This art depicts a black and a white slave sitting side by side with what looks like a little white girl as their master. This is relevant to Puddn’head Wilson because in the novel, the only reason the babies are switched is because one is bound to be a slave by the one drop rule. The one drop rule states that if you have one drop of slave blood then you are a slave. The baby boys were so similar that nobody could tell the difference when they were switched and the slave ended growing up and acting the part of a slave owner and the slave owner ended up growing up and acting the part of a slave. This concept completely breaks down the whole premise of slavery which is that one race is superior than another. The art above shows how weak the premises of slavery actually are and when the whole concept of race being the divider breaks down because slaves are mixed race, there is going to be a change. This wasn’t the whole reason for the civil war. People just realized that slavery in general is wrong, but I think it could have been a factor in getting some people to realize why slavery is wrong.
Great American Novels 2020 
I think another part of it is the fact that someone who is technically “black” was more powerful than many of the people in town proves that no race is superior but the fact that the fake Tom / Collins is terrible also shows that somebody’s birth is insignificant compared to how they were raised.
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