James Summary

James is a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) from the perspective of Jim, an enslaved Black man whose escape parallels and overlaps with young Huck’s journey. Before Jim’s narrative begins, there is a selection of song lyrics purportedly taken from “The Notebook of Daniel Decatur Emmett.” Emmett is a historical figure, a musician and composer who founded the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Virginia Minstrels. His songs make use of an exaggerated vernacular intended to mimic the diction of enslaved Black people.

In Hannibal, Missouri, Jim hears Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer spying on him as he waits for his owner, Miss Watson. Jim pretends to be asleep, allowing Huck and Tom to play a prank on him. Later, he tells the other enslaved men about this prank in earshot of the boys, furthering their amusement. Whenever Jim and the other enslaved people are near a white person, they speak in a stereotypical slave dialect, but they speak normally when they are alone. Jim spends his evenings instructing enslaved children, like his own daughter, Lizzie, in what he calls “slave talk.” This language fulfills racist white people’s expectations of enslaved people, feeding the illusion that they are simple and submissive—and this deception, the novel intimates, can be essential for survival. In reality, Jim has taught himself to read using the books in Judge Thatcher’s office.

Huck, who lives in Miss Watson’s care, frequently makes conversation with Jim. Jim hears news that Huck’s abusive father, Pap Finn, is back in town, and he worries for the boy’s safety, even though he is white. One day, Jim’s wife, Sadie, overhears Miss Watson making plans to sell Jim, which will separate him from his family. Jim decides to run away and hide out nearby until he can find a way to reunite with Sadie and Lizzie.

Jim makes camp on Jackson Island in the Mississippi River, where he runs into Huck, who has faked his own death to escape his father’s cruelty. One night, a massive storm hits the island and an entire house floats downriver. Jim and Huck search the house and discover a dead body, but only Jim gets a close look at the man. A rattlesnake bites Jim, and he descends into a fever dream in which he argues with the French writer Voltaire about his problematic views on human equality and the institution of slavery. When Jim recovers, Huck remarks that he was sleep talking in a strange diction. Huck returns to the mainland disguised as a girl to seek out news about Sadie and Lizzie. Jim contemplates telling Huck that the dead man in the house was Pap, but he decides against it. Huck returns but is worried he was followed, so the two sail away from the island.

Huck and Jim travel along the river under cover of darkness, making camp on the shore during the day. They steal a skiff from some robbers. Jim is thrilled to find stolen books aboard, although he must pretend to be illiterate in front of Huck. After a close call with some white men who are looking for Jim, their raft breaks apart in another storm, separating them.

Washed ashore, Jim meets some other enslaved men named Josiah, Old George, Young George, and Pierre. He asks them to find a pencil for him, and Young George steals one from his master. In his hideout, Jim reads his books and practices writing, beginning a narrative account of his own life. One night, Jim witnesses an overseer whipping Young George for the theft of the pencil. He runs and reunites with Huck, who has become embroiled in a bloody saga between feuding families. Together, they take to the river once more.

Jim and Huck encounter the Duke and the King, two conmen escaping the consequences of their most recent lies. The group visits a small town, where the King and the Duke attempt to swindle money out of the townsfolk but are caught. Jim and Huck abandon the grifters to their fate, but the men catch up to them soon after. Knowing now that Jim is a runaway, they scheme to sell him and then have him escape so that they can repeat the scheme again and again. This plan falls apart when the Duke assaults Easter, an enslaved man belonging to Wiley. Jim stays behind to repay the Duke’s debt. Daniel Decatur Emmett hears Jim singing while he works and buys him from Wiley for 200 dollars to be the new tenor in his musical troupe, the Virginia Minstrels.

Emmett’s minstrels travel from town to town, performing original songs in blackface. Jim is the only member who is visibly Black, and because of this, he must pretend to be a white man disguised as a Black man. Norman is the only other Black minstrel, though he passes for white among the public and the rest of the troupe. After Jim’s first show, the authenticity of Jim’s appearance raises suspicions, and the minstrels leave abruptly. Although Emmett claims he has hired Jim, he views him as an indentured servant, which amounts to another form of enslavement. When the rest of the minstrels perform in the next town, Jim steals Emmett’s songbook and runs again.

Norman catches up with Jim, and they travel together. Jim begins writing his narrative in Emmett’s songbook (based on the lyrics that began the novel, the reader now realizes that this narrative is what they are reading). Passing as a white slaveowner, Norman sells Jim to a man called Henderson. Jim escapes, taking a young girl named Sammy with him, but she is shot and killed while running. Jim and Norman sneak aboard a riverboat, where they encounter Brock, an enslaved man who never leaves the vessel’s engine room. On the upper decks, Norman hears news of a war brewing between the northern and southern states. Suddenly, the riverboat explodes. In the water, Jim hears both Norman and Huck calling his name.

Jim chooses to save Huck because—he reveals—the boy is his biological son. Huck feels his identity is now complicated, but Jim urges him to continue passing as white to avoid the suffering of enslavement. They return to Hannibal, Missouri and discover that Sadie and Lizzie have been sold. Jim hides out in his old house and witnesses the overseer, Hopkins, raping an enslaved woman named Katie. Jim returns to Jackson Island to wait for Huck, who is trying to find out who bought Sadie and Lizzie. While there, he encounters a drunk Hopkins alone and kills him. Huck brings word that Sadie and Lizzie have been sold to Graham farm before returning to town.

Jim sails to the mainland and sneaks into Judge Thatcher’s office, hoping to find his family’s bill of sale. The judge catches him in the act, but Jim threatens Thatcher with Hopkins’s gun. Thatcher is frightened by Jim’s eloquent speech and his lack of fear. Jim leaves the judge tied to a tree, having obtained directions to Graham farm.

Jim reaches Graham farm and finds several enslaved men tied to a post. He frees them and asks if they would like to run or join him in a revolt. They choose the latter. The men set fire to the cornfield, overpower the overseer, and tell everyone to run. Reunited with Sadie and Lizzie, Jim shoots the farm’s owner before he and his family flee north. Eventually, they arrive in Iowa and are given safe harbor, thanks to the ongoing war. Jim tells the authorities that his name is James.