The paper aims to answer the questions regarding slavery in the antebellum United States and personality analysis of character from the novel Oroonoko.
1. After analyzing the character of Trefry, it can be said that he is a person who is presented a very sympathetic person for Oroonoko in the novel.
He was the overseer of Parham Plantation, who wanted to Trefry to be free from slavery. Therefore, he attempted to free Oroonoko so that he can go back to Africa. Trefry was a kind hearted person who wanted to help slaves. For this reason, he had sympathetic feeling towards Oroonoko, and they had a positive relationship of friendship. While defining character traits of Trefry, he is mentioned in a novel as "a man of great wit and fine learning." Therefore, it will not be incorrect to state that one should be like Trefry who should have sympathetic, sincere and helping nature for others (Behn).
2. Slavery in the antebellum United States followed the same system that is mentioned in the novel Oroonoko.
When people are bought and sold and forced to work, however, its impacts were terrible for the Americans (Hinks and McKivigan 56). Oroonoko is the example of that antebellum United States where slavery was common for antebellum American. It will not be incorrect to state that there is no difference in slavery in the antebellum United States and Oroonoko's slave story. There are millions of people who have been affected by the slavery as Oroonoko is also a perfect example of this issue. The reason is that Oroonoko is also presenting a story of those affected people who became the victim of slavery and in the end died (Behn).
Works Cited
Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko. New York: Penguin Books Limited, 2003.
Hinks, Peter P and John R. McKivigan. Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition, Volume 2. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007 .
