Open seasonally, Jim’s Journey Freedom Center is Hannibal’s newest museum. The Freedom Center details the history of African Americans in Hannibal, linked back to the novels of Mark Twain. The museum highlights the lives and accomplishments of prominent African Americans from Hannibal, and is conveniently located close to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum Properties.
The nation’s first memorial to Daniel Quarles, the prototype for Jim in Mark Twain’s literature
Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center is the country’s first memorial to Jim; the first to pay homage to Jim’s prototype Daniel Quarles; and the only African American history museum in Northeast Missouri.
In a town awash with everything Twain, we tell a much different story of Samuel Clemens and Hannibal.
Mark Twain wrote things as they were. His writings showed the unfiltered reality of life in rural Missouri. Jim, from “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, is one of Twain’s most renowned characters. Twain gave us Jim to show the plight of African Americans in the pre-Civil War United States.
Additionally, Samuel Clemens was the first white American author to humanize an enslaved person, making him more than a fixture as he contributed to the fight against racism, bigotry, and social justice.
Most know that Jim is a fictional character but you may not know that he was based on the very real Daniel Quarles, an enslaved person on his uncle’s farm in Florida, Missouri. The emancipated Daniel lived and died here in Hannibal. This is a tribute to his legacy and an opportunity to learn what it was like for his descendants, and the people whose resilience made this story possible and made Hannibal a richer community. It’s an intimate look at the local African American condition from Hannibal’s 1819 founding.
You will also have the opportunity to explore the proud history of many African American Hannibal residents who through the generations have called Hannibal, Missouri home. JimsJourney.org
