History And Influence Of The 17th-18th Century Colonization Period In

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History And Influence of The 17th-18th Century Colonization Period in
“Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe.


I would like to comment about how Crusoe lived with himself after he became a master in a hierarchy where he was once a slave, for I found myself confused with the point that author was trying to make. While reading the biographical information on Defoe, I learned that he defended the slave trade in periodical essays and reviews and owned stock in the Royal African Company . The fact that Crusoe, a white man, is taken as a slave is very ironic; maybe that is what Defoe was trying to convey to the reader. However, if the author’s are with the slave trade, as his stock options suggest, then maybe it is not that surprising.
“At last he lays his head flat upon the ground , close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done before, and after this, made all the sign to me of subjugation, servitude and submission imaginable, to let me know how he would serve me as long as he lived,” – Robinson Crusoe.
It’s this kind of portrayal – barely discernible from European colonial rhetoric and ignorance – that encouraged and justified the murderous “entrepreneurship” by European colonizers. Crusoe’s fictionalized ingenuity in the science of agriculture adds to the plantation theme. For years he is by himself, and he bides his time with dreaming about the possibility of future slaves.
The subtle references to the Moors and the physical discription of Friday makes it obvious that one’s ethnic origin is of great importance in this story. Crusoe does not define Friday as a black man, but rather as a man with a “not quite black, but very twany; and yet not of an ugly yellow nauseous twany…but a bright kind of dun olive Colour… .” Crusoe immediately begins his common theme of domination, by being so arrogant as to name the man Friday and teach him his name (together with ‘Master’ and ...