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Summary of Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox
Summary of Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox
Summary of Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox
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The Characters from Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom - The hero of the novel, a faithful and very intelligent slave. On the Shelby estate he serves as a kind of a spiritual father to the slaves. He does not run away when he learns he will be sold away from his wife and children. He is bold in his convictions, even giving advice to one master, Augustine St. Clare. When others encourage him to fight or run, he refuses, claiming it is his duty to serve the man who has purchased him and hope that by faithfulness, he will earn his reward. On Simon Legree’s plantation, he refuses to strike a female slave and gets in trouble for this. Under torture to say he has no beliefs, he refuses. On nearly all issues he is submissive to his white masters but on the matter of his faith he will not give in. He is a martyr. He dies for the sake of his principles.
Eliza - A beautiful young slave who works in the Shelby house. She is a special favorite of Mrs. Shelby. When she learns that her son Harry will be sold, she takes him and runs away to Canada. On the way, she is reunited with her husband, a fellow slave from another plantation who had already run away.
George Harris - A slave on an estate near the Shelby’s. He is Eliza’s husband. As well, he is intelligent and has learned to read and write. He heads for Canada without his wife and son, hoping to earn the money to redeem them as soon as possible. He does not like white folks until the end when they help him. He ends up going to Liberia...
Tom Robinson is a kind black man whom Atticus is defending against the charge that he raped Mayella Ewell. Atticus knows that he will lose because Tom is black, but he also knows that Tom is innocent and that he has to defend him. Tom Robinson is portrayed as a hard-working father and husband in the novel and he was only attempting to help Mayella since no one else would, but she made advances that he refused and her father saw them. On the witness stand, he testifies that he helped her because, "'Mr. Ewell didn't seem to help her none, and neither did the chillun.'" (256). Even though Tom helps Mayella out of kindness and pity, Mayella is trapped and must accuse him of raping her to save her own life. Shortly after being wrongfully convicted
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative of his Life both endeavor to stir antislavery sentiment in predominantly white, proslavery readers. Each author uses a variety of literary tactics to persuade audiences that slavery is inhumane. Equiano uses vivid imagery and inserts personal experience to appeal to audiences, believing that a first-hand account of the varying traumas slaves encounter would affect change. Stowe relies on emotional connection between the readers and characters in her novel. By forcing her audience to have empathy for characters, thus forcing readers to confront the harsh realities of slavery, Stowe has the more effective approach to encouraging abolitionist sentiment in white readers.
The narrator’s father is being freed from slavery after the civil war, leads a quiet life. On his deathbed, the narrator’s grandfather is bitter and feels as a traitor to the blacks’ common goal. He advises the narrator’s father to undermine the white people and “agree’em to death and destruction (Ellison 21)” The old man deemed meekness to be treachery. The narrator’s father brings into the book element of emotional and moral ambiguity. Despite the old man’s warnings, the narrator believes that genuine obedience can win him respect and praise.
...rd. Thus putting Legree in Anger, he orders his overseers to beat him. When Tom is close to death, he forgives them. A bit too late, Shelby had finally arrived at Legree’s plantation after years of searching for his slave Tom. Shelby arrives with money to buy Tom’s freedom, but is too late. He can only watch as Tom dies as a scapegoat. As George was leaving the plantation, the two women tried to make a break for freedom, only to hitch a ride with him after they had explained their story. On a boat to freedom, Shelby and the girls meet Harris’s sister and had travel with her, where Cassy realizes that Eliza is her daughter. They decide to travel to France when Harris’s sister had claimed to be rich, from there they decided to move to Africa where many former African slaves return too. George had returned back to his farm, releasing all of the slaves in honor of Tom.
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
William Arthur Ward once said, "Real religion is a way of life, not a white cloak to be wrapped around us on the Sabbath and then cast aside into the six-day closet of unconcern." Religion is the one thing that people can usually tolerate but never agree upon. Each faith seems to have an ordained assumption that they have the correct thoughts on how to life one's life or how to think about things or the way to act in certain situations. Still, each religion has its own "sub-religions." If someone refers to Christianity, there are several different religions that are blanketed under that umbrella: Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian are just a handful. The inconsistencies that are associated with everyone's belief about religion run into deeper ruts of confusion. This confusion leads people to have distorted views as to what they believe and what their religion is all about. This is no different from the feelings about slavery by Christians in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Throughout the novel, Christianity presents itself in a few different lights; as a twisted and deformed glimmer of what religion is supposed to be with undertones of bigotry and prejudice, an innocent yet naive child that brings joy to everyone he or she meets, and as Uncle Tom himself, the standard for what a Christian is supposed to be. These different portrayals of Christian living come from Stowe's own beliefs about Christians and brings them into the light.
Atticus demonstrates his character by defending Tom Robinson. Atticus leads by example, showing the highest respect for everyone in Maycomb, not discriminating by color or class. His serious defense for Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, proves his high ideals. Atticus fights a hopeless battle against the racism in the town. Atticus not only shows his non prejudice through the trial of Tom Robinson, but also through his everyday dealings with Calpurnia. Atticus refutes Aunt Alexandra persistent attempts to fire Cal and claims that she is one of the family.
...good man, which she ruined by running away with Sanford. Eliza made her own choices and caused her own demise.
Uncle Tom, being an avid follower of Christianity, owns this book and reads it everyday. Uncle Tom has protected this book ardently as he moves from the Shelby household to the St. Clare estate and finally to Legree’s plantation. The Bible is a source of strength and comfort for Uncle Tom who endures the harsh environment of slavery and the switching of masters. In the novel, Uncle Tom says: “[...] I will hold on to the Lord, and put his commands before all,—die or live; you may be sure on’t. Mas’r Legree, I ain’t a grain afeared to die. I’d as soon die as not. Ye may whip me, starve me, burn me, it’ll only send me sooner where I want to go” (433). Stowe shows us how much he values Christianity and how he is even willing to sacrifice his life. He also reads the Bible to many of the characters in the novel which gives hope to many who struggle with their faith like Cassy. His willingness to spread his faith to Cassy despite the circumstances on the plantation is truly remarkable, but this loyalty to Cassy also leads to his suffering. The Bible allows him to withstand the brutal treatment from Legree and this shows the strength of his Christian faith. However, when Uncle Tom is on the brink of death, he decides to forgive Legree for his wrongdoings and that he has “only opened the gate of the kingdom for [him]” (476). This shows that despite suffering, Uncle Tom still grasped onto his Christian faith. Stowe wanted to use the Bible to symbolize Uncle Tom’s suffering, strength, and love for God.
The novel takes place in the South during the pre-Civil War, as Harriet Beecher Stow uses the characters to accentuate how life was like during this time period. As the main character and clearly a Christ-like figure, Uncle Tom is determined to better himself not only as an individual, but also as a better Christian. Though he may seem submissive throughout the book, his love for all people is felt by everyone, including the courageous and young women, Eliza. After learning that that her fi...
Stowe, Harriet B, and Ann Douglas. Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly. New York, N.Y:
setting was the major factor in the plot of the story. If this had taken
Stowe uses different perspectives of people who were affected by slavery and what they did to influence the abolition movement. Uncle Tom’s Cabin starts when Mr. Shelby, a plantation owner, sells two of his slaves: Uncle Tom and Henry. The book follows the perspectives of Uncle Tom and Henry’s mother, Eliza. Eliza heard of her young son’s fate and decided she needs to get him safe. During Eliza’s escape, she meets up with her husband, George Harris, who had run away a couple of days before. Both decided that their best option was to escape to Canada. A bounty man, Tom Loker, hunted Eliza and her family that led to George pushing Loker off a cliff to protect his wife and son. Eliza worried Loker would die so her and her husband rescued the man and took him to a nearby Quaker community.