Hello! This is Block A's blog on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Contributors include Christine Diaz, Bethany Easton, Shei Marcelline, Gaby Pidoux, Kelly Sarkisian, Laura Searcy and Allison Zettlemoyer.
Background on Twain - Gaby Pidoux
- Born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, MIssouri
- Born with the name Samuel Langhorne Clemens
- Sixth child of John and Jane Clemens
- Moved to Hannibal, Missouri at age 4
- Witnessed a white slaveowner hit and killed one of his slaves at the age of 10
- Hannibal resembles St. Petersburg in Huckleberry Finn
- Married Olivia Langdon
- Their son Langdon died of diphtheria as a child
- His daughter Susy died at 24 of spinal meningitis
- Their youngest daughter Jean died of a heart attack at the age of 29
- Along with writing the American classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he was a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor
- Died April 21st, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut
- Source: biography.com
1830s - 1840s Historical Context - Gaby Pidoux
1830: Andrew Jackson approves the Indian Removal Act
1831: Nat Turner leads the largest slave revolt in the United States
1833: Jackson’s second inauguration
1836: Texas declares independence from Mexico as a slave zone
1837: Martin Van Buren is president for one term
1838: Trail of Tears occurs
1845: James Polk becomes president and makes Texas a state
1846: Wilmot Proviso is created and causes controversy
1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, causing dispute over if the new territory show allow slaves or not
1849: Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery via Underground Railroad
Source: Give Me Liberty! Apush Edition by Eric Forner
