The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

In St. Petersburg, Missouri, during the 1840s, Huckleberry Finn has received a considerable sum of money following The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson become his guardians. Despite preferring life as an errant boy, Huck stays so he can be part of Tom Sawyer's gang. Huck’s father, "Pap", an abusive alcoholic, tries to appropriate Huck's fortune. Huck fakes his own murder and settles on Jackson's Island, where he reunites with Miss Watson's slave Jim, who ran away after overhearing she was planning to sell him. Huck and Jim decide to go down the Mississippi River to Cairo, in the free state of Illinois.