Plot+Summary

The book opens in February 1830 in the Missouri town of Dawson’s Landing. A man named David Wilson has come to the town in search of a successful lifestyle, and soon becomes known as the town’s pudd’nhead after he comments on how he would like to own half of a barking dog so that he may kill his half. The town reacts to this in a negative way and labels him as an idiot. Even with this label, Wilson goes to each town’s person, asking for their fingerprints for his files and interests. We then meet the town’s “chief” citizen, Percy Driscoll. Driscoll is a well-liked man of good standing and owns the significant character, Roxy. Roxy is a slave to Mr. Driscoll along with a number of other slaves. She had recently given birth to a son, Chambers, who happened to look almost identical to Mr. Driscoll’s new born, Thomas. When Driscoll discovers that a few of his items have been stolen he accuses the slaves, and tells them that if they do not confess, he will ship them all down the river (a place of torment for slaves in that time). Finally, all the slaves confess except for Roxy, who is innocent. Immediately after this occurrence Roxy begins to fear for her son’s life. With that fear, she decides to switch her son with Mr. Driscoll’s baby so that her son will never have to face being sent down the river. With this drastic switch, Thomas (Percy’s son) grows up to be a humble, kind person, while Chambers (Roxy’s son) grows into a cruel, unkind person. As time progresses Percy meets his fate with death, and shortly before dying he leaves Tom and Chambers to his brother, Judge Driscoll and sets Roxy free. With her freedom, Roxy becomes a chambermaid on a steamboat. She eventually has to retire, and upon the return to Dawson’s Landing she hopes that Tom will have changed into a kinder soul. Once they’re reunited she finds that he has not changed at all, and decides to fill him in on his true identity as a slave. She uses this as black mail so that Tom may pay her half with his monthly allowance from Judge Driscoll. Tom agrees to this, for fear of becoming a slave, and when he can’t pay off her half due to gambling, he begins to steal from the local town’s people while dressed as a woman. We then meet Angelo and Luigi, a pair of Italian twins whom have just moved to town. When Tom insults Luigi at a party, Luigi invites him to duel, for he is outraged at the public humiliation. When Tom refuses, he goes home and faces his uncle, who has much more coming than just a fight. When the judge asks Tom why he did not battle Luigi, Tom tells him that he was too afraid to fight. The judge becomes infuriated at this and immediately disowns Tom, for he feels ashamed to have him as family. Soon, Tom is faced with a number of debts as payment for his excessive gambling. Roxy offers Tom to let him sell her down the river for 600$ with the exception that he buy her back a year later. He agrees to this, and hastily turns back on his word, leaving his mother in harsh, cruel slavery down the river. Roxy eventually escapes from slavery and meets up with Tom in St. Louis, where she confronts him. She tells Tom that he must confess what he has done to Judge Driscoll and ask the Judge for some money, so that he can buy Roxy back, which will in turn, end the master’s search for her. Tom decides to instead rob his uncle to get the money. As Tom begins to steal the money from his uncle, Judge Driscoll awakes in the night to find his nephew in mid-thievery. With this, Tom uses the knife of Angelo and Luigi to stab his uncle. The twins, who had been out walking at the time of the murder, hear the struggle and rush to the scene to find the judge dead. Because they were at the scene, and because their weapon had been used they were immediately made prime suspects. Thankfully, Pudd’nhead Wilson agrees to defend them in court, even though they have a strong circumstantial case against them. Tom, being truly confident that he has nothing to worry about in this case, and will get off without any punishment, goes over to Wilson’s house to brag. While he is there, he accidentally leaves his fingerprint on one of Mr. Wilson’s fingerprint slides. Upon his arrival to Dawson’s Landing, Wilson had gotten the town’s folks fingerprint, including Thomas’s and Chamber’s. Wilson soon learns of Tom’s true identity, and reveals this truth the next day in court using factual fingerprint evidence as his support. This evidence also proves that Roxy had switched Tom and Chambers at birth, leaving Chambers as a free, white man. Luigiand Angelo are proven innocent and end up moving back to Europe. Tom faces slavery for the rest of his life, and is sold down the river. Pudd’nhead Wilson becomes an idol in the small town and is admired by all.