5fish
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An article on Mark Twain and slavery...
Link: https://www.thoughtco.com/mark-twain-write-about-slavery-740681
Snip...
Mark Twain was a product of Missouri, a slave state. His father was a judge, but he also traded in slaves at times. His uncle, John Quarles, owned 20 slaves, so Twain witnessed the practice of slavery firsthand whenever he spent summers at his uncle's place. Growing up in Hannibal, Missouri, Twain witnessed a slave owner brutally murder a slave for "merely doing something awkward." The owner had thrown a rock at the slave with such force that it killed him.
Snip...
It is possible to trace the evolution of Twain's thoughts on slavery in his writing, ranging from a pre-Civil War letter that reads somewhat racist to postwar utterances that reveal his clear opposition to slavery and his revulsion of slaveholders. His more telling statements on the subject are listed here in chronological order
In a letter written in 1853, Twain wrote: "I reckon I had better black my face, for in these Eastern states, n----rs are considerably better than white people."
Snip...
Nearly two decades later, Twain wrote to his good friend, novelist, literary critic, and playwright William Dean Howells about Roughing It (1872): "I am as uplifted and reassured by it as a mother who has given birth to a white baby when she was awfully afraid it was going to be a mulatto."
Snip...
In his essay The Lowest Animal (1896), Twain wrote:
"Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day, he is always some man's slave for wages and does that man's work, and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living."
Snip...
Then in 1904, Twain wrote in his notebook: "The skin of every human being contains a slave."
The link has other but it obivous he is beginning to think we are all slaves , wage slaves...
Link: https://www.thoughtco.com/mark-twain-write-about-slavery-740681
Snip...
Mark Twain was a product of Missouri, a slave state. His father was a judge, but he also traded in slaves at times. His uncle, John Quarles, owned 20 slaves, so Twain witnessed the practice of slavery firsthand whenever he spent summers at his uncle's place. Growing up in Hannibal, Missouri, Twain witnessed a slave owner brutally murder a slave for "merely doing something awkward." The owner had thrown a rock at the slave with such force that it killed him.
Snip...
It is possible to trace the evolution of Twain's thoughts on slavery in his writing, ranging from a pre-Civil War letter that reads somewhat racist to postwar utterances that reveal his clear opposition to slavery and his revulsion of slaveholders. His more telling statements on the subject are listed here in chronological order
In a letter written in 1853, Twain wrote: "I reckon I had better black my face, for in these Eastern states, n----rs are considerably better than white people."
Snip...
Nearly two decades later, Twain wrote to his good friend, novelist, literary critic, and playwright William Dean Howells about Roughing It (1872): "I am as uplifted and reassured by it as a mother who has given birth to a white baby when she was awfully afraid it was going to be a mulatto."
Snip...
In his essay The Lowest Animal (1896), Twain wrote:
"Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day, he is always some man's slave for wages and does that man's work, and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living."
Snip...
Then in 1904, Twain wrote in his notebook: "The skin of every human being contains a slave."
The link has other but it obivous he is beginning to think we are all slaves , wage slaves...