Purely a technicality but Twain was in fact a racist in that he recognized distinctions between groups/populations of peoples and accepted both qualitative and quantitative distinctions between them. He may or may not have come to accept Native Americans as fully human but for most of his writings they were on a par with African bushmen - also a massively unfair and racist judgment call on his part. Twain was an Orientalist, the accepted sociological theory of the day. It's unclear if his distinctions were made from a biological perspective or cultural. I can't recall anything about the nature/nurture debate in Twain's writings. -- There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. http://bscottholmes.com