ecause the economy would collapse without the slave based agriculture. Rudyard Kipling wrote at the end of that century "The White Man's Burden," (Kipling) that was taken to mean that blacks must accept their position as underlings. While a false interpretation, it shows that many Confederates and sympathisers held the view that blacks and slaves deserved to be oppressed even after the Civil War (1861-1864). TAOTS accurately reflects the small town economy. The river trade is the center of all commerce and without it, town life would end. In Chapter Two of TAOTS, Ben Rogers, a local boy, pretends to be a steamboat. This exemplifies how important the boats were to the town. Everything in the town--the mill, the taverns--they all depended on the trade from the river. The town, consisting of a church, a school, a general store, taverns, a mill, and a docking area for the boats also reflect how important the river really was. The minister's fire and brimstone sermons (35) preach against the evils of drink, gambling and lust, all of which would have been demonstrated by the passing river sailors and con-men. In the AOHF, the town life is not so much the focus of description as river life. But it is the description of the treatment of slaves that truly stands out. Huck was poor, but still he was socially above Jim because he was white and not owned. TAOHF was set a few decades before the civil war so when Huck and Jim escaped down the Mississippi and headed south, they were putting Jim in more peril. When they took on board the King and the Duke these other travelers wanted to turn Jim in. Many non-slave states actually had laws that allowed for the returning of runaway slaves. Both TAOTS and AOHF are accurate in their description of the situation (slave-wise and town-wise) at that time. Mark Twain's views about childhood and the subsequent loss of innocence are a product of childhood experience growing up in Hannibal, Misso...
