payment page
Xury is a fellow slave on the Turkish fishing boat on which Crusoe finds himself enslaved. After being sent out to fish for the day accompanied by Xury and another slave, Ismael, whom Crusoe refers to as the Moor, Crusoe tricks the Moor into going out to sea and then pushes him overboard, enabling him and Xury to escape. Because Xury exhibits a more timid and yielding character, Crusoe trusts him as an accomplice, unlike the Moor. Between their escape and Crusoe’s eventual selling of Xury to a Portuguese captain, Xury exhibits a fierce devotion to Crusoe, not unlike a slave to his master, and Crusoe is clearly aware of the power imbalance between the two. This relationship gives Crusoe his first taste of ownership over another human being, foreshadowing the relationship Crusoe will eventually have with Friday on the island. Xury lacks much agency during his presence in the novel and largely serves to display Crusoe’s lack of respect for others, and his racist lack of respect for characters of color in particular.
