Mark Twain’s Views on Racism

By: Aly Brown

The Racial Climate In Sam’s Life

O White people took slavery for granted.

O Sam’s parents owned slaves.O Sam recognized that people thought

it was fine to treat people badly because of the color of their skin.

What He Grew Up BelievingO He grew up believing that slavery was normal

because he didn’t know any different from that because of the fact that his own parents owned slaves.

O Mostly everyone around him thought that slavery was okay so it was probably hard not to think so when you grow up and slavery is all around you.

O Even though he grew up around slavery there was still a part of him that thought that it was wrong and he struggled with this idea while he fought in the civil war.

How His Views Changed

O He met a girl named Olivia (Livy) Langdon and she changed his views on slavery. Her family were abolitionists and they showed him that slavery was a real concern and it was not something that should stay a law where they lived.

Mr. Clemens vs. Mr. Langdon

O Mr. Clemens worked in a jury that sent slaves stealers or abolitionists to the state to have some sort of punishment.

O Mr. Langdon funded abolitionist operations.

O This just shows what Sam grew up with was very different from the way Olivia Langdon grew up with so in my opinion she changed Sam for the better.

What Showed Him That Everyone Was Equal

O He noticed later that white people thought that they were superior to black people but then he noticed that most black slaves were superior to him because they were great story tellers because of their experiences as slaves.

O This shaped the way he thought about races.

How His Views on Race And Racial Issue Come Through In His Writing

O After he met Livy he started writing in a paper called the Buffalo Express (which he owned) about different cases in which African Americans were treated poorly or did not get justice when they deserved it.

O He also felt that the only way to write what he saw happening was through satire.

What He Did About Race Outside of Writing

O Sam Clemens paid for the law school of Warner McGuinn.

O Warner became an important civil rights lawyer.

O It is little things like this that showed that he definitely changed his way of thinking and he probably also changed the way Warner thought about him and other white people.

His Book Raised a Ton of Controversy Because of The Use of The N-word

Mark Twain and His Friend John Lewis Who Might Have Inspired Mark For the

Character of Jim

StoryO Sam saw an Asian man get beat up by

white hoodlums. The police just stood by watching and did nothing. The next day he checked in the paper because he was almost certain it was in there but he then realized that the paper cared more about not offending their subscribers who were mainly white and voted for white supremacy. They also mostly shared the prejudice that it was fine to do whatever to a Chinese man.

The ChineseO There were a lot of discriminatory

practices against the Chinese such as:

O Requiring special taxes to be paidO Special vaccinations were also

requiredO And they were not allowed to testify

in court

Overall QuoteO “Individual temperment can tell you

something about what a person’s capacities are but not the color of one’s skin.” –Shelly Fishkin

O This is something that Sam ended up living by towards the end of his life.

Work CitedO Camfield, Greg. "Race." Mark Twain's

Mississippi. Mark Twain's Mississippi, 2005. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

O Carter, Stephen L. "Getting Past Black and White." Time Inc. CNN, 03 July 2008. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

O University of Virginia Library. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.