Twain in Tahoe

Francis Espiritu

ENGL 48B

Tahoe Twain Journal

Author Quote: "Given his own earlier pro-Confederate service as a Missouri militiaman, it really shouldn't be so surprising to learn that in 1863, with the ultimate success of the Union cause itself still deeply divided politically into Copperheads and Union supporters, a young and confused Clemens might easily find himself drawn back toward sympathy with the Southern cause." (Lankford 130)

Internet Source: "Twain was an adamant supporter of abolition and emancipation, even going so far to say “Lincoln's Proclamation ... not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also.”^[67] He argued that non-whites did not receive justice in the United States, once saying “I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature....but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him.”^[68] He paid for at least one black person to attend Yale University Law School and for another black person to attend a southern university to become a minister. (Wikipedia; Mark Twain)

Summary: During the time that California was stuck in between Union and Confederate ideals, it must have truly been difficult for Twain. What made things more difficult was the fact that most, if not all of his family supported the Union; while he probably had sympathy for the South, making him a Copperhead. It isn't the fact that he did not want to agree with his family, but the fact that he was once a militiaman for the Confederate Army.

Personal Opinion: So with Twain being a supporter of Civil Rights and penning "Huckleberry Finn" is it possible that he was trying to gain points as well as make a good name for himself for future generations to remember him by? I do not think so, I mean just because someone fought for the Confederate Army does not make them a bad person. What about the people who were forced to fight for North Korea who were supporters of the South during the Korean War? Just because they fought for the North, does it make them bad? Remember, some of them were forced to fight, and that goes for soldiers in the Confederate army. If Twain had feelings towards the South, it probably was not because he was a staunch supporter, but it could have been sympathy. Like it was stated in the Tahoe book, Twain was not born an anti-racist, he was made into one. The idea could go before the Civil War, Twain could not have been a racist, but was possibly made into one. It's kind of like going off that idea that John Locke had regarding people being neither good or bad, but shaped into that and taking the environment they grow up in into account.