Nigger Jim
Nigger Jim flees slavery with Huck, who is fleeing his drunkard father. He hopes to reach the free states and buy his family's freedom. At the end of the book, it is revealed by Tom that his owner had died since they left home, and she freed Nigger Jim in her will. Of Nigger Jim, Russell Baker wrote:
- "The people whom Huck and Nigger Jim encounter on the Mississippi are drunkards, murderers, bullies, swindlers, lynchers, thieves, liars, mows, frauds, child abusers, numbskulls, hypocrites, windbags and traders in human flesh. All are white. The one man of honor in this phantasmagoria is 'Nigger Jim,' as Twain called him to emphasize the irony of a society in which the only true gentleman was held beneath contempt."
Read more about this topic: List Of Tom Sawyer Characters