Adventures of Huck Finn (Final Post)

Huck sets out to find Jim, and encounters a family who happen to think he is their nephew, Tom. Once spending some time with them playing this "Tom" role, Huck comes to find out that this Tom he is impersonating is none other than his best friend Tom Sawyer. Tom arrives on a steamboat and thinks Huck is a ghost, believing he killed himself back in the beginning of the book. They find Jim and hatch a litter of plans to get him out and resolve to dig him out with large kitchen knives. Once Tom arrives, Huck's maturity shines bright, Huck sees the potential danger in each of his plans and ends it. But Tom's willingness to help Jim escape confuses not only Huck, but me too. But considering the plans that Tom came up with, he wasn't concerned with Jim's escape, but for the adventure that came with it. One of Toms suggestions was to saw Jim's leg off to get him out of the chains. Huck also uses the n-word in these chapters, I don't know whether it was to imitate a southern style of speaking, or if he still retains some of the mentality he was taught.
Tom sets up a large set of ludicrous plans, one after the other, putting the house in disarray. Huck gets caught up in the madness and begins to feed into these crazy plans, turning Jim into an object rather than a human being. They play games with something that is extremely serious for Jim. Here's the part that loses me, the owners of the house Sally and some other guy visit and pray with Jim, when they plan to make him a slave again. But Tom and Huck are the ones toying with his freedom, but are trying to free him nonetheless. All these shenanigans make it seem like Huck forgot everything he has learned over the course of the novel, and that scares me, at least for Jim's sake.
After making matters worse in their mischievous schemes, Huck and Tom escape with Jim to a canoe after a mob of people attack the shed that Jim is being held in. Tom receives a bullet wound in his leg and Huck goes to get a doctor. The house owners find Huck and the ending of the book is in chaos. They find Tom and Jim, who they chain up roughly. Once everything comes to the light, it seems Tom got what was coming to him once he reveals that Miss Watson died two months ago and set Jim free in her will. The people immediately release him when hearing of this and his care taking of Tom's bullet wound. Huck finds out from Jim that his father is dead when him and Tom plan to find him and the money. Huck decides to leave society with Tom on another adventure, which is completely understandable considering what he has discovered about the misconstrued world he resides in. Jim is the only one who leaves this novel a respectable adult, after hiding Huck from the truth, and taking care of Tom.

After reading this novel I have one large question, with a few smaller ones following.
What did I just finish reading?
Huck seems to look at life from another perspective, but not completely as he sets out on more adventures. Tom is hopeless, and Jim is a free man. Every problem in the book is solved, but the solutions create more problems, for me. They leave me questioning what to take from the story.
The messages I receive are: whether to follow your conscience or what you are taught, that our race is hopeless, and that although Blacks are free, we are still held down by what society is taught to think of us. I'm not sure if i'm satisfied with the ending of this either, it's really upsetting.