Chapter 14

Bárbora and Jau

This chapter examines two contrasting emotional responses to enslaved people in the writing of the Portuguese Renaissance poet Luís de Camões. On the one hand, Bárbora, the captive woman made famous in a lyrical poem by Camões, stands for the golden age of Portuguese discoveries and its open-mindedness towards far-off exotic civilizations; on the other hand, Camões depicts Jau, the Javanese slave he owned for about a decade, in a way that suggests social conservatism and indifference. In the nineteenth century, many Romantic authors and artists, inspired by the figure of the noble savage and a new emphasis on emotional bonds, highlighted the importance of these two slaves in the life of Camões.