Oroonoko was published by Aphra Behn in 1668 and is set in Coramantien, a kingdom located in the modern-day Gold Coast region of Ghana. Oroonoko is a prince in this kingdom, and lives here for the first half of the novella, until he is kidnapped, sold into slavery, and forcibly transported to the English colonial settlements in Suriname.
Modern-day Suriname is a country on the coast of northern South America. A diverse number of ethnic groups comprise Suriname's population, including the original inhabitants of the land—indigenous peoples such as the coastal-dwelling Arawak (Lonoko) and Carib tribes and the Wayarekule, who live inland. The British empire colonized this region of South America in 1651, during which time several British planters laid claim to the land, bringing with them enslaved people from Africa who were forcibly transported across the Atlantic. During the Anglo-Dutch war, Britain ceded Suriname to the Dutch, who were the main colonizers of the region from 1667 to 1975, when Suriname gained independence.
For the most part, the people Behn describes as being indigenous to this region were not enslaved. Most of the people who were forced to work on plantations in Suriname were transported there via the transatlantic African slave trade, like Oroonoko and Imoinda. Though the true number is unknown, historians estimate that between 10 and 15 million people were forcibly transported from Africa to the Americas. Between 1.5 and 2.5 million of these people died in passage. In Oroonoko, two different types of slavery are contrasted: the mercantile, transatlantic chattel slavery perpetuated by European colonizers, and the enslavement of prisoners of war by different African civilizations. Oroonoko is accustomed to the latter—even considering it honorable—but considers the European brand of chattel slavery inhumane by comparison.
