s, at a time when many countries, including Surinam, were under British colonial rule. Aphra Behn depicts how British imperialism, in tandem with the Atlantic slave trade, fundamentally changed life in Africa and certain parts of South America. The character who is brave, intelligent Oroonoko is a victim of imperialism, which is depicted as evil, corrupting force. While on the other end the natives of Surinam as innocent, good natured people. She emphasizes the fact they regularly trade beads, bins, and needles to prove that the natives are creative, and she claims that the people of Surinam have no words meaning lies or deception. By praising so called primitive cultures, Behn criticizes colonial regimes, as well as Western European culture. The colonists themselves, however, are not innocent. The slaves and many of the settlers recognize Oroonoko’s inherent nobility, the colonial government refuses to restore his freedom and threatens to enslave his unborn child. In this way, Surinam resembles seventeenth century England. Similarly, to England’s King James II who faced a nation that sought to deny both his nobility and that of his son.

The last descendant of the king of Coramantien, Oroonoko was raised away from the court to be a skillful warrior by Imoinda’s father. He has strong notions of duty and perfectly follows the codes of his society, except when his love of Imoiunda compels him to protect and honor their marriage by taking her life to protect her and their unborn child. He mistakenly assumes that his notion of honor means the same thing to the white Christians he comes in contact with. The very mistake that several times ends up costing him his freedom. The theme of anti- colonialism can be seen throughout the course of Oroonoko through the comparison of the way in which the Surinam natives are portrayed, versus the way in which the white colonizers are portrayed. It sheds light on the horrors of slavery and paints many of the white colonists as brutal, greedy, and dishonest. As we saw with the British slave trading captain first befriends Oroonoko, but later betrays him and then lies to him twice and sells him. Oroonoko has been promised numerous times his freedom by deputy – governor of Surinam, he portrayed himself as Oroonoko’s friend and assured him over and over again that he would be free. But later on, Byram shows his true colors when he hunts him down, whips him, and without a thought orders him to death.

This image of the slave Atlantic slave trade connects to Oroonoko because it shows what slaves him include had to go through when they were sold and robbed of their freedom. The whites who would whip Oroonoko acted very cruelly in rending the flesh from his bones. Such as it say in the text “ when they thought they were sufficiently revenged on him, they untied him almost fainting with the loss of blood, from a thousand wounds all over his body and led him bleeding and naked as he was, and loaded him all over with irons and then rubbed his wounds to complete their cruelty, with Indian pepper which had like to have made him raving mad” (Behn 67). In the image we can see the blacks being escorted by the white colonist onto the boat half naked and from the looks of it probably malnutrition.

 This image shows the mistreatment of slaves went through with their owners, who always made sure they walked in line just right and did their bidding. And if they stepped out of said line they were beaten or killed. Just as we saw with Oroonoko and his wife, while they were promised over and over lies of freedom. Oroonoko soon saw that he and his family were never going   to be free or truly free I should say, and he saw no other solution for his family but to kill them from their awful life. He knew he would die a slave and didn’t want that for his wife, so he ended her suffering which seemed to agitate them even more. Oroonoko who was a prince a slave gave his freedom to protect his wife and unborn child and still lost his life. Sadly, I wish I could say racism and slavery has ended but I don’t think it has or will end anytime soon. And as far as slavery is concerned as long as we still have sweat shops and child labor that’s slavery to me. Oroonoko surprisingly turned out to be a great read while sad but a good read.

Work Cite

Dunn, Makhno. “o-TRANSATLANTIC-SLAVE-TRADE-Facebook.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 14 Mar. 2019, www.flickr.com/photos/162769934@N06/46650872954/in/faves-187464637@N04/.