Enslavement of the Mind and Body

Gaius Plinius Secundus AD 27-79, also known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire. He portrayed his entire knowledge into a thirty-seven chapter compilation titled The Naturall Historie of Pliny the Elder, more commonly known as The Historie of the World. This book was one of the few remaining texts from the Roman Empire that had survived to present day. William Shakespeare also was exposed to this book’s vast amounts of information, and may have used it to create his dramatic theatrical creations

In book seven, Pliny the Elder described the idea of maternal impression, that the mother’s imagination at the moment of conception determined the appearance of the child at birth. He uses the example of an white woman fantasizing about an Ethiopian man during the conception of her child with her husband. The child was born of interracial decent, and therefore deemed her guilty of adultery. He further explains that the imagination of a woman during the moment of conception of an infant is the expression of not only object and situation she has heard, thought, and observed, but also an expression of what the mother’s most secret and innermost thoughts are composed of such as her memory and desires.

Not only is this an oppressive idea towards the minds of women, this is a perfect example as to how interracial love and reproduction was viewed during this time. Pliny the Elder demonstrated that the foulest fantasy a woman could have, was sexual relations with an African man. During this time, sexual intercourse with an African was deemed filthy, and since African slaves were considered property, some considered sex with them as unclean as intercourse with an animal or beast.

In the beginning scenes of Shakespeare’s Othello, Brabantio is told of her daughter’s marriage to the African general. He immediately turns his back on his Desdemona, and accuses Othello of witchery. Just as Pliny the Elder demonstrated the stigma behind interracial relationships, Brabantio does the same, going as far as denouncing his daughter for betraying him.

Robert Burton, an English scholar at Oxford University, wrote his most famous contribution, The Anatomy of Melancholy, originally published in 1621. This medical text was designed to explain the related causes and affects of melancholia, now known as clinical depression. Although he does not specifically address skin color, he does portray the idea of slavery of the mind.

In subsection 5, titled the Loss of Liberty, Servitude, Imprisonment, how they cause Melancholy, he explains the human capacity for enslavement.

Enslavement of individuals, specifically Africans, during this time period, was terrifyingly popular among wealthy members of white society, earning a great deal of money by participating in the slave trade. This enslavement of Africans caused not only physical pain, but mental affections as well. They were not only forced to obey their masters, but mentally they were captive to enslavement of their thoughts as well.

Burton explains that mental enslavement causes detrimental damage to the well-being of an individual, since all of their natural desires are bound to their master. Without the release of these delights, mankind grows weary of the world, and bored of their surroundings. In the sense of African enslavement, who have natural urges and tendencies just like any other man, they too can fall into the darkness, and revolt against their place in society.

The human spirit has always wanted what it cannot have, and as a result of the imprisonment of the mind, they speak out against norms and go for what their heart desires. In Othello, the interracial love between Desdemona and the African general grew dark after Iago sought to destroy Othello's place in society. He enslaved Othello’s mind as a tool to get back at him for not giving him the position he thought he deserved. Othello became a slave to Iago’s plan of destruction, and killed Desdemona in a spiral of fury and hatred because of his mental enslavement and manipulation.