In a town awash with everything Twain, we tell a much different story of Samuel Clemens and Hannibal.
Mark Twain wrote things as they were. His writings showed the unfiltered reality of life in rural Missouri. Jim, from "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," is one of Twain's most renowned characters. Twain gave us Jim to show the plight of African Americans in the pre-Civil War United States.
Additionally, Samuel Clemens was the first white American author to humanize an enslaved person, making him more than a fixture as he contributed to the fight against racism, bigotry and social justice.
Most know that Jim is a fictional character but you may not know that he was based on the very real Daniel Quarles, an enslaved person on his uncle's farm in Florida, Missouri. The emancipated Daniel lived and died here in Hannibal. This is a tribute to his legacy and an opportunity to learn what it was like for his descendants, and the people whose resilience made this story possible and made Hannibal a richer community. It's an intimate look at the local African American condition from Hannibal's 1819 founding.
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