One could say that as Mark Twain, a nom de plume of SLC born in Nevada of the early 1860's, is telling the truth with stretchers (as a writing and speaking persona). Your best source is Terrell Dempsey's "Searching for Jim, Slavery in Sam Clemens's World," Columbia: Univ. Missouri P, 2003. The link following is the Twain Web book review. http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/dempsey.html Dempsey researched the laws, the newspapers, and trials of ante-bellmen Hannibal. Read and learn. I have not read Life on the Miss. other than the initial chapters of MT as apprentice pilot. One needs to keep in mind what seems to be the normal and usual use of corporal punishment ("The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" of Tom by Aunt P and the School Master, and Huck's "education" in "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" or even the story of the bad boy known originally as "Christmas Fireside"). Attitudes, use, and severity of physical violence are cultural as well as individual expressions. And yes, democracies, authors, snakes, folks, (me too) have, do, and will always make mistakes. Gordon Snedecor in Portland, Oregon.