Although my experience with school boards has always been
from the side of parent, I would have to agree with Susan
that the _Following the Equator_ quote is one of my personal
favorites.  I don't see how any discussion of race and
slavery can avoid contentiousness from either perspective.
As it should be.  In teaching HF, I have found also that
black students have fewer "problems" with the text than
white students.  I think that white students' uneasiness
with the situations and language have more to do with seeing
how in the past (and in some cases, still) the epithet
"nigger" and Tom's trickery late in the novel stymied
reconstruction and Civil Rights.  I think it may also
represent our impatience and sometimes anger at accepting
guilt ("I never owned a slave, so why should I feel guilty
about slavery?")

Those who ignore history ARE doomed to repeat it (or at
least fail to progress).

Jan McStras