Robinson Crusoe and Slavery

Robinson Crusoe: A Depiction of the European Ideology
In a society where the exploitation of the natural resources of a colony was the engine of a nation’s prosperity and power, the necessity of a workforce was vital for that country’s development. Europe found that force through the practice of slavery, subjugating natives of the West Indies and “Negroes” from Africa since they were regarded as savages and therefore as inferior beings. This institution, as well as that of serfdom, was deeply ingrained in the Old World due to the intense trading that the eighteenth century presented. As a result, many books from this period—especially travel literature—reflect these themes in their pages. In Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe they can be seen in various parts of the book, such as the time when Crusoe became a slave himself; when he had for a brief time his boy Xury; when he set in a voyage to acquire Negroes from Guinea; and in his subsequent relationship with Friday. Thus, some of the events narrated throughout the whole story illustrate the colonialist and imperialistic nature of the main character, which in turn portrays white civilization’s idea of superiority. From the beginning of the book, Crusoe is presented as a man from the “middle state”. According to his father, that was the best position a man could ever have—a point of view that Crusoe will come to understand and agree with later in the novel—. Precisely this middle sector of society was the one who was dedicated to trading in this period of great commercial expansion, and also the one with the desire to build and develop due to economical aspirations. In the novel, the main character is consistent with this model, for every time that he finds himself prospering, and has the possibility to do so, he desires to obtain servants or slaves. This can be seen when he becomes the owner of a Brazilian plantation of sugar cane, “I may say I had more than four times the value of my first cargo, and was now