Uncle Tom’s Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
c. before 1850
This is the classic work that everyone has heard about and thinks of when slavery is mentioned. But, as Christopher Paul Curtis says in the forward, it is not what most of us think unless we have read it recently.
Uncle Tom is a slave living on the Shelby farm in Kentucky. He has a wife, Aunt Chloe, and three children. Every night the Master’s son George goes to the cabin and reads the Bible to the slaves who assemble there. It’s not that Uncle Tom can’t read because he can–he just doesn’t do it as well as George.
Unfortunately, George’s father has met with some financial disasters and must sell something or risk losing everything. Thus Tom is sold because he will bring the most money. Along with Tom, the slave trader demands the sale of young Harry, a four-year-old boy. Tom goes quietly with the slave trader but Harry’s mother has buried two babies and her husband is escaping his oppressive master and making a run for Canada. She cannot bear to part with Harry and so, despite her good life at the Shelby place, she takes young Harry and makes a run for Canada herself. She is pursued by the slave trader who is hampered by her fellow slaves. She is then helped along by a legislator who just voted for a law to return escaped slaves found in his state, a group of Quakers, and others. She is reunited with her husband who is traveling along the same route.
Meanwhile, Tom is sold to an indulgent New Orleans master whose young daughter wants to rescue him. He is immediately put in charge of the horses and finds himself in a life of leisure. He has a good life and perhaps a better life here but he misses his family. Here is where most of the story takes place. Here is where we meet Old Prue who is depressed and distressed and has become an alcoholic. Here we meet Topsy who has no parents and no birthdate and no known age. No one has ever loved her or wanted her. We also meet the white slave owners who are good to their slaves and others who are not. We are introduced to the idea of a professional flogging where slave owners can have their slaves flogged for disobedience.
Through all of this, Tom keeps his faith in God’s protection over him. He delights in sharing his faith and God’s love with his Master and with his fellow slaves.
By and by, Tom’s master’s daughter dies and then, shortly thereafter, the master who has started proceedings to give Tom his freedom is killed defending another. The master’s wife is not inclined to give anyone freedom and sells Tom. Here is where Tom is bought by a hateful master–Legree. Legree is an atheist and proud of it. He intendes Tom to be an overseer but first, he must break Tom of his faith. Here, Tom is beaten but here Tom finds his faith strengthened by the beating of Christ before He went to the cross.
Tom remains true to his faith till death comes for him just as young George Shelby finds him with the intention of buying him back. It is a sad day for George and those back in Kentucky but Tom insists that he is Home Bound for Glory.
All-in-all, this is a very Christian book. The story is just as relevant today as it was when it was written. True there are words in the book that will be offensive to many. And, unless you were raised with the Southern vernacular, there are many passages of conversation that will be hard to impossible to read. With that in mind, I would have to say that it is not for everyone but it is for most of us.
The saddest part of the book, for me, was not that Uncle Tom died at the end but that so much of what was believed about the African slaves in the 1800′s has now become true for too many of all colors. Too many people today are not concerned with getting their children back when they are taken by social services. Too many men and women are perfectly content with finding another mate when the one they had is even temporarily unavailable. Society has created over time the loss of its own morality and this work helps us see just how far we have fallen.
Good reading.
