As the other
answer indicates, Crusoe is both a slave owner and slave trader before his shipwreck and seems
to have no qualms about buying and owning people from Africa.
After his
shipwreck, and some years into his stay on the island, he comes across visiting cannibals. After
he saves one of them, Friday, he uses him as a servant. Because of his racism, it never once
crosses Crusoe's mind to see Friday as an equal from whom he might learn. In every way, Friday
is expected to adapt himself to European cultural norms, which are considered infinitely
superior to what Friday has left behind him. He adopts a European name, learns English, and
converts to Christianity. Friday shows intense curiosity about Christianity, especially the
devil, even posing questions Crusoe can't easily answer, but Crusoe completely dismisses
Friday's god Benamuckee. Crusoe even evaluates Friday's looks in terms of European beauty norms
in a way that is racist:
yet he had all the Sweetness and
Softness of an European in his Countenance . . . especially when he smiled. His Hair was long
and black, not curled like Wool; his Forehead very high, and large, and a great Vivacity and
sparkling Sharpness in his Eyes. The Colour of his Skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and
yet not of an ugly yellow nauseous tawny, as the Brasilians . . .
Friday calls Crusoe "master," and Crusoe thinks of him as a "child"
despite Friday's adulthood.
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