Oroonoko: A Slave Narrative Written by a White Hand

There’s something poignant, poetic even, about a black slave smoking tobacco knowing he’s going to be whipped and dismembered while white women watch and white men scorn. This seminal scene marks the beginning of an end to a long spree of violence that has followed Oroonoko’s heels, a conclusion where the silent mass, the greedy owners, and the many tyrants are all complicit in the great tragedy of…