To clarify my earlier post, garbled due to the fact that I couldn't
edit or erase what I'd written...

No, "nigger" is not external to the text itself (though this kind of
jargon leads me to peer around after I close my copy of
words have escaped the book & are lying underfoot).

My point was that I'd always heard Jim referred to as "Nigger Jim."
Recently I learned that "Nigger Jim" is an invention of Paine's
, not Twain's...though I haven't had time to verify this myself.
Can anyone cite the epithet "Nigger Jim" in the text of _Huck. Finn_?

I thought this was an interesting tidbit; also interesting is that
"Nigger Jim" seems to be the better-known handle for the character.

Robert Dagnall