Forged in the fire of revolution and defined by manifest destiny, America has always been the land of the individual. Although the American dream has not always been coherent, the spirit of innovation, individuality and progress remains unchanged. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was born in era...

Taking advantage of the immense popularity of an earlier novel, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)," Mark Twain began working on its sequel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)." The second work focused less on adventure and more on the slavery problem that then raged in the...