I'm writing an essay about Twain's public fight against racialized police violence in 1860s San Francisco. I made a very short video version for our Teachers Institute earlier this Summer: https://youtu.be/5gVlDbX2pcs I must also recommend Larry Howe's recent, related essay: "Black Lives Matter at Quarry Farm." https://marktwainstudies.com/black-lives-matter-at-quarry-farm/ As Twain says, "Let us abolish policemen who carry revolvers and clubs, and put in a squad of poets armed to the teeth with poems on Spring and love." - MS On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 9:17 AM Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > If Alive Today, Would Mark Twain support "Black Lives Matter"? > I believe that he doubtless would. > By exposing the way some white folks thought at the time (mid-1800s) and > place (Mississippi River valley), Mark Twain made the point in "Adventures > of Huckleberry Finn" that Black Lives Matter. > You might even say that is the whole theme of the book. For one example of > that, note this passage from Chapter 33 where Twain, in a tongue-in-cheek > way, underscores the illogical thinking of some white people of the time > and place: > “Now I can have a good look at you; and, laws-a-me, I’ve been hungry for > it a many and a many a time, all these long years, and it’s come at last! > We been expecting you a couple of days and more. What kep’ you?—boat get > aground?” > “Yes’m—she—” > “Don’t say yes’m—say Aunt Sally. Where’d she get aground?” > I didn’t rightly know what to say, because I didn’t know whether the boat > would be coming up the river or down. But I go a good deal on instinct; > and my instinct said she would be coming up—from down towards Orleans. That > didn’t help me much, though; for I didn’t know the names of bars down that > way. I see I’d got to invent a bar, or forget the name of the one we got > aground on—or—Now I struck an idea, and fetched it out: > “It warn’t the grounding—that didn’t keep us back but a little. We blowed > out a cylinder-head.” > “Good gracious! anybody hurt?” > “No’m. Killed a nigger.” > “Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. Two years ago > last Christmas your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old > Lally Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man. And I > think he died afterwards. He was a Baptist. Your uncle Silas knowed a > family in Baton Rouge that knowed his people very well. Yes, I remember > now, he did die. Mortification set in, and they had to amputate him. But > it didn’t save him. Yes, it was mortification—that was it. He turned blue > all over, and died in the hope of a glorious resurrection. They say he was > a sight to look at. > > > - B. Clay Shannon > -- Matt Seybold Assistant Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies Elmira College Editor, MarkTwainStudies.org MattSeybold.com