Slave Treatment

In modern day society we have heard of the barbaric interaction of slave masters and the african slaves. There have been many illustrations, short stories, poem and novels written about slavery. Slave masters have a authoritarian attitude to the slaves they have owned, to which they enforced rules,  punishments that were physical, to constantly work because they are people that keep the economy flourishing for the white men. The illustration and novel Oroonoko by Aphra Behn when compared, emphasizes two different point of views of how slave masters treated their slaves.

In the New York Public Library’s Digital Collection on Slavery, the most eye captivating illustration was the Sugar Plantation. This image depicts the hard work slaves were being put through. In the image it is black and white with blue hues and there are 3 male African slaves who are tending to the sugar canes. They are all shirtless and shoeless, must be summer. One is digging into the soil, another one besides him cutting into the cane with a machete and another crouched down working onto the soil. Whilst the three men are fixated on working, there is a white man standing by with some distance. The white man/master is fully clothes from head to toe, wearing a big brim hat, cigarette or toothpick in his mouth and with great posture. It can be seen the white man has high authority, with his left hand on his hips and right hand holding a whip and a pistol in his belt. He watches over them, possibly to make sure no mistakes are being created. Over in the distance of the image, there is slave worker and a master, the slave worker is crouched down, legs apart with his back faced to the master, the master with his hand raised is whipping the worker.

This illustrations shows what slaves went through, this image is like a small snippet as to what they endured throughout their life of captivation. They work all day long in the scorching heat and even brutal winters while the white men standing watching over them. This evokes the emotions of melancholy because this has happened in the past and it is gut wrenching that these were real human beings that went through this and many people stayed as slaves till death, so this sort of injustice comes into light. Even today in other countries slavery is still prevalent but there’s not enough recognition or many of us turn a blind eye.

This image is like a parallel into time, because we as a new time/era see images like this and see the dehumanization and atrocities of slavery but in those times it was always considered a norm in society. As a viewer of this image, you can almost tell the backstory of these slaves, you can assume they were taken from their homes, bought and sold to only work on fields and for a white master.

In the novel, Oroonoko by Aphra Behn, the protagonist Oroonoko is taken into slavery by deceit, he is sold off to a young man named Trefry. Their relationship is very different from the typical slave master and slave relationship. In the novel Trefry is sympathetic to Oroonoko and his struggles, he almost does not treat him with authority as a master but rather as a friend. There are 2 instances where Trefry treats Oroonoko sympathetically, for example in the novel when Oroonoko is bought by Trefry, “ he promised him on his word and honour, he would find the means to reconduct him to his own country again” (Behn, 42)  as a reader, it comes to a surprise that a master upon meeting a slave that he just bought would promise to send the slave back home. This is a promise that allows Trefry and Oroonoko to have a friendship, because Trefry shows empathy that this slave that he had, was of royalty and that being a slave would not fit his characteristics. Trefry gives Oroonoko a new name, Caesar ; he gave this name that most fit his appearance and character. Another moment in the novel where Trefry is displaying kindness, is when he reunites the two lost lovers, Oroonoko and Imoinda. “Trefry was infentiley pleased with this novel, and found this Clemene was the fair mistress of whom Caesar had before spoke, and was not a little satisfied that Heaven was so kind to the prince  as to sweeten his misfortune by so lucky accident” ( Behn 47) This prove to show that he was a friend rather than a master, he shows that he wholeheartedly listened to Oroonoko’s tragedies, that he felt in his part of being a supportive friend, he needed to reunite them together.

When the Sugar plantation illustration and novel Oroonoko are compared, the masters are what create the environment of what it feels to be enslaved or to feel like an actual person. The sugar plantation illustration shows how masters kept their slaves under them by using whips or even carrying them around, used as a scare tactic. The masters are trying to reinforce a behavior and that is to do the work efficiently and no mistakes are to be made and to instill fear. Wherehas in Oroonoko, Trefry the master, helps out Oroonoko and treats him as a person. He does not instill fear in Oroonoko but rather shows a side that Oroonoko did not think a master would have towards him, showing tenderness and sincerity. He promises to send him back to his country and even reunites Oroonoko of his lost love. These two works highlight the different types a treatment would receive from a master, also allowing reader to understand in the time where slavery was prominent, many people tend to forget in the midst of all the scary and barbaric masters, there must have been some compassionate and caring masters.

It is seen that in both works, highlight the theme of the different master-slave relationships. In the illustration of Sugar Plantation and Oroonoko, there are two different treatments the slaves receive, the slaves that are working in the slave plantation they have their masters watching over the work and have this persona of power and authority. However, in Oroonoko, also known as Caesar, his master Trefry treats him with the utmost respect and acts as friend. These two works portray the two different acts/ treatments  a master can treat their slaves, whether it be cruel and barbaric or with kindness and sympathy. Also shows that within humanity, there is dehumanization and compassion for others rolled, it just takes a person to choose which path on how to treat another human being.

Work cited

Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko, edited by Janet Todd, Penguin, 2004.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Sugar plantation.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-491d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99