I am mighty disappointed this outfit doesn't offer a three-hundred-fifty pager on Sam Clemens and slavery in Hannibal.  I am in the market right about now and would be willing to part with some serious cash.  (If it were any good I might throw in some humorous cash.) If any of you professors run into these plagiarists on your campus see if they can help me out before you expel them.
    Now for a serious question.  Since I must write my own book, I am soliciting serious opinions on the Charley the slave.  Charley was taken south by John Marshall Clemens in the winter of '42.  JMC turned down $50.00 for him in New Orleans, and $40.00 in Vicksburg.  He ended up trading him for ten barrels of tar.  Now, someone has suggested that Charley was a horse instead of a slave.  I believe the basis of the argument is the low price and the subsequent purchase of a saddle and bridle by JMC on the trip.
    While New Orleans and Vicksburg were centers of the slave market, they weren't hotbeds of horsetrading.  I suppose I am leaning toward the slave theory. An old slave would be worthless in Missouri, but might have some residual value in N.O. or Vicksburg. Sam thought he was a slave, but there is so very little Sam said about his childhood that is right, that I put little stock in that.
    If you have a well-thought opinion on Charley Horse or Charley the Slave I would like to hear it.  If you don't want to bother the entire forum, my e-mail is [log in to unmask]
    Terrell