Oroonoko: 3. Slavery in Suriname Summary & Analysis

During Oroonoko’s boat ride, the narrator describes Trefry, the young Cornish gentleman who has purchased Oroonoko. Trefry manages the plantation of an unnamed Lord. He is very good at math and linguistics and, like Oroonoko, can speak several languages.

Trefry immediately recognizes that Oroonoko is different from the average slave, due to his fancy garb and his regal attitude. Upon discovering that Oroonoko can speak English, Trefry guesses that Oroonoko is more exceptional than what he confesses to be. This assumption causes Trefry to admire Oroonoko, and to treat him with great civility.

Trefry’s behavior and their discovered common interests help Oroonoko relax on the boat ride. The two men engage in a mutually enjoyable conversation, and Oroonoko thinks that slavery under such an intelligent master might not be so bad. By the end of the ride upriver, Oroonoko has confided his story to Trefry and pledged his fortune and service to him. Trefry abhors the Captain’s antics, and promises to help conduct Oroonoko back to his homeland. He also pledges to find out about the condition and location of Oroonoko’s men, whom the prince is worried about.

Because of his fresh experiences with betrayal, Oroonoko doesn’t really believe that the promises of this “backearary,” or white person, are necessarily creditable. But he also sees sincerity in Trefry’s face, and is impressed enough by his wisdom to have some hope in his new master.

While they have been travelling upriver, Trefry has periodically stopped in at great riverside estates for refreshments. At these stops, large crowds have gathered on the banks to see Oroonoko, whose fame has preceded him. Oroonoko is uncomfortable with this attention, and asks Trefry to give him simpler clothes. But even in wearing clothes befitting a slave, crowds of admirers still gather and easily pick him out. People “could not help treating him after a different manner, without designing it,” even when they don’t know he is a prince.

Also during the journey to the plantation, Trefry gives Oroonoko a Christian name, a common practice amongst slave owners. For the rest of the tale Oroonoko is referred to as “Caesar,” a name chosen to reflect his martial and leadership skills. The narrator remarks that Caesar’s “misfortune” was to come to an obscure world, a world in which many died or were banished after the Dutch took control of Suriname years later. This left only the narrator’s “female pen” to record the story of the royal slave, Oroonoko. In another aside, she says that Trefry never even had the chance to begin telling this story.

Back in the narrative, Caesar comes to Parham House, the great house of the plantation, where he is received as a governor rather than a slave. He stays there for a few days, and even receives guests. He is really a slave in name only, and does not do any of the work an ordinary slave might do. When Caesar finally visits the part of the plantation where the slaves stay, they flock to see him and pay him homage.

Some white gentleman who accompany Caesar watch this spectacle with intrigue, because it confirms Trefry’s hunch that Caesar is not ordinary. Caesar doesn’t like this attention, however, and urges the kneeling people to treat him like a fellow slave. Instead, the slaves hold a banquet for him, which he and a few whites attend.

During the dinner, Trefry, who “loves to talk of love,” tells Caesar about Clemene, the beautiful “she-slave” whom everyone, white men included, is in love with. Trefry thinks that she is languishing for some lost love. Caesar, who because of his own tragic love story still cares about the topic, is surprised to hear that she denies herself to everyone, even her own kind. He admires her virtue.

The next day, Trefry and Caesar go on a walk, and Trefry points out Clemene’s house. Suddenly, a little dog runs out, followed by Clemene. Clemene tries to run back inside to avoid the men, but Trefry grabs her hand and introduces her to Caesar. Though Clemene doesn’t look either man in the eye, Caesar immediately recognizes her—it’s Imoinda! When Imoinda finally does look at Caesar, she faints, and he catches her. When she awakens, the joy on both their faces is palpable.

Trefry is happy to have reunited the couple, and while they relate their misfortunes and pledge their love to each other, he rushes back to Parham House to tell the narrator the good news. The narrator is then impatient to meet Caesar’s love and befriend her. She remarks that after this incident, the colonists now pay Imoinda a “treble respect.” Before, they had respected her for being beautiful and virtuous, but now that they know she is Caesar’s beloved, they admire her even more.

Soon after reuniting, Caesar and Imoinda get married “to the general joy of all people.” Not long after, they conceive a child, which makes Caesar “more impatient of liberty.” He petitions Trefry to release him and Clemene, promising either gold or a vast quantity of slaves to be paid to him before their release, on the condition that Caesar would be certain of being released after paying the ransom.

Trefry and other colonists make daily promises to Caesar, hoping to delay his departure until the Lord Governor can come to Suriname and assess the situation. Caesar, meanwhile, suspects that they are delaying his release so that their baby will be born into slavery. This idea makes Caesar very sullen, and some colonists fear that he will lead the other slaves, who greatly outnumber the whites, to rebel. They tell the narrator to placate Caesar, and so she comes to spend much time entertaining the two royal slaves.

The narrator tells Caesar and Imoinda stories about the lives of the Romans, which Caesar enjoys, and she also tries to convert them to Christianity. She is unsuccessful with Caesar, who makes fun of the idea of the Trinity, but she seems to have more success with Clemene, who enjoys hearing stories about nuns.

Through these conversations, the narrator gets to know Caesar much better. She realizes that he likes the company of women more than that of men, because he cannot handle alcohol. She also notices that he grows less content the more Imoinda’s pregnancy develops, as he doesn’t want his child born a slave. He assuage the narrator’s fears that he would take up arms, however, and promises that he “could do nothing that honor did not dictate.” The narrator also learns that Caesar’s love for Imoinda alone helps him endure bondage.

Before Caesar leaves the narrator that day, she makes him promise to be patient a little while longer until the Lord Governor arrives. However, she and the rest of the colonists no longer think it safe to leave Caesar unaccompanied. They decide to have him accompanied by attendants who act as spies, particularly when he visits the slaves’ quarters.

These precautions are implemented for some time. Caesar doesn’t realize he’s being watched, but instead thinks that colonists are showing him increased respect, particularly as more gentlemen come to pay him visits. The narrator takes an important role in babysitting Caesar as well, planning several expeditions that allow him to channel his aggression and energy into hunting game.

Caesar once steals a tiger cub from a tigress, slaying the beast when it tries to attack the party. Another time, he kills an elusive tiger that had been poaching livestock from the plantations. Caesar also finds out that he cannot overcome the challenge of capturing an electric eel with his bare hands, and he is briefly ashamed to discover that he too succumbs to the numbing sickness that almost causes him to drown.

With Caesar in tow, the narrator and her friends search for “wonderful and strange things,” from exotic, aromatic flowers to new and delicious foods, like “aramadilly.” Reflecting on the richness and beauty of Suriname (the natives find gold flakes in the river) and her luxurious lifestyle (she lives in an fancy house near a waterfall), she suggests that if the English King had ever visited, he would not have ended up giving the colony to the Dutch.

During their excursions, the company also visits Indian villages to learn more about the natives. The relations between the British and the Indians are somewhat strained at this point, and some colonists fear the natives will attack. This later happens under the Dutch, the narrator notes. In retribution for their mistreatment, the natives invade the Dutch settlement, hanging women and children.

With Caesar acting as guard on these ambassadorial missions, however, the English crew feel safe enough to enter the villages, even during a feud between the English and natives. They also take a bilingual Native fisherman along as guide.

The friendliness, ignorance, and simplicity of the natives, whom the English allow to touch their body parts, charm the narrator, and the natives likewise admire the white visitors. Through the interpreter, they learn about each other’s cultures and affairs. Caesar is curious to know why so many of the native soldiers are disfigured and heavily scarred: some are missing noses, ears, and lips. He is then impressed and a little shocked to learn that according to their art of war, to decide who should be general, two soldiers compete before a panel of judges. They are asked to prove their merit as generals, and each man silently responds by cutting off a piece of flesh from his own body until one gives up. Several die from this “passive valor they show [to] prove their activity.”