Doesn't Twain's story about Quarry Farm's Aunty Cord ("A True Story...") express how beyond naivete Twain was--to ask a woman who lost to slavery her husband and all seven children why she had not had any trouble in 60 years? Not only was this his entrance to literary acceptance via the Atlantic Monthly, but maybe also his entrance into the real world of black people. But we shouldn't be too harsh on him should we, considering how Dempsey in "Searching for Jim" reveals how it wasn't just Hannibal that whitewashed more than fences. Most of the entire America failed to see the bleakness of slavery, and many still do. I cringe at the number of relatives and acquaintances I have who still speak so naively that it rings of blatant racism. More importantly, how do scholars characterize Twain, overall, today; did he not more than make up for his own shortsightedness by such courageous gestures (I'm hearing the words of the master, Vic Doyno) that included helping blacks through college, not to mention the Huck Finn monument against racism? Ron Owens (in MT's "a foretaste of heaven" Elmira) [although today if feels like elsewhere]