DAVID L.

SMITH

Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse

They [blacks] are at least as brave, and more adventure-

the specific form of racial discourse to which the
some [compared to whites]. But this may perhaps pro- novel responds. Furthermore, Huckleberry Finn
ceed from a want of foře-thought, which prevents their
offers much more than the typical liberal defenses of
seeing a danger till it be present - They are more ardent
"human dignity" and protests against cruelty.
after their female: but love seems with them to be more an
Though it contains some such elements, it is more
eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment
and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those number- fundamentally a critique of those socially consti-
less afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven tuted fictions- most notably romanticism, religion,
has given life to us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and
and the concept of "the Negro" - which serve to
sooner forgotten with them. In general, their existence justify and to disguise selfish, cruel, and exploitative
appears to participate more of sensation than reflection.behavior.
To this must be ascribed their disposition to sleep when When I speak of "racial discourse," I mean more
abstracted from their diversions, and unemployed in labor.
than simply attitudes about "race" or conventions of
- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
(187-88)
talking about "race." Most importantly, I mean that
"race" itself is a discursive formation, which delimits
social relations on the basis of alleged physical
nineteenth century could have written the differences.4 "Race" is a strategy for relegating a
Almost nineteenthpreceding
precedingwords. The notion ofwords.
any Euro-American Negro century
in- The could notion intellectual have of written Negro of the the in- segment of the population to a permanent inferior
feriority was so deeply pervasive among those heirs status. It functions by insisting that each "race" has
of "The Enlightment" that the categories and even specific, definitive, inherent behavioral tendencies
the vocabulary of Negro inferiority were formalized and capacities, which distinguish it from other
into a tedious, unmodulated litany. This uniformity "races." Though scientifically specious, "race" has
increased rather than diminished during the course been powerfully effective as an ideology and as a
of the century. As Leon Litwack and others have form of social definition, which serves the interests
shown, even the Abolitionists, who actively opposed of Euro-American hegemony. In America, race has
slavery, frequently regarded blacks as inherently been deployed against numerous groups, includ-
inferior. This helps to explain the widespread ing Native Americans, Jews, Asians, and even - for
popularity of colonization schemes among Aboli- brief periods - an assortment of European immi-
tionists and other liberals.1 As for Jefferson, it is not grants.
surprising that he held such ideas, but it is For obvious reasons, however, the primary
impressive that he formulated so clearly at the endemphasis historically has been on defining "the
of the eighteenth century what would become the Negro" as a deviant from Euro- American norms.
dominant view of the Negro in the nineteenth "Race" in America means white supremacy and
century. In many ways, this Father of Americanblack inferiority5; and "the Negro," a socially
Democracy - and quite possibly of fì ve mulatto constituted fiction, is a generalized, one-dimension-
children - was a man of his time and ahead of his al surrogate for the historical reality of Afro-
time.2 American people. It is this reified fiction which
In July of 1876, exactly one century after the Twain attacks in Huckleberry Finn.
American Declaration of Independence, Mark Twain adopts a strategy of subversion in his attack
Twain began writing Adventures of Huckleberry on race. That is, he focuses on a number of
Finn, a novel which illustrates trenchantly the social
commonplaces associated with "the Negro," and
limitations which American "civilization" imposes then he systematically dramatizes their inade-
on individual freedom. The book takes special note quacy. He uses the term "nigger," and he shows Jim
of ways in which racism impinges upon the lives engaging
of in superstitious behavior. Yet he portrays
Afro-Americans, even when they are legally "free." Jim as a compassionate, . shrewd, thoughtful, self-
It is therefore ironic that Huckleberry Finn has often
sacrificing and even wise man. Indeed, his
been attacked and even censored as a racist work. portrayal
I of Jim contradicts every claim presented
would argue, on the contrary, that except for in Jefferson's description of "the Negro." Jim is
Melville's work, Huckleberry Finn is without peers cautious, he gives excellent advice, he suffers
among major Euro-American novels for its explicit-persistent anguish over separation from his wife and
ly anti-racist stance.3 Those who brand the book child, and he even sacrifices his own sleep in order
"racist"generally do so without having considered that Huck may rest. Jim, in short, exhibits all the

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 David L. Smith

qualities that "the Negro" supposedly lacks. Twain's own. A nigger, Aunt Sally confirms, is not a person.
conclusions do more than merely subvert the Y et this exchange is hilarious, precisely because we
justifications of slavery, which was already long know that Huck is playing upon her glib and
since abolished. Twain began this book during the conventional bigotry. We know that Huck's
final disintegration of Reconstruction, and his satire relationship to Jim has already invalidated for him
on antebellum Southern bigotry is also an implicit such obtuse racial notions. The conception of the
response to the Negrophobic climate of the post- "nigger" is a socially constituted and sanctioned
Reconstruction era (Berkove; Gollin; Egan, esp. 66- fiction, and it is just as false and as absurd as Huck's
102). It is troubling, therefore, that so many readers explicit fabrication, which Aunt Sally also swallows
have completely misunderstood Twain's subtle whole.
attack on racism. In fact, the exchange between Huck and Aunt
Twain's use of the word "nigger" has provoked Sally reveals a great deal about how racial
some readers to reject the novel. (See Hentoff). As discourse operates. Its function is to promulgate a
one of the most offensive words in our vocabulary, conception of "the Negro" as a subhuman and
"nigger" remains heavily shrouded in taboo. A expendable creature, who is by definition feeble-
careful assessment of this term within the context of minded, immoral, lazy, and superstitious. One
American racial discourse, however, will allow us to crucial purpose of this social fiction is to justify the
understand the particular way in which the author abuse and exploitation of Afro-American people by
uses it. If we attend closely to Twain's use of the substituting the essentialist fiction of "Negro-ism"
word, we may find in it not just a trigger to outrage, for the actual character of individual Afro-
but more importantly, a means of understanding theAmericans. Hence, in racial discourse every Afro-
precise nature of American racism and Mark American becomes just another instance of "the
Twain's attack on it. Negro" - just another "nigger." Twain recognizes
Most obviously, Twain uses "nigger" throughout this invidious tendency of ra ce- thinking, however,
the book as a synonym for "slave." There is ample and he takes every opportunity to expose the
evidence from other sources that this corresponds mismatch between racial abstractions and real
to one usage common during the Antebellum human beings.
period. We first encounter it in reference to "Miss For example, when Pap drunkenly inveighs
Watson's big nigger, named Jim" (Ch. 2). This against the free mulatto from Ohio, he is outraged
usage, like the term "nigger stealer," clearly by what appears to him as a crime against natural
designates the "nigger" as a piece of property: a laws. (Ch. 6). In the first place, a "free nigger" is, for
commodity, a slave. This passage also provides the Pap, a contradiction in terms. Indeed, the man's
only apparent textual justification for the common clothes, his demeanor, his education, his profession,
critical practice of labelling Jim, "Nigger Jim," as if and even his silver-headed cane bespeak a social
"nigger" were a part of his proper name. This status normally achieved by only a small elite of
loathsome habit goes back at least as far as Albert white men. He is, in other words, a "nigger" who
Bigelow Paine's biography of Twain (1912). In any refuses to behave like a "nigger." Pap's ludicrous
case, "nigger" in this sense connotes an inferior, protestations discredit both himself and other
even subhuman, creature, who is properly owned believers in "the Negro," as many critics have
by and subservient to Euro-Americans. noted. But it has" not been sufficiently stressed that
Both Huck and Jim use the word in this sense. For Pap's racial views correspond very closely to those
example, when Huck fabricates his tale about the of most of his white Southern contemporaries, in
riverboat accident, the following exchange occurs substance if not in manner of expression. Such
between him and Aunt Sally: views were held not only by poor whites but by all
"right-thinking" Southerners, regardless of their
'Good gracious! anybody hurt?' social class. Indeed, not even the traumas of the
'No'm. Killed a nigger.' Civil War would cure Southerners of this folly.
'Well, it's lucky, because sometimes people do Furthermore, Pap's indignation at the Negro's right
get hurt' (Ch. 32). to vote is precisely analogous to the Southern
backlash against the enfranchisement of Afro-
Huck has never met Aunt Sally prior to this scene, Americans during Reconstruction. Finally, Pap's
and in spinning a lie which this stranger will find comments are rather mild compared to the anti-
unobjectionable, he correctly assumes that the Negro diatribes which were beginning to emerge
common notion of Negro subhumanity will be among politicians even as Twain was writing
appropriate. Huck's off-hand remark is intended toHuckleberry Finn. He began writing this novel
exploit Aunt Sally's attitudes, not to express Huck'sduring the final days of Reconstruction, and it seems

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 Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse

more than reasonable to assume that the shameful be unsatisfactory, because it would deny Twain the
white supremacist bluster of that epoch - exempli-credit which he deserves for the sophistication of his
perceptions (see Ellison, Hansen, Lynn).
fied by Pap's tirade - informed Twain's critique of
racism in Huckleberry Finn. (See Pettit, Mark TwainAs a serious critic of American society, Twain
and the South, 35-50). recognized that racial discourse depends upon the
deployment of a system of stereotypes which
Pap's final description of this Ohio gentlemen as
constitute "the Negro" as fundamentally different
"a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free-
nigger" (Ch. 6) almost totally contradicts his from and inferior to Euro-Americans. As with his
previous description of the man as a proud, elegant, handling of "nigger," Twain's strategy with racial
dignified figure. Y et this contradiction is perfectly stereotypes is to elaborate them in order to
consistent with Pap's need to reassert "the Negro" in undermine them. To be sure, those critics are
lieu of social reality. Despite the vulgarity of Pap's correct who have argued that Twain uses this
personal character, his thinking about race is highly narrative to reveal Jim's humanity. Jim, however, is
conventional and, therefore, respectable. But most just one individual. Much more importantly, Twain
of us cannot respect Pap's views, and when we uses the narrative to expose the cruelty and
reject them, we reject the standard racial discoursehollowness of that racial discourse which exists only
of both 1840 and 1880. to obscure the humanity of all Afro-American
A reader who objects to the word "nigger" might people.
still insist that Twain could have avoided using it.One aspect of Huckleberry Finn which has
But it is difficult to imagine how Twain could have elicited copious critical commentary is Twain's use
debunked a discourse without using the specific of superstition (see especially Hoffman, "Jim's
terms of that discourse. Even when Twain was Magic"). In nineteenth century racial discourse,
writing his book, "nigger" was universally recog- "the Negro" was always defined as inherently
nized as an insulting, demeaning word. According superstitious.6 Many critics, therefore, have cited
to Stuart Berg Flexner, "Negro" was generally Jim's superstitious behavior as an instance of
pronounced as "nigger" until about 1825, at which negative stereotyping. One cannot deny that in this
time Abolitionists began objecting to that term respect (57). Jim closely resembles the entire tradition of
They preferred "colored person" or "person of comic darkies (see Woodard and MacCann), but to
color." Hence, W. E. B. Du Bois reports that some observe this similarity is a negligible feat. The issue
black Abolitionists of the early 1830s declared is, does Twain merely reiterate cliches, or does he
themselves united "as men, . . . not as slaves; as use these conventional patterns to make an
'people of color,' not as 'Negroes' " (245). Writing a unconventional point? A close examination will
generation later in Army Life in a Black Regimentshow that in virtually every instance, Twain uses
(1869), Thomas Wentworth Higginson deplored the Jim's superstitution to make points which under-
common use of "nigger" among freedijien, which mine rather than revalidate the dominant racial
he regarded as evidence of low self-esteem (28). discourse.
The objections to "nigger," then, are not a The first incident of this superstitious behavior
consequence of the modern sensibility but had occurs in Chapter 2, as a result of one of Tom
been common for a half century before Huckle- Sawyer's pranks. When Jim falls asleep under a tree,
berry Finn was published. The specific function of Tom hangs his hat on a branch. Subsequently, Jim
this term in the book, however, is neither to offend concocts an elaborate tale about having been
nor merely to provide linguistic authenticity. Much hexed and ridden by witches. The tale grows more
more importantly, it establishes a context against grandiose with subsequent retellings, and even-
which Jim's specific virtues may emerge as explicit tually Jim becomes a local celebrity, sporting a five-
refutations of racist presuppositions. cent piece on a string around his neck as a talisman.
Of course, the concept of the "nigger" entails far "Niggers would come miles to hear Jim tell about it,
more than just the deployment of certain vocab- and he was more looked up to than any nigger in
ulary. Most of the attacks on the book focus on its that country," the narrator reports. Jim's celebrity
alleged perpetuation of racial stereotypes. Twain finally reaches the point that "Jim was most ruined,
does indeed use racial stereotypes here. That for a servant, because he got so stuck up on account
practice could be excused as characteristic of theof having seen the devil and been rode by witches."
genre of humor within which Twain works. Frontier This is, no doubt, amusing. Yet whether Jim believes
humor relies upon the use of stock types, andhis own tale or not - and the "superstitious Negro"
consequently, racial stereotypes are just one of thesis requires us to assume that he does - the fact
many types present in Huckleberry Finn. Y et while remains that Jim clearly benefits from becoming
valid, such an appeal to generic convention would more a celebrity and less a "servant." It is his owner,

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 David L. Smith

not Jim, who suffers when Jim's uncompensated essentialism by directing our attention, instead, to
labor diminishes.7 the particularity of individual action. We find that
This incident has often been interpreted as an Jim is not "the Negro." Jim is Jim, and we, like Huck,
example of risible Negro gullibility and ignorance, come to understand what Jim is by attending to what
as exemplified by blackface minstrelsy. Such a he does in specific situations.
reading has more than a little validity, but can only In another instance of explicitly superstitious
partially account for the implications of this scene. If behavior, Jim uses a hairball to tell Huck's fortune.
not for the final sentence, such an account might One may regard this scene as a comical example of
seem wholly satisfactory, but the information that Negro ignorance and credulity, acting in concert
Jim becomes, through his own storytelling, unsuited with the ignorance and credulity of a fourteen-year-
for life as a slave, introduces unexpected compli- old white boy. That reading would allow one an
cations. Is it likely that Jim has been deceived by his unambiguous laugh at Jim's expense. If one
own creative prevarications - expecially given examines the scene carefully, however, the
what we learn about his character subsequently? inadequacy of such a reductive reading becomes
Or has he cleverly exploited the conventions of apparent. Even if Jim does believe in the
"Negro superstition" in order to turn a silly boy's supernatural powers of this hairball, the fact
prank to his own advantage? remains that most of the transaction depends upon
Regardless of whether we credit Jim with Jim's quick wits. For example, the soothsaying aside,
forethought in this matter, it is undeniable that he much of the exchange between Huck and Jim is an
turns Tom's attempt to humiliate him into a major exercise in wily and understated economic
personal triumph. In other words, Tom gives him an bartering. In essence, Jim wants to be paid for his
inch, and he takes an ell. It is also obvious that he services, while Huck wants free advice. Jim insists
does so by exercising remarkable skills as a that the hairball will not speak without being paid.
rhetorician. By constructing a fictitious narrativeHuck, of who has a dollar, will only admit to having a
his own experience, Jim elevates himself above counterfeit
his quarter. Jim responds by pretending to
prescribed station in life. By becoming, in effect,beanin collusion with Huck. He expains how to doctor
author, Jim writes himself a new destiny. Jim's the "quarter" so that "anybody in town would take it
triumph may appear to be dependent upon the in a minute, let alone a hair-ball" (Ch. 4). But
gullibility of other "superstitious" Negroes, but sinceobviously it is not the hair-ball who will benefit from
we have no direct encounter with them, we cannot acquiring and spending this counterfeit coin (cf.
know whether they are unwitting victims of Jim's Weaver and Williams).
ruse or not. A willing audience need not be a totally In this transaction, Jim serves his own interests
credulous one. In any case, it is intelligence, not while appearing to serve Huck's interests. He takes
stupidity, which facilitates Jim's triumph. Tom may a slug which is worthless to Huck, and through the
have had his chuckle, but the last laugh, clearly, alchemy of his own cleverness, he contrives to
belongs to Jim. make it worth twenty-five cents to himself. That, in
In assessing Jim's character, we should keep in antebellum America, is not a bad price for telling a
mind that forethought, creativity and shrewdness fortune. But more importantly, Twain shows Jim self-
are qualities which racial discourse - see Thomas consciously subverting the prescribed definition of
Jefferson - denies to "the Negro." In that sense, Jim's "the Negro," even as he performs within the
limitations of that role. He remains the conventional
darky performance here subverts the fundamental
definition of the darky. For "the Negro" is defined to"Negro" by giving the white boy what he wants, at
be an object, not a subject. Yet does an object no real cost, and by consistently appearing to be
construct its own narrative? Viewed in this way, the passive and subservient to the desires of Huck and
fact of superstition, which traditionally connotes the hair-ball. But in fact, he serves his own interests
ignorance and unsophistication, becomes far less all along. Such resourcefulness is hardly consistent
important than the ends to which superstition is put. with the familiar, one-dimensional concept of "the
This inference exposes, once again, the inadequacy superstitious Negro."
of a positivist epistemology, which holds, for And while Jim's reading is formulaic, it is hardly
example, that "a rose is a rose is a rose." No one willsimple-minded. He sees the world as a kind of
deny the self-evidence of a tautology; but a rose Manichean universe, in which forces of light and
derives whatever meaning it has from the context darkness - white and black - vie for dominance.
within which it is placed (including the context of Pap, he says, is uncertain what to do, torn between
traditional symbolism.) It is the contextualizing his white and black angels. Jim's advice, "to res'
activity, not das Ding-an-sich, which generates easy en let de ole man take his own way" (Ch. 4),
meaning. Again and again, Twain attacks racial turns out to be good advice, because Huck greatly

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 Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse

enjoys life in the cabin, despite Pap's fits of drunken This insight in itself is a notable accomplishment.
excess. This mixture of pleasure and pain is Twain, however, did not view racism as an isolated
precisely what Jim predicts. Admittedly, Jim's phenomenon, and it was his effort to place racism
conceptual framework is not original. Nonetheless, within the context of other cultural traditions which
his reading carries considerable force, because it produced the most problematic aspect of his novel.
corresponds so neatly to the dominant thematic For it is in the final chapters - the Tom Sawyer
patterns in this book, and more broadly, to the sort of section - which most critics consider the weakest
dualistic thinking which informs much of Twain's part of the book, that Twain links his criticisms of
work. (To take an obvious example, consider the slavery and Southern romanticism, condemning
role reversals and character contrasts in Pudd'n- the cruelties which both of these traditions entail.
head Wilson or The Prince and the Pauper). And(See Altenbernd). Critics have objected to these
most immediately, Jim's comments here reflect chapters on various grounds. Some of the most
tellingly upon his situation as a black slave in racist common are that Jim becomes reduced to a comic
America. The slave's fate is always torn between his darky (e.g., Marx, Schmitz), that Tom's antics
master's will and his own. undermine the seriousness of the novel, and that
In this reading and other incidents, Jim emerges these burlesque narrative developments destroy
as an astute and sensitive observer of human the structural integrity of the novel. Most critics see
behavior, both in his comments regarding this Papconclusion
and as an evasion of the difficult issues
in his subtle remarks to Huck. Jim clearly possesses which the novel has raised. There is no space here
a subtlety and intelligence which "the Negro" for a discussion of the structural issues, but it seems
allegedly lacks. Twain makes this point more to me that as a critique of American racial discourse,
clearly in the debate scene in Chapter 15. True these concluding chapters offer a harsh, coherent,
enough, most of this debate is, as several critics and uncompromising indictment.
have noted, conventional minstrel show banter. Tom Sawyer's absurd scheme to "rescue" Jim
Nevertheless, Jim demonstrates impressive reason- offends, because the section begins with Huck's
ing abilities, despite his factual ignorance. For justly celebrated crisis of conscience, which
example, in their argument over "Poly-voo-franzy," culminates in his resolve to free Jim, even if doing so
Huck makes a category error by implying that the condemns him to hell. The passage which leads to
difference between languages is analogous to the Huck's decision, as familiar as it is, merits
difference between human language and cat reexamination:
language. While Jim's response - that man should
talk like a man - betrays his ignorance of cultural I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of
calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how
diversity, his argument is perceptive and struc-
glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I
turally sound. The humor in Huck' s conclusion,
come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud
"you can't learn a nigger how to argue," arises pre- was; and such like times; and would always call me honey,
cisely from our recognition that Jim's argument is and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me,
better than Huck's. and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I
Throughout the novel, Twain presents Jim in wayssaved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard,
which render ludicrous the conventional wisdom and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old
about "Negro character." As an intelligent, Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now;
sensitive, wily and considerate individual, Jim and then I happened to look around, and see that paper ....
demonstrates that one's race provides no useful I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says
to myself: 'All right, then, I'll go to hell' - and tore it up (Ch.
index of one's character. While that point may seem
31).
obvious to many contemporary readers, it is a point
rarely made by nineteenth-century Euro-American The issue here is not just whether or not Huck
novelists. Indeed, except for Melville, J. W. DeForest, should return a contraband8 - an escaped slave - to
Albion Tourgee, and George Washington Cable, its proper owner. More fundamentally, Huck must
white novelists virtually always portrayed Afro- decide whether to accept the conventional wisdom,
American characters as exemplifications of "Ne- which defines "Negroes" as subhuman commod-
groness." In this regard, the twentieth century has ities, or the evidence of his own experience, which
been little better. By presenting us a series of has shown Jim to be a good and kind man and a true
glimpses which penetrate the "Negro" exterior andfriend.
reveal the person beneath it, Twain debunks Ameri- Huck makes the obvious decision, but his doing
can racial discourse. For racial discourse maintains so represents more than simply a liberal choice of
that the "Negro" exterior is all that a "Negro" really conscience over social convention. Twain explicitly
has. makes Huck's choice a sharp attack on the

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 David L. Smith

Southern church. Huck scolds himself: "Here was proceed with Jim's cooperation. Certainly, neither
the Sunday school, you could a gone to it; and Huck if nor Jim would otherwise have indulged Tom's
foolishness. Tom's gratuitous cruelty here in the
you'd done it they'd a learnt you, there, that people
that acts as I'd been acting about that nigger goespursuit
to of his own amusement corresponds to his
everlasting fire" (Ch. 31). Yet despite Huck's less vicious prank against Jim in Chapter 2 . And just
anxiety, his choice is obviously correct. Further- as before, Twain converts Tom's callous mischief
more, by the time that Twain wrote these words, into a personal triumph for Jim.
more than twenty years of national strife, including Not only has Jim suffered patiently, which would
Civil War and Reconstruction, had established in truth represent a doubtful virtue. (Jim is not Uncle
Huck's conclusion regarding slavery as a dom- Tom.) Jim demonstrates his moral superiority by
inant national consensus. Not even reactionary surrendering himself in order to assist the doctor in
Southerners advocated a reinstitution of slavery. treating his wounded tormentor. This is hardly the
Since the Southern church had taught that slaverybehavior which one would expect from a
was God's will, Huck's decision flatly repudiates the commodity, and it is precisely Jim's status - man or
church's teachings regarding slavery. And implicit- chattel - which has been fundamentally at issue
ly, it also repudiates the church as an institution by throughout the novel. It may be true that Tom's
suggesting that the church functions to undermine, lengthy juvenile antics subvert the tone of the novel,
not to encourage, a reliance on one's conscience. but they also provide the necessary backdrop for
To define "Negroes" as subhuman removes them Jim's noble act. Up to this point, we have been able
from moral consideration and therefore justifies theto admire Jim's good sense and to respond
callous exploitation of them. This view of religion is sentimentally to his good character. This, however,
consistent with the cynical iconoclasm which Twain is the first time that we see him making a significant
expressed in Letters from the Earth and others of his(and wholly admirable) moral decision. His act sets
"dark" works.9 him apart from everyone else in the novel except
In this context, Tom Sawyer appears to us as a Huck. And modestly (if not disingenuously), he
superficially charming but fundamentally claims to be behaving just as Tom Sawyer would.
distasteful interloper. His actions are governed not Always conscious of his role as a "Negro," Jim
by conscience but rather by romantic conventionsknows better than to claim personal credit for his
and literary "authorities." Indeed, while Tom may good deed. Yet the contrast between Jim's behavior
appear to be a kind of renegade, he is in essence and Tom's is unmistakable. Huck declares that Jim
thoroughly conventional in his values and is "white inside" (Ch. 40). He apparently intends this
proclivities. Despite all his boyish pranks, as Toma compliment, but Tom is fortunate that Jim does
represents a kind of solid respectability- a younger not behave like most of the whites in the novel.
version of the Southern gentleman, as exemplified Twain also contrasts Jim's self-sacrificing
by the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons (see
compassion with the cruel and mean-spirited
Hoffman, Form and Fable, 327-28). Hence, when behavior of his captors, emphasizing that white skin
Tom proposes to help Huck steal Jim, Huck laments does not justify claims of superior virtue. They
that "Tom Sawyer fell, considerable, in my abuse Jim, verbally and physically, and some want
estimation. Only I couldn't believe it. Tom Sawyer a to lynch him as an example to other slaves. The
nigger stealeň" (Ch. 33). Such liberating activity is moderates among them, however, resist, pointing
proper for Huck, who is not respectable, but not for out that they could be made to pay for the
Tom, who is. As with the previous example, destruction of private property. As Huck observes:
however, this one implies a deep criticism of the "the people that's always the most anxious for to
status quo. Huck's act of conscience, which most of hang a nigger that hain't done just right, is always
us would now endorse, is possible only for an the very ones that ain't the most anxious to pay for
outsider. This hardly speaks well for the moral him when they've got their satisfaction out of him"
integrity of Southern (or American) "civilization." (Ch. 42). As if these enforcers of white supremacy
To examine Tom's role in the novel, let us begin at did not appear contemptible enough already, Twain
the end. Upon learning of the failed escape attempt then has the doctor describe Jim as the best and
and Jim's recapture, Tom cries out, self-righteously: most faithful nurse he has ever seen, despite Jim's
"turn him loose! He ain't no slave; he's as free as any "resking his freedom" and his obvious fatigue.
creatur that walks this earth" (Ch. 42). Tom has These vigilantes do admit that Jim deserves to be
known all along that his cruel and ludicrous scheme rewarded, but their idea of a reward is to cease
to rescue the captured "prisoner" was being punching and cursing him. They are not even
enacted upon a free man; and indeed, only his generous enough to remove Jim's heavy shackles.
silence regardihg Jim's status allowed the scheme to Ultimately, Huckleberry Finn renders a harsh

9 MARK TWAIN JOURNAL, 22:2 (Fall, 1984)

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 Huck, Jim, and American Racial Discourse

judgment on American society. Freedom from there may be between the treatment one deserves
slavery, the novel implies, is not freedom from and the treatment one receives.
gratuitous cruelty; and racism, like romanticism, is If this conclusion sounds uncontroversial from
finally just an elaborate justification which the adult the perspective of 1984, we would do well to
counterparts of Tom Sawyer use to facilitate their remember that it contradicts entirely the
exploitation and abuse of other human beings. Tom overwhelming and optimistic consensus of 1884.
feels guilty, with good reason, for having exploited And no other nineteenth-century novel so
Jim, but his final gesture of paying Jim off is less an effectively locates racial discourse within the
insult to Jim than it is Twain's commentary on Tom context of a general critique of American
himself. Just as slaveholders believe that economic institutions and traditions. Indeed, the novel
relations (ownership) can justify their privilege of suggests that real individual freedom, in this land of
mistreating other human beings, Tom apparently the free, cannot be found. "American civilization"
believes that an economic exchange can suffice as enslaves and exploits rather than liberates. It is
atonement for his misdeeds. Perhaps he finds a hardly an appealing message.
forty-dollar token more affordable than an apology. Given the subtlety of Mark Twain's approach, it is
But then, just as Tom could only "set a free niggernot surprising that most of his contemporaries
free," considering, as Huck says, "his bringing-up" misunderstood or simply ignored the novel's
(Ch. 42), he similarly could hardly be expected to démystification of race. Despite their patriotic
apologize for his pranks. Huck, by contrast, is rhetoric, they, like Pap, were unprepared to take
egually rich, but he has apologized to Jim earlier in seriously the implications of "freedom, justice, and
the novel. And this is the point of Huck's final equality." They, after all, espoused an ideology and
remark, rejecting the prospect of civilization. To an explicit language of race which was virtually
become civilized is not just to become like Aunt identical to Thomas Jefferson's. Yet racial discourse
Sally. More immediately, it is to become like Tom flatly contradicts and ultimately renders hyprocrit-
Sawyer. ical the egalitarian claims of liberal democracy. The
heart of Twain's message to us is that an honest
Jim is, indeed, "as free as any creatur that walks person must reject one or the other. But hypocrisy,
this earth." In other words, he is a man, like all men,
not honesty, is our norm. For too many of us
at the mercy of other men's arbitrary cruelties. In a continue to assert both racial distinction and liberal
sense, given Twain's view of freedom, to allow Jim to values, simultaneously. If we, a century later,
escape to the North or to have Tom announce Jim's continue to be confused about Adventures of
manumission earlier would be an evasion of the
Huckleberry Finn, perhaps it is because we remain
novel's ethical insights. While one may escapemore
from deeply comitted to both racial discourse and a
legal bondage, there is no escape from the cruelties
self-deluding optimism than we care to admit.10
of this "civilization." There is no promised land,
where one may enjoy absolute personal freedom. Williams College
An individual's freedom is always constrained by
one's social relations to other people. Being legally
free does not spare Jim from gratuitous humiliation
and physical suffering in the final chapters, Notes
precisely because Jim is still regarded as a "nigger."
Even if he were as accomplished as the mulatto from^he literature on the Abolition movement and on
Ohio, he would not be exempt from mistreatment. antebellum debates regarding the Negro is, of course,
Furthermore, since Tom represents the hegemonic voluminous. George Fredrickson's excellent The Black
values of his society, Jim's "freedom" amounts toImage in the White Mind is perhaps the best general work
of its kind. Fredrickson's The Inner Civil War is also
little more than an obligation to live by his wits and
to make the best of a bad situation. valuable, especialy pp. 53-64. Leon Litwack closely
examines the ambivalence of Abolitionists regarding
Slavery and racism, then, are social evils whichracial intermingling (214-46). Benjamin Quarles presents
the most detailed examination of black Abolitionists,
take their places alongside various others which the
novel documents, such as the insane romanticism though Vincent Harding offers a more vivid (and overtly
polemical) account of their relationships to white
that inspires the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons Abolitionists
(101-194).
blithely to murder each other, generation after 2The debate over Jefferson's relationship to Sally
generation. Twain rejects entirely the mystification Hemings has raged for two centuries. The most thorough
of race and demonstrates that Jim is in most ways a scholarly accounts are by Fawn Brodie, who suggests that
better man than the men who regard him as their Jefferson did have a prolonged involvement with
inferior. But he also shows how little correlation Hemings, and by Virginius Dabney, who endeavors to

MARK TWAIN JOURNAL, 22:2 (Fall, 1984) 10

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 David L. Smith

exonerate Jefferson of such charges. Barbara Chase- vocabulary during the Civil War, referring to a slave who
Riboud presents a fictionalized version of this relationship had gone "AWOL."
in Sally Hemings. The first Afro-American novel, 9 A number of works comment on Twain's religious views
Clotel; Or the President's Daughter (1853) by William and the relation between his critiques of religion and of
Wells Brown, was also based on this alleged affair. racism. See Ensor; Pettit, "Mark Train and the Negro"; and
3For dates of composition, see Blair. For a discussion of Gollin.
Melville's treatment of race, Carolyn Karchner's Shadow 10I would like to thank my colleagues, David Langston
Over the Promised Land is especially valuable. Articles and Michael Bell, for the helpful suggestions which they
on Benito Cereño by Joyce Adler and Jean Yellin are alsooffered to me regarding this essay.
noteworthy. Rayford Logan and Lawrence J. Friedman
provide detailed accounts of the racist climate in Post- Works Cited
Reconstruction America, emphasizing the literary
manifestations of such attitudes. Friedman's discussion of Adler, Joyce. "Melville's Benito Cereño: Slav-
George Washington Cable (99-118), the outspoken ery and Violence in the Americas." Science and
Southern liberal, is very informative. For a general Society , 38 (1974), 19-48.
historical overview of the period, C. Vann Woodward's
work remains unsurpassed. John W. Cell offers a Altenbernd, Lynn. "Huck Finn, Emancipator." Criticism, 1
provocative reconsideration of Woodward's arguments, (1959), 298-307.
and Joel Williamson's new book documents the
Althusser, Louis. For Marx. London: Verso
excessively violent tendencies of Southern racism at the
Editions, 1979.
end of the century.
4My use of "racial discourse" has some affinities to Berkove, Lawrence I. "The Free Man of Color in
Foucault's conception of "discourse." This is not, however, The Grandissimes and Works by Harris and Mark
a strictly Foucaultian reading. While Foucault's definition Twain." The Southern Quarterly, 18.4 (1981), 60-73.
of discursive practices provides one of the most
Berman, Marshall. All That is Solid Melts into Air.
sophisticated tools presently available for cultural
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
analysis, his conception of power seems to me problem-
atic. I prefer an account of power which allows for a Blair, Walter. "When Was Huckleberry Finn Written?"
consideration of interest and hegemony. Theorists such as American Literature, 30 (March 1958), 1-25.
Marshall Berman (34-35) and Catherine MacKinnon (526)
have indicated similar reservations. Frank Lentriccia, Brodie, Fawn. Thomas Jefferson, an intimate History.
however, has made a provocative attempt to modify New York Norton, 1 974.
Foucaultian analysis, drawing upon Gramsci's analysis of
Brown, William Wells, Clotel: Or the President's Daughter.
hegemony. See Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, New York: Arno Press, 1969.
Power/ Knowledge (esp. 92-108), and The History of
Sexuality, (esp. 92-102). Chase-Riboud, Barbara. Sally Hemings. New York;
5This is not to discount the sufferings of other groups. The Viking Press, 1979.
But historically, the philosophical basis of Western racial Cell, John W. The Highest Stage of White Supremacy.
discourse- which existed even before the European
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
"discovery" of America- has been the equation of "good"
and "evil" with light and darkness (or, white and black.)Clemens, Samuel. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Eds.
(See Derrida; Jordan, 1-40; and West, 47-65). Econom- Scully Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, E. Hudson
ically, the slave trade, chattel slavery, agricultural Long, and Thomas Cooley. 2nd ed. New York: Norton,
peonage, and color-coded wage differentials have made 1977.
the exploitation of African-Americans the most profitable
Dabney, Virginius. The Jefferson Scandals. New York:
form of racism. Finally, Afro- Americans have long been
Dodd, Mead, 1981.
the largest American "minority" group. Consequently, the
primacy of "the Negro" in American racial discourse is, to Derrida, Jacques. "White Mythology." New Literary
use Althusser's term (87-126), "Overdetermined." The History, 6 (1974), 5-74.
acknowledgment of primary status, however, is hardly a
claim of privilege. Dowd, Jerome. Negro Races. New York: Macmillan,
1907.
6Even the allegedly scientific works on the Negro
focused on superstition as a definitive trait. See, for Du Bois, William E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Three
example, W. D. Weatherford and Jerome Dowd. No one Negro Classics. Ed. John Hope Franklin. New York:
has commented more scathingly on Negro superstition Avon, 1965.
than William H. Thomas, who was, by American
definitions, a Negro himself. Ellison, Ralph. "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke."
Shadow and Act. New York: Vintage, 1964, 45-59.
7Hoffman in Form and Fable (331) reveals an implicit
understanding of Jim's creativity, but he does not pursueEgan, Michael. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn: Race,
the point in detail. Class and Society. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities
^his term became a part of the official military Press, 1977.

1 1 MARK TWAIN JOURNAL, 22:2 (Fall, 1984)

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