Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave

Novel by Aphra Behn published in 1688. The plot revolves around Oroonoko, the grandson of an African king. He falls in love with Imoinda, the daughter of the king's general. The king himself is also in love with Imoinda and sells her as a slave when he learns the truth. Oroonoko is captured by an English slave captain and brought to the English colony Surinam in the West Indies. There he is reunited with Imoinda. After a failed slave revolt organized by Oroonoko and his public punishment he decides to kill Byam, the deputy-governor. To guarantee Imoinda's security Oroonoko kills her with her consent. Before he can commit suicide, Oroonoko is cruelly executed which he bears stoically.

Behn's novel is remarkable because it is the first expression in English literature of sympathy for oppressed black slaves. The author is believed to have shaped the novel according to her own experiences which she had made as a young woman in Surinam (but that can be one of the strategies for authentication. There is no documentary evidence that Oroonoko and Imoinda existed). In 1695 Thomas Southerne wrote a tragedy called Oroonoko: A Tragedy based on Behn's novel.

Sources:

Griffiths, Trevor R., ed. Restoration Comedy. London: Nick Hern Books, 2005. Harvey, Sir Paul, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature.3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.