The slave economics of the plantation system do as well: the economics of the South explain why being a personal slave of a woman like Miss Watson in a more genteel area of the country is not as 'bad' as being a plantation slave in the deep South. The prospect of being sold further down South is what makes Jim so fearful. The politics of a corrupt political system that empowers the policing of fugitive slaves, and a history that normalizes human bondage and makes Huck feel guilty for fleeing with Jim as 'theft' are all manifest in the novel.

These plot points also shows how social aspects of geography can develop character: were it not for the Mississippi, Huck's views about race would not be changed and challenged. Through fleeing with Jim, Huck learns that he is not stealing Jim, but that Jim has a right to be free....
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