"Remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt": Slavery and Sabbath-keeping in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko

• In Event: Early Modern Christian Readings of the Hebrew Bible III: George Peele and Aphra Behn

Abstract

This paper argues that Behn’s Oroonoko draws on the Hebrew Bible’s teachings about Sabbaths and Jubilee Years in order to challenge Christians’ beliefs about slavery. Slave owners in the Atlantic world frequently debated whether Christian Sabbath laws applied to slaves, and Behn responds by reminding them that originally Sabbaths and Jubilee Years were times for liberating slaves. The Israelites’ Sabbath commemorated their escape from Egyptian slavery, and during the Jubilee Year the Israelites freed their own slaves. Oroonoko reminds readers of these origins of the Sabbath when he observes his slave owners’ Sabbath according to Hebrew teaching. He resists the Christians’ attempts to pacify him with “sports”—a term associated with Anglican Sabbath-keeping—and instead leads a slave revolt on their Sabbath. Oroonoko urges Christian readers to re-examine the Hebrew Bible in order to understand the original significance of Sabbaths and Jubilee Years and to recognize the injustice of slavery.

Author

• Karen Clausen-Brown, Walla Walla University