It is hard to deny that Britain doesn’t have a problem with race. From No Blacks, No Dogs and No Irish notices on lodgings, colour bars in pubs and bus companies into the 1960s to today’s demonstrations against ‘immigrant hotels’ the dark side of humanity is never submerged for long. But compared to the United States of America this country is a multi-cultural success story due in part to our history since Britain as a colonial power carried out genocide, massacres, racial segregation and exploitation and worse – but in Britain no USA type slavery.
Mark Twain’s 1884 picaresque novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written in vernacular American English following on from the Tom Sawyer books is set along the Mississippi River – a watercourse Twain knew well – and the story centres on Huck who teams up with runaway slave Jim. James is essentially the same narrative but from Jim’s point of view as they attempt to travel to the free state of Illinois. Since Twain’s novels sees the world thought Huck’s, the author’s and white American eyes James takes a very different viewpoint allowing him to express in his thoughts what he really feels about Huck, white people and slavery. In Huckleberry Finn Jim and Huck are regularly separated in their travels and this allows Everett to give Jim a series of adventures and experiences away from the 19th century story.
Everett doesn’t spare the whip – literally – as Jim is beaten, abused and threatened with death as a runaway – but he always has will power and ingenuity to survive. Jim’s narrative is in educated English but his speech to Huck and all white folk is in the black slave vernacular laced with a submissive tone so as not to cause a perceived insult. It’s a shocking (to say the least) way Jim and all the other black characters have to behave in this cringing manner despite the fact he is intelligent and is well read and can write – facts that the whites cannot or will not understand. A system that has institutionalised blacks to be treated like farm animals but allows white people to feel entitled and superior and to rape, beat, murder or torture the slaves on a whim. Mark Twain’s novel is filled with instances of how white society mock the likes of Jim with humour, parody and ignorance in the belief black people were simple – all due to the power imbalance and prejudice. And those attitudes are what has influenced American society to this day with the long hangover of slavery’s terrible effects and struggles for equality in evidence from the Civil Rights campaigns of Martin Luther King, and a fair voting system, and from the election of President Obama in 2009 to the creation of Black Lives Matter in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.
Set on the eave of the American Civil War James gives a vivid and candid account of Jim’s experiences as a slave and despite his closeness to Huck as a friend the complete disparity in their status is continually apparent. Huck can go into town and not be stopped as he is white while Jim must always be hidden. Jim is clever, quick witted and motivated to be reunited with his wife and daughter and his plans to achieve the impossible – to free them dominates his thinking. James is first and foremost a page turner with a series of non-stop incidents, disasters and adventures – some funny – but some tragic and horrific. In contrast to Huckleberry Finn that used racial stereotypes to make fun of blacks, in James the tables are turned and we learn how the slaves silently mock their white owners picking up on all their foibles and social flaws. Not just a novel but a window into the minds of Jim and his fellow oppressed and abused. Funny, fast moving and always entertaining James is a first rate story of survival and eventual redemption.
Harry Mottram
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