Ep. 8: There's more to Hannibal's history than Mark Twain
I went to Hannibal, MO to interview Faye Dant about her book, Hannibal's Invisibles, and her museum, Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center
Hannibal, Missouri is known as "America's Hometown" due to it being the boyhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. If you visit Hannibal, you can learn a lot about Mark Twain. There's the Mark Twain Museum, The Mark Twain Boyhood Home, the Mark Twain Caves, just to name a few options.
But up until 2013, what you wouldn't learn much about was the Black population in Hannibal. Despite the fact that enslaved people lived in Hannibal and, according to the 1860 census, 25% of the population was Black. Despite the fact that Jim, a main character in one of Twain's most popular novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was based on a real man, Daniel Quarles, who had lived with Twain's favorite uncle in Florida, Missouri before moving to Hannibal years after emancipation.
According to my guest on this week's episode, author Faye Dant, the only public acknowledgment of Blacks in Hannibal had previously been a 1934 sign welcoming visitors to the city that contained the following, "Here Huckleberry Finn and Niggar [sic] Jim stopped for a few days on their way down the Mississippi." The sign mysteriously disappeared in 1985.
This was one of the many things that motivated Faye to open Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center.
In 2013, after collecting photographs and historical memorabilia for years, Faye opened the museum to not only share more about Daniel Quarles, but to share and preserve the history of Black Americans in Hannibal before, during, and after the time of Twain. Faye's book, Hannibal's Invisibles, released last year in 2024, provides a deeper look into this history.
I was thrilled to travel to Hannibal, Missouri to interview Faye for this episode and to conduct the interview at Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center. In this episode, we talk about her museum, Hannibal's Invisibles, and the Black experience in Hannibal, Missouri.
Listen to our discussion above—or on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
Speaking of Jim, if you haven’t read James by Percival Everett, I highly recommend it. Read my review below:
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I grew up not too far from Hannibal and, as a child, was fascinated to know (as I was reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and later, ...of Huck Finn,) that much of the setting and story was "real," (and that I'd been there on my school field trip!)
In high school English, and then again in college in an American Lit class, I was fascinated on a new level when the instructors helped draw connections between what was happening in American history, etc.
All of this is to say, those two books were seminal in my upbringing - and I love learning any and all things about Twain - and yet I had never stopped to (truly) ponder the presence of a Black community or presence in Hannibal. Your mention of that 1934 sign really hit me- not just because of its content, but that it was the first public acknowledgement of Black life there!
I love knowing that this museum and this new book exist.
Thank you for educating me (and others), Rachelle!
Surprisingly, despite being familiar with the book/plot lines, I don't remember ever reading Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer in school. Doesn't mean I didn't, since not many books I read in school come to mind. Probsnly an age thing. 😊
But I do remember that the connections between Black Americans--and BIPOC in general--in book plots, American history, math, or any subject, never came up or if they did, it was never favorable or was distorted.
I never knew you grew up close to Hannibal. Thank you for sharing you experiences and thoughts to my post! I highly recommend the book and the museum the next time you are in Hannibal.