“Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free n----- there, from Ohio, a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat, and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got as fine as clothes as what he had; and he has a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane--the awfulest old grey-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? they said he was a p’fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain’t the wust. They said he could vote, when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the county a-coming to? It was ‘lection day, and I was just about to vote, myself, if I warn’t too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they’d let that n----- vote, I drawed out. I says I’ll never vote agin. Them’s the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all of me--I’ll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of the n----- why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o’ the way. I says to the people, why ain’t this n----- put up at auction and sold?-- that’s what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he’d been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now--that’s a specimen. They call that a govment that can’t sell a free n----- till he’s been in the State six months. Here’s a govment that’s got to set stockstill for six whole months before it can take ahold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free n-----" (Twain 24-25).
- Here Huckleberry Finn’s father shows strong emotions and opinions about other races. He repeatedly states how the government is corrupt because it is allowing people of color to be more free and do more things such as voting. He explains how he was heading over to vote and saw an African American man in line to vote. He thought this was preposterous and argued with the man that it was not right and other harmful slander to discourage him. This clearly shows how people of color were viewed and treated in the South back then, and how bad it could get. I think it is important to note that the African American was described as having the “whitest shirt you ever see, and the shiniest hat, and there ain’t a man in that town that’s got as fine as clothes as what he had” (Twain 24). This means that he saw the African American as superior, or at least acting superior, and he immediately started to argue with him and discriminate him. This is a clear example of how many white people back then had felt. They thought that freeing or giving more power to African Americans would allow them to become equal or superior and they didn’t want anyone to come in between them and their power, especially people of color. This whole excerpt is Huckleberry Finn’s father complaining about the government and whining to Huckleberry about his problems and worries. Earlier, Huckleberry explains that his father is drunk and that could enhance his thoughts to become more angry, but it also means that he had no filter to say what he had been afraid to say otherwise but always thought. Overall, his father was discriminating and discouraging people of color in a very harsh way and it reflects how they were treated back then and in a way reflects how white people always thought about people of color but only a few, such as Huckleberry Finn's father, would really say what they thought aloud.
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