The last time I read H.F. was in the ninth grade, so I don't claim to have
any great textual or theoretical background on the characters.  I do
remember, though, that even then I thought Huck's dialect was remarkably
similar to Jim's.  I wasn't thinking in racial terms, then, so I didn't
make any such connection-  I assumed that they were supposed to be
speaking in a common country dialect.

Daven