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Summary: Part One, Chapters 17–19

Part One, Chapter 17

Heart racing, Jim moves swiftly and quietly through the woods until he comes upon a group of angry voices. He recognizes Huck’s voice among them as he warns a girl, Sophia Grangerford of the aforementioned feuding Grangerford family, to run. Both she and Huck run across the field, and when he gets close enough, Jim grabs Huck and pulls him into the brush with him. Meanwhile, shots ring out, and all four people involved in the argument are dead. Huck reveals that the pieces of his and Jim’s raft washed up on shore, and he put it back together. Wanting to get as far away from the white people as possible, Jim and Huck set sail once again. Huck asks Jim why his voice sounds so different, and Jim, realizing he failed to maintain his slave dialect in Huck’s presence, emphasizes that nothing has changed.

Part One, Chapter 18

As they sail, Huck tells Jim about the feud between the Granderfords and the Shepherdsons, but he cannot explain why the families hate each other so much. They come across an old, abandoned canoe one morning as they come ashore, and sensing that Huck is itching for an adventure, Jim allows him to test it out. Meanwhile, he closes his eyes to rest and dreams that the English philosopher John Locke has come to visit him. Jim challenges him, calling out his hypocrisy, but Locke continues to defend the “complex” nature of his views on topics such as slavery. This dream, however, comes to an abrupt halt when Jim hears Huck’s voice cry out. He awakens to find Huck returning in the canoe with two white men aboard as dogs bark in the distance. Full of fear, Jim ties the raft to the canoe, jumps aboard, and leads them away from shore. Huck explains to the two men that Jim is his friend, and they begin to reveal why they are on the run. The younger man admits to selling defective toothpaste while the older man, who preaches about the dangers of alcohol, was caught drinking. They go on to discuss how they might work together as a team, and despite their questionable behavior, Huck is in awe. He becomes especially excited when the young man claims to be the Duke of Bridgewater, a point that the old man follows up with his own claim of being French royalty. Despite knowing that they are frauds, Jim is unable to get them to leave their boat.

Part One, Chapter 19

The Duke and the King ask Jim and Huck many questions as they sail down the river, but they are especially curious about why a white boy and a Black man are together. Jim emphasizes that he cannot be a runaway slave because no slave would voluntarily head further south. When asked if Jim is Huck’s slave, Huck quickly spins a tale about how he came to own Jim after the tragic deaths of various family members. Jim can see that Huck clearly regrets having to tell such a lie, but the story is effective and wins them the respect of the Duke and the King. A storm comes up later that night and Jim and Huck must surrender their shelter to their new companions. The Duke and the King also complain about not having good enough food the next morning, a complaint which leads to talk of going into town. They suggest that one of them claim to own Jim so as to not arouse suspicion, but Huck refuses to let them do so.

Previous section Part One, Chapters 13–16 Next section Part One, Chapters 20–22

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