When
reading it's all too easy to overlook the uncomfortable fact that the lead
character's actually a slave-trader. And it is in this capacity that Crusoe heads off to Africa
in search of lucrative human cargo. But before then he ends up being sold into slavery himself.
It's somewhat telling, however, that even this first-hand experience doesn't persuade Crusoe
that slavery is a moral abomination. No sooner does he escape captivity than he's off on his
travels once more, looking to buy some slaves for his Brazilian sugar plantation. It is during
this voyage that Crusoe is shipwrecked and ends up stranded on a desert island.
One would've thought that Crusoe's own experiences might have brought home to him just
how morally repugnant it is to enslave another human being. That they don't is testimony to the
extraordinary power that colonialist ideology has on him. Crusoe doesn't believe that slavery is
wrong per se; it's only wrong if the "wrong" people are enslaved, i.e....
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