The N-word at the time of Huck Finn

[Wilson Gray]

And not just blacks, who ere then, as now, merely the bottom of the barrel.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 1:20 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: The N-word at the time of Huck Finn
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 3/12/2009 11:25 AM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>Given the prevailing attitudes towards black people at the time--even
>>scientists--"nigger," "darky," etc. were just the terms that people used.
>>There WERE no "racist" epithets, because the modern idea of racism
>>had not even
>>been invented yet,
>
> Not so, I believe. Â "Scientific racism", viewing blacks as inherently
> inferior to whites, began in the last quarter of the 18th century,
> and was certainly well-developed by the time of (just to pick one)
> Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), who (according to Wikipedia) developed his
> theories after he came to the U.S. in 1846. Â All much before the 1885
> writing of _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ -- and not very far
> from its circa 1839 setting.
>
> Joel
>
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