Raftsmen

In this chapter, there are many events that give us an idea about raftsmen in general. First off, these men are looked down upon by the bigger steamboats, which shows that, normally, the upper class do not use the rafts as much as the lower to middle class do. When the steamboat ran into Huck's raft, and afterwords did not even stop to see if everyone was alright, it shows that they are on the bottom of the boat food chain. The steamboats can plow their way through the rafts andnot be fazed at all. Second, they, likemost southerns, did not like black people. A raftsmen we met in this chapter was asking every boat/raft he saw, if they had or hade seen any black people, because there were some slaves that had run away and he was trying to find them and get them back to their owners. Also, while the Steamboats might not like them, in general they are very helpful people. When Huck told them his pap was sick, they were going to help them get to shore, without even thinking about it. Even when they found out he had "small pox", while they didnt help them get to shore, they gave them lots of money to help them with their journy, which was extremly generous, considering they didn't know Huck from the next person they met. To steamboats, raftsmen were beneath them. To slaves, they were men to look out for. But to the average joe, raftsmen were people that would help you when you needed it.