Mark Twain Essay -- essays research papers

Mark Twain, a Racist?Mark Twain was a man that was way ahead of his time. In a time when people were judged on color,Mark Twain grew up in Florida, Missouri (Mandelbrot, Twain). In Missouri and Louisiana combined there were less than one half a million white persons (Chang, Twain p. 21). Which meant the black population was abundant. While growing up Twain had no telegraph, no railroads, no stage lines of any consequence (Twain, www.marktwain.com). Also maps were scarcely ever found. So Twain didn’t really get to communicate with different people that were outside his little town. Twain was a sixth child so he had many siblings to look up too.When Twain was young he was kept indoors mostly because of his poor health. He stayed mostly in the house until he was about nine, when he seemed to recover and join the rest on the town’s children outside. Twain attended private school. He attended private school for the first time at the age of nine.Twain didn’t have very luxurious life growing up because his family was extremely poor. Because of his upbringing, Twain started believing that slavery was part of the natural order. Twain’s childhood may not have been luxurious but it was a curious childhood full of weird, fantastic impressions and many contradictory influences. Like his father never really being there for his kids. All of the children of that time were fond of the Negroes and confined in them. They would, in fact, have been lost without such protection and company. Slav...