Uncle Tom, a slave on the Shelby plantation, is loved by his owners, their son, and every slave on the property. He lives contentedly with his wife and children in their own cabin until Mr. Shelby, deeply in debt to a slave trader named Haley, agrees to sell Tom and Harry, the child of his wife's servant Eliza. Tom is devastated but vows that he will not run away, as he believes that to do so would plunge his master so far into debt that he would be forced to sell every slave.
Just before Tom is taken away, Mrs. Shelby promises him that she will buy him back as soon as she can gather the funds. Tom is sold to Haley, who eventually sells him to a kindly master named Mr. St. Clare.
Eliza, however, cannot bear to part with her son and escapes the night before he is to be taken from her. She escapes successfully and makes her way to a Quaker village, with a family that harbors slaves. There, she is reunited with her husband George, who lived on a neighboring plantation and has also escaped to flee his master's cruelty. The couple and their son spend a night with the Quaker family before returning to the underground railroad.
Tom befriends his new master and especially his young daughter Eva, who shares Tom's deep religious faith and devotion. Eva abhors cruelty and eventually is so overcome with grief over slavery that when she becomes ill, she accepts her impending death peacefully and tells her family and their servants that she is happy knowing that she is going to heaven, where such cruelty does not exist. St. Clare begins to confront the realization that he believes slavery is evil, and he promises Tom that he will fill out forms guaranteeing his freedom in the event of St. Clare's death.
Shortly after Eva dies, her father dies tragically in an accident, and Tom's fate is left entirely in the hands of Marie, St. Clare's selfish and unsympathetic wife. Marie decides to move back to her parents' estate and to sell all the slaves, despite Miss Ophelia's exhortation that Marie should fulfill St. Clare's promise to give Tom his freedom. Marie refuses, and just before he is sold, he writes a letter to the Shelbys (with the help of Mr. Legree) telling them his plight and asking for their help.
Because of her association with the young man, the police were planning to arrest her, but her father sold all of his worldly possessions, including his house in the city land his father had given him, and gave the money to the police in exchange for his daughter’s freedom. After fleeing from the city to the country, the girl writes a letter to her lover relating that “you must love him for this, manman says, you must. it is something you can never forget, the sacrifice he has made.” P.22. Sadly, her lover dies in route to America and she remains in Haiti bound to the sacrifice her family made to save her life. There is no freedom from oppression and suffering for the young man, no freedom from suffering and guilt for the young woman, and presumably, no freedom from poverty for her family in the years to
At the beginning, Tom is very self-centered and preoccupied with his work. He finds what he wants to do more important than what his wife wants to do that night. Once faced with the reality of death, he realizes how important his wife is to him. This forces him to be strong and stay alive, for her sake. The only reason he made it back into his house was because of how much he cared for her. Tom then decides to go find her at the movies, which shows that he has become less self-centered and more aware of his wife’s feelings.
One might question if Eliza really had any choice in her situation. Early in the novel she declares, "What a pity . . . that the graces and virtues are not oftner united!" (Foster 22). While Sanford possessed all the suavity she desired and Reverend Boyer all the integrity, she could find no companion who possessed both. This lack of options seems to be what truly destroys Eliza. It may have been within Eliza's power to be a True Woman, but due to the societal constraints imposed upon her, it does not seem at all possible for her to have been a happy woman.
You could see the helpless and powerless state of women even as far back as the 18th century. The story also exposes the fundamental injustices meted out to women by confining them to a limited domestic sphere. The society dictates the identity and role of the woman; “every young woman is expected to marry a suitable spouse” (Foster 818), take care of her husband and children, while having no voice or rights of her own. Any relationships outside the spheres of marriage is being frowned at. But the man can do as he pleases, even if he is married. While Eliza had to move away from her family and friends because she was pregnant and could not stand the shame and had “become a reproach and disgrace to friends” (Foster 906), Sanford is allowed to continue living his life probably with another vulnerable young woman in the society. While Sanford gets away with his womanizing acts, Eliza is the one who is branded as loose, and termed a coquette; she was the one who lost her life, trying to conceal a pregnancy that was conceived by two people. An unidentified source has this to write about her: “But let no one reproach her memory. Her life has paid the forfeit of her folly. Let that suffice” (Foster
As explained by author Carl E. Krog, “Some Northerners, if they did not disapprove of slavery, were uncomfortable with it, particularly with the slave trade and its consequent break-up of families in an age which idealized the family” (Krog, p. 253). Krog goes on to cite various examples of families being separated in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the first of which being the story of Eliza and Harry. Spurred by the fear of losing her son, Harry, Eliza flees captivity, taking refuge in the free state of Ohio. Once in Ohio, Eliza meets Senator and Mrs. Bird whom have lost a child and can understand Eliza’s pain. (Stowe 876-880). In a later scene, a slave being transported away from her family cries out in agony as white women, sitting with their own children, look on in disgust at her uncouth display of sadness. Another passenger on the ship calls out their hypocrisy, noting that if their children had been shipped away they too would be distraught. Stowe gives her characters something that swiftly taken away from real slaves, humanity. As noted in Ramesh Mallipeddi’s essay, slaves lost their identity at capture and were not trapped in a false, inhuman persona crafted by slave masters. Stowe pushes her characters out of the trope of uneducated animal allowing her readers to see slaves as they were,
She was lucky to have employers who were kind to her, which this also bothered her mother along with Moody’s curiosity of why she was treated differently. Her mother showed fear for Essie Mae and her interaction with white people, for she was scared someone would see or hear something and take it the wrong way and come after their family. Emmett Till’s death was the first event that struck Moody’s fear with white people. Mrs. Burke was one of the numerous white women Anne worked for as a maid. She was by far, the foulest and most obviously racist. Mrs. Burke was constantly testing Moody’s thoughts, but remembering that her mother warned her to act as if she knew nothing or felt nothing like it didn’t even happen. Though Mrs. Burke ultimately gives Anne grudging respect, she still distrusts the majority of African Americans and remains ardently opposed to
...ess her husband just so happens to die. Her husband has spent most of his nights with the couple’s personal servant, Sarah, who has conceived the children of this man. Ms. Gaudet also dislikes the children solely for the fact that they remind her much of her husband. Manon is soon granted her freedom when her husband is murdered by African- American rebels.
Later approaching the tragedy of of the book, Tom displays another act of sub-human behavior, nonchalantly brushing off his affairs, “And what’s more I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time.”(201). Tom in a sense...
Overall Uncle Tom’s Cabin is filled with religious overtones of martyrdom, imposed religion, and genuine piety of the slaves in bondage. Harriet Beecher Stowe shows the divide between how the slaveholders see religion as a whip to keep slaves in line and how slaves see the same religion as a balm for the wounds inflicted on them by the whites.
Mr. Shelby is in debt to Haley, so he must sell Uncle Tom and Harry, tearing them apart from their families. Stowe shows a young slave woman, Eliza and her affection for her son Harry, when she decides to take her son and run away. This disputes the common belief of the time that slaves mothers has less affection for their youth than white women. Uncle Tom is sold again to the carefree Augustine St. Clare whos philosophy is “Why save time or money, when there's plenty of both?” Uncle Tom receives good treatment at the St. Clare’s, which proves that the novel is not one-sided, showing that their where kind slave owners.
Eliza is a slave on a plantation that raises her to be a “good” Christian. To Eliza, her masters
...good man, which she ruined by running away with Sanford. Eliza made her own choices and caused her own demise.
Chapter 10- Helpless, i’m helpless. Eliza thought. How could a boy that charming be talking to Angelica. Maybe it is because she is a Schuyler and rich. What am i thinking? I know my sister like i know my own mind, i will never find anyone who is as trusting or as kind. I can’t, I need to leave.
Eliza does not want to continue being part of the high society and has to stay under Higgins watch but wants to return to where she came from (Berst 100).
Eliza knows that she can't go back to her old life, but otherwise, she has no firm position in society. Instead of fetching Higgins's slippers, she marries Freddy who has a weaker character. Perhaps Freddy would fetch her slippers, but she is keen to work, too. Her rebellion becomes more obvious in comparison to Higgins. She shows that she is not a mere subject, but a freethinking individual. In a realistic manner, she finds Higgins' weak point and overrules his subjections. She doesn't want to be intimidated.