Slavery in huckleberry finn essay

Slavery is a thing that we hear about from our grandparents.

We hear about the stories of how black people were treated unfairly and many other things. Back then, African Americans weren’t considered anything but property. For example, on page 24, Pap tells Huck, “ Why looky here. There was a free nigger there from Ohio- a mulatter, most as white as a white man. ” They were deemed useless objects; not people. In the story Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, is set in the time era were everyone had slaves. The story takes place in the South, along the Mississippi River, in the Slave States.

It was not uncommon for every family to have a couple slaves. Slaves worked on the plantations, cleaned houses, and did many tedious chores for their owners. They were often beaten, and mistreated. In the story, Huck Finn lives with a couple of sisters who are slave owners, and one of their slaves is named Jim. At the beginning of the novel, Huck treats Jim like every other person in that time period treated slaves; like a dumb object that wasted space.

Throughout the novel, Huck begins to trust Jim. He begins to see things that most people don’t. He spent all his time with Jim, talking with him, and getting to know him as a person. He watched Jim’s reactions, actions, and talked to him like one person talked to another. Huck did have many thoughts to go and turn Jim in because he was a runaway slave, and Huck could get in a lot of trouble for helping him; possibly even shot. But Huck did realize that Jim just wasn’t an object.

Jim was a real, living, breathing person just like white people. He knew that Jim would do the same thing for him if their colors were reversed. Despite their different races, Jim was one of the best friends that Huck had ever had. During the story, Huck and Jim went through many things together, but they never gave up hope.

They were going to get Jim his freedom at all costs. At the end of the book is when Huck finally realized that Jim was white on the inside. After trying to escape from Aunt Sally’s, Tom Sawyer had gotten shot. They were on a little island in the middle of the river, and Tom was severely hurt. Huck left Jim with Tom while he went to find a doctor. Huck ent the doctor over to them, but was not able to go himself. When the doctor got to Tom, he realized that he was going to need help. He tried his best to get the bullet out of Tom’s leg, but it was a two person job.

Jim sat hiding, watching everything and realized that if he didn’t help, Tom could loose his leg or die. Jim threw away his freedom to help a little white boy. He gave up his entire life for the child of a white man, who for so long, had tormented blacks. Huck realized that Jim, although black on the outside, was just like any white man, if not better. Although slavery ended hundreds of years ago, we are still receiving the side effects from it.

African Americans were treated so badly, that many innocent people were killed. That fact that a young boy could figure out that a black person wasn’t what everyone stereotyped black people as, a waste space, and a grown person could not is astounding. Huckleberry Finn was a remarkable boy for understanding things that educated people couldn’t. The story, Huckleberry Finn, is a great insight for how slaves were treated in that time period.