Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center

Most people come to Hannibal, Missouri for glimpses of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, or Becky Thatcher. But with the recent publication of Twain's Autobiography (2010), a piece he didn't allow to be published until a hundred years after his death, visitors to Hannibal now have a new character to discover! In his autobiography, Samuel Clemens revealed that he partially based his famous character Jim, runaway slave and friend of Huck Finn, off of a real Hannibalian born into slavery, Daniel Quarles.

Located in Hannibal, Missouri, Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center is a new kind of museum that documents the life of "the real Jim" and portrays how he and African Americans lived as slaves and free people from the 19th to the 21st century in Hannibal. In a town that celebrates all things Twain, Jim's Journey is dedicated to the legacy of not just Twain’s most complex yet locally under-represented literary figures, but the greater history of Twain's interaction with African Americans and his hometown's own black history.

At Jim's Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center, we’ve created a place where residents and visitors now can explore this and other complex stories, celebrate the legacy of Jim, and learn about the African American history of Hannibal which he represents.