Huckleberry Finn

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 11th grade August 2001

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Jaspreet Singh Shahpuri Prof. Thomas Humanities c202 02/16/2000 Chattel Slavery The two books "˜Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and the "˜Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass' were written during the first half of the nineteenth century. During this time, a slave was considered by law as property, or chattel and was deprived of most of the rights that an ordinary person would possess. The owner of the slave could claim the product of slave labor. The slave was deprived of personal liberty and the right to move about geographically, as he desired. Slaves were considered to be stupid, uneducable, lazy, superstitious and untrustworthy.

The "˜Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' is a novel and is based on a young boys coming of age in Missouri in the mid 1800s. In the beginning Huck seems very set in the southern anti-black ways, however as the story unfolds he goes against whatever he has been taught to help his black friend Jim.

Huck's moral evolution starts from the moment he sets foot on the raft with Jim. Huck believed in the common belief that blacks were less intelligent than whites but as he spends time with Jim on the raft he is astonished to see that Jim was quite smart. Getting lost in the fog, while floating down the Mississippi River lead to a major turning point in the development of Huck's character. Up to this event he considered Jim as a lesser person than himself. After tricking Jim that night he felt really sorry for it afterwards and says, " It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to a nigger -- but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither" (Twain 65).

Huck had decided...