This study of the construction of race in American culture takes its title from a central story thread in Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Huck, who resolves to "go to hell" rather than turn over the runaway slave Jim, in time betrays his companion.

Jeff Abernathy assesses cross-racial pairings in American literature following Huckleberry Finn to show that this pattern of engagement and betrayal appears repeatedly in our fiction--notably southern fiction--just as it appears throughout American history and culture. He contends that such stories of companionship and rejection...