“Caesar, having singled out these men from the women and children, made an harangue to ’em, of the miseries and ignominies of slavery; counting up all their toils and sufferings, under such loads, burdens and drudgeries, as were fitter for beasts than men; senseless brutes, than human souls. He told ’em, it was not for days, months or years, but for eternity; there was no end to be of their misfortunes: They suffer’d not like men, who might find a glory and fortitude in oppression; but like dogs, that lov’d the whip and bell, and fawn’d the more they were beaten: That they had lost the divine quality of men, and were become insensible asses, fit only to bear: nay, worse; an ass, or dog, or horse, having done his duty, could lie down in retreat, and rise to work again, and while he did his duty, indur’d no stripes; but men, villanous, senseless men. such as they, toil’d on all the tedious week till Black Friday: and then, whether they work’d or not, whether they were faulty or meriting, they, promiscuously, the innocent with the guilty, suffer’d the infamous whip the sordid stripes, from their fellow-slaves, till their blood trickled from all parts of their body; blood, whose every drop ought to be revenged with a life of some of those tyrants that impose it. And why (said he) my dear friends and fellow-sufferers, should we be slaves to an unknown people? Have they vanquished us nobly in fight? Have they won us in honourable battle? And are we by the chance of war become their slaves? This wou’d not anger a noble heart; this would not animate a soldier’s soul: no, but we are bought and sold like apes or monkeys, to be the sport of women, fools and cowards; and the support of rogues and runagades, that have abandoned their own countries for rapine, murders, theft and villanies. Do you not hear every day how they upbraid each other with infamy of life, below the wildest savages? And shall we render obedience to such a degenerate race, who have no one human vertue left, to distinguish them from the vilest creatures? Will you, I say, suffer the lash from such hands?”
Video time: 9:10 – 10:15
This video gives a summary of the entire story or Oroonoko. I liked this video because for such a tragic story, the narrator is able to tell the summary in a way that is humorous just by his tone and text that he adds to the screen which explains parts of the story using modern slang language.
The part of the video and text that I chose is towards the end, after Oroonoko learns that Imoinda is pregnant and decides to rebel from the slaveholders by escaping. Here, he is trying to persuade the other slaves to join him and I really enjoyed his speech. It is a prime example of choosing to either be not genuine and protecting one’s self from hurt or being authentic and risking your happinesss or in this situation safety and wellbeing in the case that he gets caught.
Oronooko describes this state of being not authentic as remaining in a position where there is a controller and one who is being controlled, in this case that’s Oroonoko and the rest of the slaves. He says that by remaining as slaves, they have become like “insensible asses”, simply doing as their told and not living to their fullest desires, an obedience that is almost robot-like.
However, by choosing to be authentic and escaping to a life that is in their control, the men would be risking their lives all together for a chance that they may make it. If it turns against their favor, they risk getting caught and being severely punished and not only them but their families also.
Sometimes it is difficult to do what makes you happy because you feel that by doing so you are jeopardizing something in your life, so you continue living each day in a senseless routine. It takes strong people like Oroonoko to take such a risk and wonder what is the point of living safely if you’re unhappy?
