Racism Exposed In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

The American Civil War, lasting from 1861-1865, marked a turning point in the history of the United States as the Confederate States had seceded from and battled the Union to protect states rights and the driving force of their economy: slavery. Slaves had been imported from Africa and forced to work in America, beginning in the early colony of Jamestown in 1619. The often inhumane conditions which were experienced by slaves and limited social mobility, applying to even freed black men, ultimately introduced stereotypical views of African Americans which permeated society and persisted for years. Slavery had an immense duration in the United States, beginning in the seventeenth century and persisting until the ratification of the thirteenth amendment which abolished slavery. Even though it was legally outlawed from the country, the social effects of slavery were to be experienced by many individuals for generations to come.
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain depicts an antebellum South where the novel’s protagonist, Huck Finn, travels from his humble origins of a poverty-filled life in Missouri with his …show more content…
Although Twain demonstrates that racism was rampant in the 1800s and African Americans, even freedmen, were subject to ridicule and scorn by their white contemporaries. Twain’s novel adds an immense depth to the field of American literature as it follows its protagonist through a story which reveals the ugly, racist truth about society and the values which are passed down from generation to generation. However, the novel instills hope by revealing that anyone, whether born slave or free, has the capability of looking beyond societal labels and seeing other people as who they truly are, as human