Uncle Tom's Cabin: An Analysis
“The book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, is thought of as a fantastic, even
fanatic, representation of Southern life, most memorable for its emotional
oversimplification of the complexities of the slave system,” says Gossett
(4). Harriet Beecher Stowe describes her own experiences or ones that she
has witnessed in the past through the text in her novel. She grew up in
Cincinnati where she had a very close look at slavery. Located on the Ohio
River across from the slave state of Kentucky, the city was filled with
former slaves and slaveholders. In conversation with black women who
worked as servants in her home, Stowe heard many stories of slave life that
found their way into the book. Some of ...
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people, even our nation's leaders, by surprise.
Mr. Shelby is a Kentucky plantation owner who is forced by debt to
sell two of his slaves to a trader named Haley. Uncle Tom, the manager of
the plantation, understands why he must be sold. The other slave marked for
sale is Harry, a four-year-old. His mother, Mrs. Shelby's servant, Eliza,
overhears the news and runs away with the little boy. She makes her way up
to the Ohio River, the boundary with the free state of Ohio. In Ohio,
Eliza is sheltered by a series of kind people. At a Quaker settlement, she
is reunited with her husband, George Harris. George's master abused him
even though George was intelligent and hard-working, and he had decided to
escape. The couple is not safe even in the North, though. They are
followed by Marks and Loker, slave-catchers in partnership with the trader,
Haley. They make there way up to Sandusky, so that they can catch a ferry
for Canada, where slavery is forbidden and American laws do not ...
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they have no time to think or feel,
and Legree sets them against each other. Tom almost loses his faith in God,
but recovers it and continues his work among the other slaves. He becomes
friends with Cassy, a good but despairing woman who has been Legree's
mistress. Cassy arranges for her and Emmeline, the girl who has been
chosen as Legree's next mistress, to escape, and she urges Tom to join them.
He will not, but he allows himself to be brutally beaten by Legree rather
than reveal what he knows about the women's whereabouts. The Shelby's son,
George, arrives at Legree's plantation to rescue Tom, but it is too late.
Tom is dying. He buries Tom, and swears on his grave that he will ...
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"Uncle Tom's Cabin: An Analysis." Essayworld.com. August 26, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Uncle-Toms-Cabin-An-Analysis/88914.
"Uncle Tom's Cabin: An Analysis." Essayworld.com. August 26, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Uncle-Toms-Cabin-An-Analysis/88914.
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