.......Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the most widely read books in the world in the nineteenth century. The masses in the northern U.S. and in many foreign countries embraced its melodrama, as well as its timely message, and used the book to galvanize the anti-slavery movement in the 1850's. The book thus became one of the causes of the American Civil War. The story moves swiftly, keeping the reader's interest, but the writing writing abounds in sentimentality, clichés, and preachments.

Type of Work and Style
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.......Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel of social protest. Author Harriet Beecher Stowe uses third-person point of view, but she sometimes interrupts the narration to speak directly to the reader in second-person point of view. Purely as a literary work, Uncle Tom's Cabin is average at best, relying primarily on sentimentality and melodrama to appeal to the readers. However, the themes in the novel are powerful, and they had an enormous impact on the slavery issue in Stowe's day. They continue to hold meaning for the modern reader in age when racial bigotry remains a major problem.

Year of Publication
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.......Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in a series of installments in 1851 and 1852 by the National Review, an abolitionist newspaper. It was published in book form in 1852. 

Settings
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.......The action takes place in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century in Kentucky, Ohio, and Louisiana; on river steamboats; and in Canada and Africa. The story unfolds during a time when tension was growing between the North and the South over slavery. 

Characters
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Uncle Tom: Long-suffering, hard-working, deeply religious slave who remains loyal to his Christian ideals, even refusing to curse those who treat him cruelly. He endures many hardships on behalf of whites as well as blacks and inspires others with his Job-like patience and his Christ-like willingness to forgive.
Aunt Chloe:Tom's wife, from whom he is separated.
Arthur Shelby: Slave owner who treats Tom and other slaves kindly but refuses to renounce slavery. To avoid financial ruin, he sells Tom and a slave boy, Harry Harris.
Emily Shelby: Arthur's wife. She is appalled by her husband's decision to sell Tom and Harry Harris.
George Shelby: Son of Arthur and Emily. After he grows up, he searches for Tom, finds him just before he dies, and buries him. When he returns to his home, he frees his slaves.
Mr. Haley: Slave trader who buys Tom and Harry Harris, a child, from Arthur Shelby.
Eliza Harris: Maid of Emily Shelby and mother of Harry Harris. Rather than endure separation from her son, she runs away with him in an attempt to reach Canada.
George Harris: Eliza's husband and a slave at a neighboring plantation. He also runs away.
Harry Harris: Son of George and Eliza Harris. Haley buys him. 
Andy: Slave in the service of the Shelbys
Little Jake, Mandy: Slaves in the service of the Shelbys.
Black Sam: Slave of the Shelbys. After Eliza escapes, he places a beech nut under the saddle of Haley's horse to cause it to throw him and thereby delay the pursuit of Eliza and her son, Harry, whom Haley has purchased.
Tom Loker: Slave hunter.
Marks: Slave hunter, friend of Loker.
Mr. Symmes:White man who helps Eliza during her escape.
Senator Bird: U.S. Senate member who sponsors legislation making it a crime to aid fugitive slaves. He changes his mind on the issue after meeting Eliza and hearing her heart-rending story.
Mary Bird: Senator Bird's kindly wife.
John Van Trompe:  Former slaveholder who lodges Eliza and little Harry.
Simeon, Rachel Halliday: Quaker husband and wife who help Eliza and little Harry.
Little Eva (Evangeline St. Clare): Saintly white child who loves Uncle Tom.
Augustine St. Clare: Father of Eva. He buys Tom at her urging and takes him to his home in New Orleans.
Marie St. Clare: Augustine's niggling wife. 
Miss Ophelia: Cousin of St. Clare. She takes care of the St. Clare household.
Topsy: Slave child bought by St. Clare.
Simon Legree: Extremely cruel slave overseer who buys Tom after Augustine St. Clare dies.
Quimbo, Sambo: Slaves of Simon Legree.
Cassy, Emmeline: Slaves in Legree's house who conspire against him. Cassy is Eliza's mother.
Emily de Thoux: Sister of George Harris.
Slaves, Slave Trackers
 

Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003
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.......Serious money problems beset Arthur Shelby, a plantation owner in Kentucky in the middle of the nineteenth century. To forestall financial ruin, he agrees to sell two slaves to Mr. Haley, a slave trader and one of Shelby’s creditors. They strike the deal on a chilly February afternoon in the dining room of Shelby's home. The slaves to be turned over to Haley are Uncle Tom—a faithful, obedient, and respectful worker of middle age—and Harry Harris, a bright boy just shy of his fifth birthday.
.......Shelby has always gotten along well with his slaves, treating them kindly and providing them needed comforts. Although he regrets having to sell Tom and the little boy, he believes he has no other option. The decision appalls his wife, Emily, for it will mean breaking up families. Tom will be separated from his wife, Aunt Chloe, the plantation’s cook, and from his children. Tom and the others have been living together in a pretty little cabin on the Shelby property. Harry will be separated from his parents. His mother, Eliza, twenty-five, is a beautiful quadroon (a person with one half-white parent and one white parent), who serves as Mrs. Shelby’s maid. His father, George, is a slave at a nearby farm.
.......Eliza, who overheard Shelby and Haley talking about the sale, decides to run away with her son. When she tells Tom and Aunt Chloe that Tom is to be sold, they are deeply hurt.
.......“The good Lord have pity on us!' Aunt Chloe says. “What has Tom done that master should sell him?”
.......Aunt Chloe urges him to go with Eliza. But—ever loyal and selfless, even at a time like this—Tom says:
.......“No, no. Let Eliza go. It is right that she should try to save her boy. Mas'r has always trusted me, and I can't leave him like that."
.......So Tom decides to stay put out of concern for the Shelbys. However, Eliza’s husband, who has been treated cruelly by his master, has also decided to run away and is to meet up with Eliza in Canada. 
.......Eliza and little Harry sneak out in the middle of the night. The next day Haley is so angry that Shelby gives him two men to help him track Eliza. She and Harry have made good progress, all the way to the Ohio River. When Haley and his trackers catch up and spot her, Eliza has only one choice: to cross the river. But how? There are no boats. And the river is a fearsome mix of ice blocks and frigid water. With Haley closing in, Eliza leaps onto a slab of ice with Harry in tow, then jumps onto another, and another, losing her shoes and cutting her feet. But she makes it across, to the astonishment of Haley and his trackers. 
.......On the other side, a man named Symmes—who sympathizes with Eliza, calling her “a right brave gal”—directs Eliza to the home of U.S. Senator Bird and his wife, Mary. Senator Bird had supported legislation making it a crime to assist runaway slaves, but kindly Mrs. Bird—and Eliza’s heartrending story—persuade him to help her. Senator Bird decides to take Eliza and Harry to an out-of-the-way place where they will be safe for the night. It is the home of John Van Trompe, located deep in woods seven miles away. Trompe had once owned blacks in Kentucky but freed them after realizing the evils of slavery. After lodging there, Eliza and Harry move next to a Quaker settlement, where they stay at the home of Simeon and Rachel Halliday. While there, they receive joyful news. George is also in the settlement. And so Eliza and George are reunited. After enjoying good food, rest, and the company of the Quakers, they leave for Canada.
.......Meanwhile, Tom says his sad goodbyes to his family and friends on the plantation before his trip south for sale at a slave auction. Young George Shelby, who loves Tom, promises one day to come for him and bring him back to Kentucky.
.......On the way down the Mississippi, Tom befriends a little white girl on the steamboat. Her name is Eva. She enjoys talking with him—and prizes the toys he makes for her. One day, after she falls overboard, Tom saves her. Eva had once urged her father, Augustine St. Clare, to buy Tom. So, deeply grateful to Tom for rescuing Eva, he fulfills her wish. Tom then takes up residence at St. Clare’s elegant mansion in New Orleans. 
.......St. Clare’s wife, Marie, has become too sickly—or imagines herself to be so—to do anything in the household but nurse her headaches and complain, so St. Clare has brought his cousin, Miss Ophelia, down from Vermont to run the household. Oddly, Miss Ophelia opposes slavery but dislikes blacks. One of her duties is to train a spirited slave child named Topsy.
.......Tom is assigned to take care of the stables, receiving fancy clothes—including a “well-brushed broadcloth suit, smooth beaver [high silk hat],glossy boots, [and] faultless wristbands and collar”—to wear on the job. But this job is only a sort of sinecure; his real duty is to keep little Eva happy. And this he does remarkably well. She especially enjoys hearing him sing. 
.......“He sings such beautiful things about the New Jerusalem, and bright angels, and the land of Canaan,” Eva tells her father.
.......And when she reads to him from the Bible, Tom explains the passages. Over the next two years, life is generally happy at the mansion. What is more, St. Clare comes to understand the evils of slavery, and Miss Ophelia begins to overcome her prejudice against blacks. The changes are due in no small part to the influence of little Eva and Tom, who see the goodness in everyone. St. Clare decides one day that a man so worthy as Tom should not be deprived of his freedom. 
.......Unfortunately, little Eva takes sick and dies. This terrible event is followed not long afterward by another: St. Clare is stabbed to death while attempting to break up a tavern fight. Consequently, the legal work required to free Tom is never completed.
.......In the settlement of St. Clare’s estate, his wife sells Tom for $1,200 to an extremely cruel slave owner, Simon Legree, who runs a cotton plantation. He beats his blacks mercilessly and uses slave women to satisfy his lust. 
.......Although Tom has had bad luck, Eliza and George have had good luck on the trip to freedom: By boat, they have reached Canada and safety. On the shore of the town of Amhertsberg, “They stood still till the boat had cleared," the narrator says, "and then, with tears and embracings, the husband and wife, with their wondering child in their arms, knelt down and lifted up their hearts to God!” A missionary takes them in.
.......Meanwhile, Tom’s fortunes continue to worsen. He angers his new master because he gives him no reason to beat him; he is industrious and obedient as always. So one day Legree orders Tom to whip a female who has done no wrong. When Tom refuses to carry out the order, as expected, Legree threatens him. But Tom, a man of deep religious faith, tells Legree that he can take his body but he can never take his soul, for it belongs to God.
.......Tom’s godliness somehow pierces Legree’s ungodliness, making him wonder whether he has offended divine powers. A heavy drinker, he begins to hallucinate, hearing strange noises and seeing ghosts. Two slave women—Cassy, whom he had used as a mistress, and Emmeline, whom he plans to ravish—conspire to play “supernatural” tricks on him. One night, after 1 a.m., Cassy comes to Tom and tries to persuade him to kill Legree with an axe, saying she would have killed him herself if she were strong enough to wield the weapon effectively. But Tom refuses, saying, “Good never comes of wickedness. I'd sooner chop my right hand off!” 
.......Tom then urges Cassy to escape with Emmeline but says he himself cannot join them, for he believes God wants him to stay and give comfort to the other slaves. After talking over the risks and possible gains, Cassy and Emmeline decide to escape, but they do not leave immediately. Instead, they run off into the surrounding wilderness to create the impression that they have escaped. Then, they retrace their steps and hide out in the attic of Legree’s mansion. There, they will work more “supernatural” mischief against Legree to wear him down until the time is right for them to flee.
.......Legree searches swamps and forests with bloodhounds but fails to find the escapees. In frustration, he accuses Tom of abetting the escape and orders him to tell what he knows. When Tom is unresponsive, Legree has him whipped. The beating continues without interruption until Tom lies dying. 
.......George Shelby, who has been looking for Tom, arrives and says he will take Tom back to Kentucky with him. But it is too late. Tom dies—remarkably without rancor in his heart. Before he breathes his last, he even says Simon Legree did him a favor, by opening the gates of heaven for him, and hopes that Legree will repent his sins so that he too can enter heaven. 
.......Shelby offers to buy Tom’s body from Legree, but Legree says disdainfully, “I don’t sell dead niggers. You are welcome to bury him where and when you like.” So George, helped by two blacks, takes the body and buries it on a knoll outside the boundary of the plantation. 
.......Meanwhile, Legree slips into ill health after Cassy and Emmeline “haunt” the house and the property. He drinks heavily. He sleeps fitfully. There are reports in the vicinity of the cotton plantation that he is gravely ill. One evening, Cassy and Emmeline take advantage of his muddled state of mind and escape. 
.......Happily, they meet up with George Shelby and, together, they board a steamship, the Cincinnati, for the trip upriver. On the boat, they meet Emily de Thoux, who turns out to be the sister of George Harris, Eliza's husband. The conversations that ensue reveal that Cassy is Eliza’s mother. 
.......After George Shelby reaches Kentucky, he frees his slaves. The three women—Emily, Cassy, and Emmeline—go to Canada, where they reunite with George and Eliza. The Harrises, along with Cassy, later leave Canada for Africa, where they establish a colony for former slaves.
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Denouement

.......After the death of Tom, Simon Legree becomes seriously ill, perhaps symbolizing the sickness that afflicts the entire South before the Civil War. Cassy and Emmeline take advantage of his weakened mental and physical condition by escaping. Meanwhile, George Shelby buries Tom. When George returns to Kentucky he frees his slaves..

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Themes
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.......The main themes of the novel include the following: 

1...Slavery is an evil institution.
2...Faith in God sustains and ennobles the oppressed
3...True courage does not require violence
4...The human soul is neither black nor white
5...No human being has the right to deprive another human being of freedom.
6...Little children are blind to adult prejudice. 

.......One of the most memorable episodes in the novel is Eliza's escape from slave hunters. With her pursuers closing in, she jumps from one block of ice to another across the Ohio River with little Harry in her arms. Her act demonstrates her resolve as a mother and a black woman to place her child beyond the reach of the inhumanity of slavery. It also foreshadows the historical liberation of the slaves during the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Novel as a Reflection of Reality

.......After the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, supporters of slavery accused Harriet Beecher Stowe of fabricating or exaggerating her descriptions of the misery suffered by slaves. In response to these accusations, Stowe wrote The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that documents her indictment of slavery. The Boston firm of John P. Jewett and Company published it in 1854. In Chapter 1 of the book, she writes, 

At different times, doubt has been expressed whether the scenes and characters pourtrayed in “Uncle Tom's Cabin” convey a fair representation of slavery as it at present exists. This work, more, perhaps, than any other work of fiction that ever was written, has been a collection and arrangement of real incidents, of actions really performed, of words and expressions really uttered, grouped together with reference to a general result, in the same manner that the mosaic artist groups his fragments of various stones into one general picture. His is a mosaic of gems—this is a mosaic of facts. 

Author Information
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.......Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811. She was one of 13 children of Lyman Beecher, a well-known Presbyterian minister. All seven of his sons became clergymen. Harriet's husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, was also a minister and, like Harriet, an abolitionist. After the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1851 and 1852, Mrs. Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, which provided evidence to support her stand against slavery. In 1856, she wrote another anti-slavery book, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. She also contributed articles to the Atlantic Monthly magazine and to several newspapers, including The Independent and the Christian Union. Her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, had worked as an editor at both newspapers. Mrs. Stowe died on July 1, 1896, in Hartford, Conn.

Study Questions and Essay Topics

• Who is the most courageous character in the novel? Explain your answer.
• Was Tom right when he decided not to escape with Eliza?
• Although the novel is entitled Uncle Tom's Cabin, much of the story takes place after Tom leaves the cabin. Does Tom, in a manner of speaking, take the cabin with him? Explain your answer.
• Before President Abraham Lincoln promulgated the Emancipation Proclamation (a document proclaiming freedom for slaves) on Jan. 1, 1863, he issued an ultimatum to the southern states, ordering them to give up their fight and return to the Union. If they had agreed to end their rebellion, would Lincoln have allowed them to keep slaves?
• Write an informative essay explaining what everyday life was like for slaves on a southern plantation. 
• When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he included in it the words "all men are created equal." Write an informative essay explaining Jefferson's personal views on slavery.