Oroonoko

by Behn, Aphra

• ISBN13: 9780312210656
• ISBN10: 0312210655
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, the story of an African prince's enslavement by British colonists and his journey from West Africa to the Caribbean, is the first literary work in English to portray what came to be known as "the triangular trade". This edition features a generous selection of thematically organized historical materials including explorers' descriptions of the "new world" of the Caribbean, planters' accounts of the sugar colonies, firsthand accounts of the slave trade from Dutch and English traders and abducted Africans, and early abolitionist publications by Europeans and former slaves.

Table of Contents

About the Series	v
About This Volume	ix
Illustrations	xvii
PART ONE Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave: The Complete Text	1	(100)
Introduction: Cultural and Historical Background	3	(23)
Chronology of Behn's Life and Times	26	(6)
A Note on the Text	32	(2)
Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave	34	(67)
PART TWO Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave: Cultural Contexts	101	(363)
Adaptations of Oroonoko	103	(38)
Oroonoko, a Tragedy	107	(25)
Thomas Southerne
From Oroonoko, a Tragedy	132	(9)
Literary Contexts	141	(67)
The Golden Age. A Paraphrase on a Translation out of French	146	(7)
Aphra Behn
To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me, Imagin'd More Than Woman	153	(1)
Aphra Behn
A Congratulatory Poem to the King's Most Sacred Majesty, on the Happy Birth of the Prince of Wales	154	(2)
Aphra Behn
The Unfortunate Bride: or, The Blind Lady a Beauty	156	(10)
Aphra Behn
Dialogue between the Pagan and the Christian	166	(2)
Sir John Mandeville
On Cannibals	168	(7)
Michel de Montaigne
The Masque of Blacknesse	175	(5)
Ben Jonson
The Indian Emperor	180	(10)
John Dryden
On Inkle and Yarico (The Spectator, No. 11)	190	(6)
Richard Steele
On a Slave Love-Triangle (The Spectator, No. 215)	196	(3)
Joseph Addison
Robinson Crusoe	199	(9)
Daniel Defoe
West Africa in the Triangular Trade	208	(118)
The Golden Trade	217	(6)
Richard Jobson
From Relation du voyage fait sur les costes d'Afrique, 1670-1671	223	(7)
Correspondence of Slave Traders in the Royal African Company	230	(4)
John Carter
Joseph Blyth
A Journal of a Voyage Made in the Hannibal	234	(10)
Thomas Phillips
A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea	244	(9)
Willem Bosman
A New Account of Guinea, and the Slave Trade	253	(6)
William Snelgrave
Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon	259	(14)
Thomas Bluett
Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa	273	(5)
Francis Moore
From The Royal African: Or, Memoirs of the Young Prince of Annamaboe	278	(25)
Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species	303	(7)
Ottobah Cugoano
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African	310	(16)
Olaudah Equiano
The Caribbean in the Triangular Trade	326	(67)
The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana	334	(3)
Sir Walter Raleigh
Colonial Life in Suriname	337	(14)
An Impartial Description of Surinam	351	(4)
George Warren
A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados	355	(10)
Richard Ligon
The Negro's and Indians Advocate, Suing for Their Admission into the Church	365	(3)
Morgan Godwyn
A Discourse in Way of Dialogue, between an Ethiopean or Negro-Slave and a Christian	368	(7)
Thomas Tryon
The Groans of the Plantations	375	(2)
Edward Littleton
Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam	377	(14)
John Gabriel Stedman
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African	391	(2)
Olaudah Equiano
Britain in the Triangular Trade	393	(71)
Utopia	401	(4)
Sir Thomas More
An Act for the Punishing of Vagabonds, and for the Reliefe of the Poore and Impotent Persons	405	(3)
Petitions Protesting the Enslavement of Political Prisoners	408	(6)
Legal Decisions Concerning Slavery in England	414	(9)
The Groans of the Plantations	423	(5)
Edward Littleton
A Discourse of the Duties on Merchandize, More Particularly of that on Sugars	428	(5)
An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West-India Collonies	433	(8)
Sir Dalby Thomas
Tryon's Letters upon Several Occasions	441	(4)
Thomas Tryon
On an African Prince at a Performance of Oroonoko	445	(2)
The Dying Negro	447	(4)
Thomas Day
Letters of Ignatius Sancho	451	(7)
Ignatius Sancho
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African	458	(6)
Olaudah Equiano
Selected Bibliography	464