Behn's tale certainly contributes to Jean Jacques Rousseau's later noble savage myth, as in (man's) life reconnected with nature, and that the hero and heroine embody the idea of Innocence and Grace, before man knew shame and sin.
Oroonoko fell in love with Imoinda and in Behn's interpretation, "The only Crime and Sin with Woman is, to turn her off, to abandon her to Want, Shame and Misery: Such ill Morals are only practis'd in Christian-Countries, where they prefer the bare Name of Religion; and without Virtue or Morality, they think that's sufficient." (ibid, p.15)
Behn goes on to defend the royal "savages' " values of Honour and Duty regardless of colonialist slavery; the value system including her eternal Empire over Him. Imoinda 'condescended' to receive him for her husband, as the greatest honour the Gods could bestow upon her.
This volume also includes invaluable written accounts of this time period and the slave trade.
