Slavery In A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court

In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, a novel written by Mark Twain, the issue of slavery is extremely prevalent. Twain correlates the sixth century and nineteenth century through the idea of slavery. Hank Morgan, the protagonist of the novel, romantically travels back in time and perceives that people of lower class, especially those without a title, were treated horribly. Hank attempts to resolve the idea of slavery in the sixth century by bringing King Arthur on a journey as a peasant to demonstrate to him what it is like to be a peasant or slave. Despite the two time periods being 1300 years apart, the cultures of the sixth century and nineteenth century hold a similarity in the way that lower class people are treated as utterly …show more content…
During this time, peasants, or the people without titles, were essentially slaves. When Hank and the king embark on their journey as peasants, the king does not remotely know how to act as a peasant. Hank understands the inhumanity that the peasants endure and he feels pity for them, but the king is too ignorant to even comprehend what the peasants go through daily. When walking through the market square in chapter 34, Hank says, “the king was not interested [in the peasants], and wanted to move along, but I was absorbed, and full of pity. I could not take my eyes away from these worn and wasted wrecks of humanity” (Twain 266). Here, the king’s ignorance and lack of feeling for these people is exemplified. Despite him being disguised as a peasant, he still feels as though he is superior to everyone else and does not even have the decency to merely look at the peasants. Only when Hank and the king are put in handcuffs and and sold as slaves does the king finally realize the unfairness that the peasants and slaves undergo. He attempts to prove he is a free man, but is silenced by the orator because of the laws he put in place himself. “They take a meaning, and get to be very vivid, when you come to apply them to yourself” (Twain 267). Here, Twain is asserting that the king could not fully realize the injustice the peasants and slaves face until he was put into the circumstances where the injustice was directed towards him. Hank also reflects on his own ignorance in regards to this. He says, “hundreds of freemen who could not prove that they were freemen had been sold into lifelong slavery without the circumstance making any particular impression upon me; but the minute law and auction block came into my personal experience… became suddenly hellish” (Twain 267-268). Both Hank and the king