The HTML version (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17824/17824-h/17824-h.htm) includes illustrations too. I'd never read it before today; having read it, I can see why people say it's offensive, but it's also very much of its time. It goes along with things like golliwogs - I think it's important that people know that "Sambo" and "golliwog" are offensive terms now, but I think it's also important to remember that the original writer was writing it with India in mind rather than Africa. It's about British cultural imperialism and its view of the Empire at that time, specifically India; I don't think it has a lot to do with African black people at all. I'm not saying it's not offensive, because it patently is (as are golliwogs), but it's not exactly fair to use it as an example of a book denigrating black people and condoning slavery, because it's just...that's not whom it's about. It belongs with A Passage To India, A Little Princess and Kipling's works, not Uncle Tom's Cabin.