gorilla poacher
06-24-2011, 04:48 AM
Actually I'm amazed not to find a review of this Mark Twain Novella here. Although, like all of his work it is touted as being anti-slavery, in that they claim it mocks the institution, I feel that this is widely open to interpretation. In any event, anti-slavery is not the same as anti-racialism.
I found the book very interesting.
Many of you doubtlessly know about the 'one drop' rule they had, and this plays a very large part in this story. Also, I believe it is the first fictionalized account of fingerprints being used as criminal evidence as it was a new science when the piece was written.
The story starts with a female slave who looks completely White. She got pregnant by a White neighbor, and swapped her baby with her master's, and nobody noticed, so the 'negro boy' was raised as a gentleman while the legitimate heir was raised as a slave. Anyway, the changelings TNB proves to be his undoing and all ends well, except that even though the true son is restored to his rightful worldly position, he was never educated and was raised among slaves, so he talked like a nigger.
The changeling's behavior is so reprehensibly stupid and bad, I found myself actually shouting stuff like, "Don't do that you IDIOT!" while reading it. I actually felt like I was watching an actual nigger.
I found the book very interesting.
Many of you doubtlessly know about the 'one drop' rule they had, and this plays a very large part in this story. Also, I believe it is the first fictionalized account of fingerprints being used as criminal evidence as it was a new science when the piece was written.
The story starts with a female slave who looks completely White. She got pregnant by a White neighbor, and swapped her baby with her master's, and nobody noticed, so the 'negro boy' was raised as a gentleman while the legitimate heir was raised as a slave. Anyway, the changelings TNB proves to be his undoing and all ends well, except that even though the true son is restored to his rightful worldly position, he was never educated and was raised among slaves, so he talked like a nigger.
The changeling's behavior is so reprehensibly stupid and bad, I found myself actually shouting stuff like, "Don't do that you IDIOT!" while reading it. I actually felt like I was watching an actual nigger.