Unlce Tom’s Cabin Essay, Research Paper

Uncle Tom?s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe

UNCLE TOM -Uncle Tom manages the Shelby plantation. Strong, intelligent,

capable, good, and kind, he is the most heroic figure in the novel that bears his name. Tom’s most

important characteristic is his Christian faith. God has given Tom an extraordinary ability. He can forgive

the evil done to him. His self-sacrificing love for others has been called motherly. It has also been called

truly Christian.

AUNT CHLOE- Aunt Chloe, Uncle Tom’s wife, is fat, warm, and jolly. She is a good housekeeper

and a superb cook, and justly proud of her skill. She loves Tom, and urges him to escape to Canada rather

than to go South with Haley. After Tom is sold, she convinces the Shelbys to hire her out to a baker in

Louisville and to use her wages to buy Tom’s freedom. She is heartbroken to learn of his death.

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MOSE, PETE, AND POLLY – Mose, Pete, and Polly, the children of Uncle Tom and Aunt

Chloe, are playful and rambunctious. Polly is Tom’s special favorite, and she loves to bury her tiny hands in

his hair.

ELIZA HARRIS – Eliza Harris is raised by her mistress, Mrs. Shelby, to be pious

and good. Described as light-skinned and pretty, Eliza dearly loves her husband, George Harris, and their

little boy, Harry. When she learns that Harry is about to be sold, Eliza carries him in her arms to the Ohio

River, which she crosses on cakes of ice. Although generally a modest and retiring young woman, Eliza

becomes extraordinarily brave because of her love for her son.

GEORGE HARRIS- George Harris, portrayed as a light-skinned and intelligent slave,

belongs to a man named Harris. He is married to Eliza, who lives on the Shelby plantation, and they have a

son, Harry.

HARRY AND LITTLE ELIZA – Harry and little Eliza are the children of George and Eliza

Harris. Harry, born a slave on the Shelby Plantation, is bright and cute, and sings and dances for Mr. Shelby

and Haley. He is so beautiful that he is disguised as a girl in order to escape into Canada. Once there, he

does very well in school. Little Eliza is born free in Canada.

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SAM AND ANDY- Sam and Andy, slaves on the Shelby plantation, provide comic

relief through their mispronunciations and deliberate mishaps. Andy, who likes to makes speeches, is meant

to satirize politicians. But Sam and Andy make an important contribution to the novel’s plot- their clowning

allows Eliza to escape across the Ohio River.

MR. SHELBY – Mr. Shelby, the owner of a Kentucky plantation, generally treats his

slaves well, but he decides to sell two of them, Uncle Tom and little Harry, to pay off a debt. Although he

regrets the sale, Shelby feels he has no other choice.

MRS. SHELBY – Mrs. Shelby, a kind, religious woman, tries to raise the family’s

slaves with Christian values. She attempts to convince her husband not to sell Tom and Harry, and she

helps Eliza escape. Warm-hearted Mrs. Shelby treats her slaves like people, crying with Aunt Chloe when

Uncle Tom leaves and consoling her when they learn he is dead.

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GEORGE SHELBY- George Shelby, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, is thirteen years old

when the novel begins, and eighteen when it ends. He likes to spend time with Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe,

basking in their kindness and attention. He teaches Uncle Tom to read and write, and reads the Bible at the

slaves’ religious meeting. On Uncle Tom’s grave, he swears to do whatever he can to fight against slavery,

and he begins by freeing the slaves on his own plantation. George is one of the few characters who changes

during the course of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as he develops from a good-hearted but somewhat

self-centered boy into a noble and effective man.

HALEY-Haley sets the plot of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in motion by insisting that Mr. Shelby sell him

Tom and little Harry. Haley curses, smokes, drinks, and dresses badly. He claims to be humane because he is

not completely cruel to the slaves he buys. But you can see that he’s a nasty person. He doesn’t believe slaves

have feelings, so he doesn’t think twice about separating a mother and child- like Eliza and little Harry, or

about the woman who jumps off the steamboat on the Ohio River after he sells her baby. Haley can’t

understand why these things keep happening to him.

TOM LOKER, AND MARKS- Tom Loker and Marks are crude fellows, who make their living

catching escaped slaves. You often see them in taverns. Tom Loker is shot by George Harris, but the

Harrises and the Quakers forgive him, and he is nursed back to health in the Quaker settlement. He gives the

Quakers the information that helps George and Eliza disguise

themselves so they can elude Marks at the Sandusky ferry.

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MR. AND MRS. BIRD- Mr. and Mrs. Bird live in Ohio with their three children. Tiny

Mrs. Bird is a wonderful housekeeper and mother. Mr. Bird, a senator, has just voted for the Fugitive Slave

Law. Mrs. Bird tries to convince him that he is wrong, and that one must allow the heart to

guide the head. The appearance of Eliza on their doorstep makes him realize that he isn’t capable of turning

in a fugitive. One of the Birds’ children has recently died, and their loss makes them more

sympathetic to Eliza.

RACHEL HALLIDAY, SIMEON HALLIDAY, RUTH STEDMAN, DORCAS, AND

PHINEAS FLETCHER- These Quakers practice their religious beliefs in their daily lives.

They risk fines by helping escaped slaves. Rachel Halliday and Ruth Stedman are motherly and sympathetic;

Simeon and Phineas are quietly brave. They take good care of George and Eliza and make it possible for

them to escape to Canada. Dorcas nurses Tom Loker back to health after George Harris shoots him. She

doesn’t quite convert him to her

beliefs, but she does get him to give up slave-catching.

AUGUSTINE ST. CLARE – Augustine St. Clare, Tom’s second master, is handsome, worldly,

and charming. He indulges his slaves in his elegant New Orleans house and debates the issue of slavery with

his cousin from Vermont. Most of all, St. Clare hates hypocrisy. Believing that slavery is wrong, he left the

plantation he inherited with his twin brother because he didn’t really want to be a slavemaster. St. Clare

thinks black people will eventually gain their freedom, but he isn’t sure how it will come about. In the

meantime, he rails with equal fervor against Southern ministers who claim slavery is supported by the Bible,

and Northerners who criticize slavery but won’t let black children into their schools.

EVANGELINE ST. CLARE – Evangeline St. Clare is a beautiful child, spiritually as well as

physically. She is filled with goodness and love. Her kindness to those around her, especially the slaves,

brightens their lives, and leads some of them to embrace the Christianity she so instinctively radiates. Eva is

responsible for St. Clare’s purchase of Uncle Tom, and Tom becomes her special friend. The two spend

hours poring over the Bible and discussing religion. The black slave and the little blonde girl are kindred

spirits. But Eva- whose name suggests the Evangelist- becomes ill and dies. On her deathbed, she distributes

locks of her hair and loving wishes to everyone around her.

MARIE ST. CLARE- Marie St. Clare is a beautiful but spoiled woman who ignores

everyone’s feelings but her own and takes advantage of her servants. A hypochondriac, constantly claiming

to have headaches, she cannot understand either her husband or their daughter. She doesn’t pay

much attention to either of them, except to complain. Because Marie can’t act for anyone but herself, she

fails to prevent Uncle Tom’s sale to Simon Legree.

OPHELIA- Ophelia St. Clare comes from Vermont to manage her cousin Augustine’s New

Orleans household. Her thrifty New England ways contrast with the easy-going St. Clare style. One of

Ophelia’s functions in the novel is to contrast the North and the South. An abolitionist, Ophelia finds slavery

“perfectly horrible,” and she rails against it in her running debate with Augustine.

ALFRED AND HENRIQUE ST. CLARE- Alfred St. Clare, Augustine’s dark, forceful twin

brother, is a stern but decent slaveowner. The contrast between the twins contrasts their two approaches to

slavery. Similarly, dark, handsome, proud, and angry Henrique, Alfred’s son, contrasts with his blonde,

loving cousin Eva. Henrique is cruel to his slave, Dodo, but Eva reaches him with her love.

TOPSY- Ignorant but energetic, Topsy is brought by Augustine into the St. Clare household to

see whether the high-principled Ophelia is actually capable of managing a slave. Topsy, who can’t tell the

difference between right and wrong.

ADOLPHE, ROSA, JANE, DINAH, AND MAMMY- The well-treated slaves in the St. Clare

household seem to be divided into two groups. Some, such as Adolphe, Rosa, and Jane, are light-skinned

servants who borrow the St. Clare family’s airs as well as much of its wardrobe. Others, such as Dinah the

cook, and Mammy, are dark-skinned hardworking, and realistic.

PRUE-A worn-out, hard-drinking woman, Prue is beaten to death by her

owners. Tom discovers the cause of her misery- like so many other slave women, she has lost her children to

the slave-trader.

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SIMON LEGREE- Simon Legree is the owner of a plantation on the Red River in

Louisiana. Sadistic and cruel, he breaks his slaves in body and soul and works them to death. Legree has no

real human ties. He has sexual relations with slave women whom he buys for that purpose, and his main

companions are the barbaric Sambo and Quimbo. Legree is interested in growing as much cotton as he can,

as his bet with several other plantation owners indicates, but he also seems to enjoy abusing his slaves,

particularly Uncle Tom.

CASSY- Cassy, the daughter of a wealthy white man and a slave woman, is sheltered and

convent-educated. The death of her father results in her sale to a man who becomes her lover, and whom

she adores. But after some years, he sells her and her children to pay a gambling debt. Cassy is driven

half-mad by the loss of her son and daughter, and searches in vain for them. She is owned by a series of

masters. By one of them she has a son, whom she kills with an overdose of opium rather than face the pain

of losing another child to slavery.

SUSAN, EMMELINE, AND LUCY- Susan, Emmeline, and Lucy are sold in the New Orleans

slave market with Uncle Tom and the rest of the St. Clare family slaves. Susan and Emmeline, a religious

mother and daughter, are heartbroken when they are separated and sold. Legree buys Emmeline to be his

mistress, but she resists him. Emmeline marries a crew member on the ship that carries the Harris family,

Madame de Thoux, and Cassy to France. Lucy is purchased by Legree as a mistress for his

second-in-command, Sambo, although she had a husband and children in New Orleans. Lucy finds it

difficult to work in the fields, and Tom helps her by secretly putting cotton into her bag so that she will be

able to turn in the required amount of cotton each day.

SAMBO AND QUIMBO-Sambo and Quimbo are Simon Legree’s black lieutenants. Brutal and

ignorant, they lord it over the other slaves. Legree manipulates them so that they fight with each other too.

Both Sambo and Quimbo whip and otherwise abuse Tom, but they are converted by him in the

end.

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