Nigger or not?

As some of you may have heard, a new edition of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" will have the so-called N-word replaced by the word "slave," thus sanitizing the book for young readers. There are, doubtless, many opinions on this and, naturally, I wish to add my own. First, and foremost, I find it terribly presumptuous of anybody to change the words of any classic piece of literature, especially one which was written by, perhaps America's greatest author, a man who said, "the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
Changing this word does nothing but diminish the awesome power of this great novel. "Nigger" Jim was not cast as inferior or sub-human but rather, as a real and decent man, perhaps, other than young Huck, the only such character in the book.
The use of this offensive word conveys the reality of the era in which this novel was written. Young readers need to understand how people of color were treated and why that treatment was abhorrent. By replacing the word, the censor will present a distorted view of history and actually make it more difficult to illustrate man's inhumanity to his fellow man. Rather than shielding young readers from our shameful history we should be enlightening them in the hope that such reprehensible deeds and attitudes as took place in that time never take place again. As Santayana's famous quotation went, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Keep in mind that many young black people, in the face of criticism from whites and older blacks, often address each other or refer to friends as "nigga." Contrary to popular opinion, I disagree with this criticism. The term, in this case, is not used as a pejorative and actually serves to remove the stigma from the once highly offensive word. It's all about context.
I would love to hear other people's opinions. Please feel free to reply on Goodreads or FB or my personal email. I look forward to hearing from everybody.