Since the n-word "will be replaced in each instance by "slave" (Page, Benedicte), can we assume they are synonyms? Huckleberry notices an ironic situation when he asks "what it was he'd planned to do if the evasion worked all right and he'd managed to set a nigger free that was already free before" (370)? Can one set a free slave free? Then he wouldn't be a slave to begin with. For this reason, altering the word in such a generalized manner may prove incoherent. I believe "nigger", a more derogatory term today than before, refers to the automatic degradation of the person's social status if their skin is colored. It has nothing to do with their situation as free or enslaved. In Huckleberry's time period, free niggers existed.
I believe, as does Geff Barton, that "It seems depressing that we are so squeamish that we can't credit youngsters with seeing the context for texts."
"The point of the book is that Huckleberry Finn starts out racist in a racist society, and stops being racist and leaves that society. These changes mean the book ceases to show the moral development of his character" (Churchwell, Dr. Sarah). One could even see a parabolic tendency in the novel's purpose.
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