Xury the slave boy is only a minor character in Robinson Crusoe, but his brief appearance tells us an awful lot about what kind of person Crusoe is at this stage of his journey.
Crusoe has been enslaved, which one might think would make him detest this abominable institution for all it was worth. But, as subsequent events will show, that's not the case. Crusoe may think it contemptible for a white Christian man such as himself to be enslaved, but not for non-white pagans.
In any case, Crusoe manages to escape his confinement, along with Xury and another slave. Crusoe forces the other slave to swim to shore, but allows Xury to remain aboard his boat. In effect, Crusoe is showing Xury that he trusts him.
In due course, that trust will be repaid, but Crusoe will go on to betray Xury. When the Portuguese captain picks them...
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up, Crusoe sells Xury to him, an indication that, despite his beneficent treatment of the boy never saw him as anything more than a slave, a piece of property to be bought and sold.
Though Crusoe has been able to break free from his bondage, he hasn't yet emancipated his mind from the shackles of colonialism and white supremacy.
Who was Xury in Robinson Crusoe?
In chapter 2 of Robinson Crusoe, the protagonist is held captive in Africa alongside a boy named Xury. He gives Xury a rather one-sided choice between swearing loyalty to him and being thrown into the sea. When Xury willingly gives his allegiance to Crusoe, the two manage to escape together.
Xury is a loyal companion to Crusoe. However, in the next chapter, a Portuguese captain who buys Crusoe's boat offers him a further sixty pieces of eight to sell Xury back into slavery. Crusoe does not consent to this, but he does let the captain have him as an indentured servant. They arrange that Xury will work for the captain for ten years, after which he will be set free if he converts to Christianity.
It is clear that neither of the two men consults Xury about this arrangement, and the unequal relationship between Crusoe and Xury foreshadows his more significant association with Friday later in the narrative. In both cases, Crusoe is full of praise for the other man (or, in Xury's case, boy) in terms of character and conduct. However, he does not regard either as his equal, or as a free agent with his own life to live. He treats both Xury and Friday like faithful dogs.