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Twain didn't use the word because he couldn't think of anything else to call the persons of color, he used it deliberately to kick the reader a bit. It's an important part of the book.
Which of course won't stop anybody who wants to from creating a "nice" version. It'll be interesting to see who will pick it up and how they'll use it.
There's plenty of rewritten PD classics out there. I was given several of them as a child. So far as I can tell, they were rewritten to get rid of the "boring" bits and make the story more exciting/simpler.
And what about Thomas Bowdler? Way back in 1818 he rewrote Shakespeare's plays to get rid of all the offensive words and actions, making them safe for women and children to read... whence the term "bowdlerize," which is now what's being proposed for Twain...
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