Mark Twain's life and historical era, incidents and character comments

throughout Huckleberry Finn, and reviews by critics of many races.

Researching the life and times of Mark Twain led to various facts that

negate the popular opinion that he was racist. Born Samuel Langhorn

Clemens on November 30, 1835 in Missouri, Mark Twain witnessed an era

of accepted slavery and racism (Roberts, 5). Growing up in the slave state of

Missouri, Twain's father was a slave trader several times in his many

occupational ventures. After his father's death Twain spent several summers

with his uncle, John Quarles, who owned twenty slaves which provided

Twain with an up close view of slavery in action. Twain was deeply affected

by witnessing the brutal murder of a slave by a rock-throwing white man for

the crime of "merely doing something awkward" (Smith). Twain completed

Huckleberry Finn in 1884, at a time when black identity in American society

was undefined. Even though blacks had been granted citizenship in 1870 by

the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, Southern white society still looked

upon them as sub-human creatures without souls or feelings. "

'One day she was a-stannin' around', en I says to her, I says: 'Shet de

seems to get the better of Jim have a second reading in which Jim remains the

Jim, Twain reveals Jim's humanity in a profoundly moving story about a time

beliefs. And she argues that many of the stories in which a white person

In one scene, for example, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1597
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)