Character Analysis
Chambers gives a whole new meaning to the expression "poor baby."
Originally born "Tom," Chambers was riding high for the first few weeks of life as the son of a rich businessman when, boom, his nursemaid decides to switch his place with her own son, condemning him to a life of slavery. Don't you just hate it when that happens?
From the get go, Chambers turns out to be a way better toy for Tom than a rattle or Legos:
In babyhood Tom cuffed and banged and scratched Chambers unrebuked, and Chambers early learned that between meekly bearing it and resenting it, the advantage lay all with the former policy [. . .] (4.7)
Besides introducing us to just how jerky and abusive Tom is, this depiction of meek little Chambers illustrates the huge effect that outward circumstances and social status have on shaping a person's character.
Chambers quickly figures out that his position as a slave doesn't grant him much room to be anything other than docile and submissive. Percy Driscoll sets him straight on this, telling him that "under no provocation whatever was he privileged to lift his hand against his little master:
Chambers overstepped the line three times, and got three such convincing canings form the man who was his father and didn't know it, that he took Tom's cruelties in all humility after that, and made no more experiments. (4.7)
It's pretty clear from Chambers's character that being a slave or having a similar low social status doesn't just involve putting up with miserable physical conditions. Such positions can also restrict a person's freedom to fully express who he or she is. Not cool.
On top of that, Twain's portrayal of Chamber cleverly suggests that whites weren't inherently or naturally superior to blacks. Now, this may be a no-brainer to most present-day readers, but it would've been a total shock to many of Twain's late nineteenth-century readers.
See, a lot of authorities of the time—scientists, anthropologists, politicians—subscribed to the belief of Anglo Saxon race superiority, or the idea that those folks of Anglo-Saxon heritage were innately stronger, smarter, and just generally better than non-whites. This wasn't just some crackpot theory; its supporters included national hero himself, Teddy Roosevelt.
As we know, the imposter slave Chambers has Anglo-Saxon blood coursing through his veins and, as we learn, he is superior to Tom in oh so many ways. However, the narrator makes it crystal clear that Chambers's strengths are due not to some natural superiority, but to his circumstances.
We're told, for instance:
Chambers was strong beyond his years, and a good fighter; strong because he was coarsely fed and hard-worked about the house, and a good fighter because Tom furnished him plenty of practice—on white boys whom he hated and was afraid of. Chambers was his constant body-guard [. . .] (4.8)
Ironically, it's the conditions of slavery and his role as bodyguard that give Chambers the edge over Tom.