Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly (1851–52) is Harriet Beecher Stowe's internationally known abolitionist novel. The best-selling novel in the 19th century, Uncle Tom's Cabin has been translated into all major languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Although focused on U.S. slavery, the novel has appealed to underclass populations in countries such as Brazil, Cuba, Poland, and Russia, among others.

The story begins in Kentucky. In debt to a slave trader, Shelby, an otherwise “good” master, sells his devoted and religious slave, Uncle Tom, and little Harry, the young son of Mrs. Shelby's personal servant, Eliza Harris. This sale establishes the novel's two primary plot lines, one moving further into the slavery of the Deep South and another following the characters northward toward freedom.

Warned of the sale, Tom refuses to escape, citing his Christian honor and his responsibility to Shelby. Tom is sold to Augustine St. Clare. For a few years, he lives tolerably well on St. Clare's New Orleans estate, serving primarily as [Page 2112]a companion to the young, saintly Eva until her death. Although devoted to Eva and her father, Tom misses his family and longs for freedom. St. Clare is killed just before freeing Tom, and Tom is sold by the morally bankrupt Marie St. Clare. Tom's final home is the rural Louisiana plantation of the villainous Simon Legree. After a brief crisis of faith, Tom reaffirms his Christian beliefs and resists Legree's corrupting influences. When he refuses to betray two female slaves, Tom is viciously beaten. He dies a martyr's death just as the younger George Shelby arrives to reclaim him. Returning without Tom, George frees his slaves, promising to pay them for their future labor and demonstrating an economic alternative to slavery.

Meanwhile, the light-skinned Eliza fees northward with her son. After a daring leap across the ice foes of the Ohio River, Eliza receives help from Senator Bird and his wife. Bird, an advocate of the Fugitive Slave Act, has a change of heart when faced with the fugitives, and he helps them reach a Quaker settlement on the Underground Railroad. There, Eliza is reunited with her fugitive husband, George. The Harrises finally reach Canada, where they are further reunited with George's sister, Emily, and Eliza's mother, Cassy (whom Uncle Tom died protecting). The newly reconstituted family first goes to France, where George gets an education, then, after briefly returning to Canada, leaves for Liberia to become missionaries.