In the first few chapters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim is introduced as the stereotypical Negro. He is ignorant, slow, and believes in many foolish superstitions. These characteristics are evident when Tom and Huck try to sneak out of the house. Eventually, Tom steals Jim's hat and hangs it on a tree branch. "Afterward Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the state, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it,"

As Jim defies the social conception of a black man at this time, he also symbolizes the free Negro in the years after the Civil War. At this time in history, blacks were by all means free, though, due to racism, blacks were rarely apt to the rights and privileges apt guaranteed to them. While Huck, the Duke, and Dauphin all got to leave the raft at a given town, Jim was to stay aboard, and hide out. At one point, the Duke goes as far as to paint Jim's face and dress him up as a "Sick Arab- but harmless when not out of his head," (157). Though Jim is supposed to be disguised from his race, most just see a "strange nigger dressed so and so," (211). While Jim was disguised as an Arab, he was not treated as one. Like many black men at the time, they were free men, but not treated as so, due to ongoing racism. The biggest injustice that happens to Jim during the course of the novel is when the Phelps family recaptures Jim, though he had long since been granted his freedom. While Jim was a free man, he was in chains. Blacks at the time, while now equal in the eyes of the law with whites now still faced the chains of racism. While they should be able pursue their American Dream and seek happiness, blacks were labeled previously by society as inferior and still fought that barrier. The character Jim exemplifies the position in which many free blacks found themselves in after their freedom was granted.

While The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is written with Twain's trademark tongue-in-cheek manner, it conveys a far deeper meaning that just purely for entertainment. This book perceived blacks as being on the same level as whites though not accepted at that

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Approximate Word count = 1130
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)