The character may have been modeled after one or more slaves , or on the "shrewd, wise, polite, always good-natured .."[REF] formerly enslaved[REF] African-American George Griffin, whom Twain employed as a butler, starting around 1879, and treated as a confidant [REF].
The author, Samuel Clemens, grew up in the presence of his parents' and other Hannibal, Missourians' slaves and listened to their stories; an uncle, too, was a slave owner.