An Analysis of Mark Twain’s Beliefs

Many people often wonder if Mark Twain is a racist. With the time period he lived in combined with phrases that could portray his beliefs in his writings, it becomes a tough question to answer. Most say he was, but then would not everyone be in that society at the time? By conducting further research, you can find that he was in fact, not a racist. He believed all skin colors were equal.
One example of this is portrayed in this quote; “We are all alike, on the inside,” Mark Twain (Eggers). Mark Twain often wrote as if he was racist, but that was just how they addressed African Americans in that day and age. During Twain’s life, African Americans did not have rights. They were slaves and were always treated poorly. A common name for African Americans was “n*****” and back then, it was derogative but not looked down upon.
Often Mark Twain made jokes about slavery and slave captivity in his writings. Most people take these as racism, but that is not the case. During Twain’s life, Abraham Lincoln denounced slavery and outlawed it, but during Reconstruction, the Black Codes developed by Southern leaders prevented slaves to receive the freedom they were entitled to. Twain’s jokes were merely sarcastic remarks addressing the ineffective ways of Reconstruction (Teuber).
Examples in Mark Twain’s writings, consist of characters like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Both treated African Americans nicely and respectfully while calling them derogatory names, proving these names were merely common terms. These characters often portrayed Twain’s own experiences while growing up in a Missouri town. An example of this in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is when a bounty gets placed on Jim’s head and Huck still keeps him free although he would receive three hundred dollars for turning Jim in. Some men tried to take Jim but Huckleberry defended him saying, “Turn him loose, he ain’t no slave” (Finn). Huckleberry even helped Jim enter a state where he would become free and congratulated him by saying, “Now, old Jim, you’re a free man” (Finn). Huckleberry always treated Jim with respect and tried to protect him as much as he could. Huckleberry considered Jim equal to himself, portrayed in this quote from Huckleberry, “I knowed he was white inside” (Finn). Jim and Huckleberry became friends and did not care about each other’s skin color. Since Mark Twain has stated himself that these books were written with his own experiences in mind, it would be easy to see that Twain would have the same beliefs as Huckleberry and Tom. Through many experiences in Mark Twain’s life, he has seen how bad African Americans have been treated and has shown compassion for them. He had no color prejudice, quite contraire to most people back in that time period (Teuber).
During Mark Twain’s exciting life, he experienced many things that affected his view on racism. He often experienced the cruel way people treated African Americans. More than ever before, Twain experienced the harsh treatment of slaves during the Civil War. He fought for the Confederates for two weeks and concluded that he did not want to fight for slavery and the white man’s “Tainted Aristocracy” any longer (Eggers). A major experience that made Twain reevaluate his beliefs about slavery came about when he witnessed a farmer kill a black slave with a rock for the crime of “merely doing something awkward” (Twain). This experience took a drastic toll on Twain and changed his beliefs forever.
Although many examples show Mark Twain did not believe in racism, it can still be disputed that he did. A recent example of how people think Twain agreed with racism showed up many school districts in the United States. Many of these school districts have banned Mark Twain’s books from being read in class. These school districts claim he acted harsh against African American slaves and made fun of them in his literature. These critics do not point out that everyone in that time period had a level of racism. Also, his jokes actually made fun of the confusing situation slaves endured at that time in history, not the slaves themselves. Another point that some people make discusses how he fought for the Confederates, in favor of slavery, and how he never contributed to abolishing slavery. Mark Twain did fight for the Confederate Army, but his service only lasted two weeks and he did not believe in their beliefs, after two weeks, he left for Nevada with his brother to get away from the terrible experience (Twain).
A person’s life can often consist of many confusing subjects in a person’s life. A common dispute for Mark Twain’s life has become deciding if he really believed in racism. Through thorough evidence, many have concluded Mark Twain never believed in racism. He did not stand for slavery, although he made many jokes and remarks about the subject in his literature. Society at that time wrote in more derogatory and blunt fashion yet his remarks did not reflect on his true beliefs. Mark Twain showed respect and sympathy for African Americans through his characters and in reality. Mark Twain’s vocabulary consisted of many words, but racism was not one of them.