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Modern Day Slavery In Huckleberry Finn

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Modern-Day Slavery Modern-day slavery is alive and well in two thousand seventeen. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, he speaks of man by the name of Jim who repeatedly tries to escape to free states. Many times, Jim climbed aboard a raft and would float down the Mississippi River towards freedom. So many times, he returned home to his owner as a slave. Even when Jim had the chance to leave, he stayed. Even when Jim was considered free, he remained. Bound by the mindset of slavery he could not break free from the physical slavery. So many times, people are bound to the mindset of slavery that they begin to repeat history and keep themselves bound to the past because they do not know how to break free. In this, …show more content…

(Twain 346). This goes to show the mindset of Jim at the end of the story. This also can go to show how some people live today. Many times, over, Jim did not go away. He stayed. He stayed because perhaps he did not know he was free or because he was afraid to leave the comfort in which he had lived for so long. How many times do we see this today? Too many. In the writings by Harriet Tubman, The Freedmen’s Records, she writes, “I can’t die but once” (Unknown). She was referring to her work on the underground railroad where she leads many slaves to freedom. She put her life on the line to benefit others. In this writing unlike Twain’s, people knew where to go to get free. They searched out the ways to get there and ultimate many were freed. Today, there is still slavery. Right now, in Libya, millions of African American’s are being sold into slavery(USA TODAY). People are being taking from their homes and forced into this. Some people are trying to run but they are finding themselves with no place to go. No safe harbor. People sit in their homes and watch the television and see photos flash across the screen and they do nothing. Huck, did nothing really for Jim and we find out in the end that Huck was just as racist as the others. He used Jim for his own selfish

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This is the climax of the novel, in which many of the underlying themes are made clear. Huck’s morals overcome his fear for punishment, and he is determined to help Jim even if he has to go to hell for it. Furthermore, Jim is a runaway slave, and in the context of the story, helping a runaway slave, albeit one that was sold and has a new owner, would be almost traitorous to Huck’s community. Another revelation is that Huck has transcended the racial constructs of the time, recognizing Jim’s humanity and considering him someone worth rescuing at great personal risk. In this scene, Huck finally breaks the restraints of society, and indeed, his environment, by ignoring all societal and theological constructs and instead choosing what is right by his conscience.

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That means that she helped lead many people to freedom in a system that helps people escape their plantation. Born into slavery, she was harshly treated, but one day she had enough of that, and she was going to do something about it. In 1849, she decided that she wasn’t going to live the rest of her life as a slave, so she escaped. The author stated that “Her journey was nearly 90 miles” (“Harriet Tubman”). Her escape was successful because she didn’t get caught, even though people could have easily spotted her.

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This boy does not see Jim as a person but sees him as a big pile of money. Another reason how this noval teaches us about the past is that in the South in 1885 a lot of people assumed that whenever they found a black man alone he was a runaway slave. Quote from passage: “That’s so, my boy—good-bye, good-bye. If you see any runaway niggers you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it. Good-bye, sir,” says I; “I won’t let no runaway niggers get by me if I can help it.”

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I say I was going to help steal the slave?” (231). Although Tom knows Jim is free, he claims that he will help him to his “freedom”. Tom’s treatment of Jim represents greed because he kept Jim enslaved for his benefit, even though there were devastating consequences for Jim. After the Emancipation Proclamation, Southerners did not want to accept Black American’s equality under the law.

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