Abolition and Commodity: Aphra Behn and the Black Body

During the era of the transatlantic trade in enslaved peoples, abolitionist writers and activists condemned the cruelty of a barbaric practice. Though these individuals offered myriad perspectives, coming from diverse communities and backgrounds, the cultural hegemony of white, European authority in colonial spaces often meant certain voices were heard more loudly and readily than others. In this white abolitionist sphere, William Wilberforce declared Black African people as being inherently incapable of reaching truly equal status, despite his famously fervent opposition to slavery and subsequent parliamentary success. This dichotomy between condemnation of slavery and an ideological alignment to the violently racist attitudes which had upheld it mark clear ethical inconsistencies within the work of certain well-known abolitionist figures.
Given centuries of scholarly endorsement to the pseudoscientific construct of racial hierarchy and genetic difference, it was often the physical and tangible differences between people of certain races that became a focal point for the justification of oppression and exploitation. Centuries prior to Wilberforce and his circle of fellow abolitionists, renowned author Aphra Behn wrote her seminal work of prose, Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave which has long been widely regarded as an abolitionist work. However, within her descriptions of an enslaved prince and the inhuman brutality he faced at the hands of European oppressors, Behn does far more to further embed the concept of inherent difference than she does to unravel it. Through her comparisons of the Black body to exotic items of furniture and decorative embellishments, she reinforces the notion that the value of Blackness lies in its commodification. In doing so, Behn appears to favour the abolition of slavery not because she sees Oroonoko as her equal, but because his physicality renders him more valuable as an ornament to be fetishised and admired by a white, European audience.