History Literature / UncleTomsCabin

* {{Badass Preacher}}s: The Quakers that help Eliza, George and little Harry to run away. [[spoiler: They also help Tom Locker to have his HeelFaceTurn after he's injured and they help him out]].

* BrattyHalfPint: Topsy

* GoodScarsEvilScars: George Harris's slavery mark on his hand.

* LongLostRelative: Two, actually:

* TeamMom: Tom's wife Chloe.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Though the story is about the evils of the slave trade, and it's heavily implied the more evil masters are more typical, Messrs. Shelby and St. Clare aren't so bad, as far as slave owners go.
** However, the author uses this to show that even "good" masters aren't good -- they may die or become impoverished, leaving the slaves to a cruel master; and even the slaves of a good master would rather be free employees.

* DrugsAreBad: Like many social reformers of her day, Stowe was a DryCrusader. When alcohol appears in the novel, it is not presented in a favorable light.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Tom is whipped to death after helping Cassie and Emmeline to run away. He still manages to live enough to see George Shelby before he dies ''and'' to redeem [[HeelFaceTurn two of his tormentors]], Sambo and Kimbo]].

** [[spoiler: George Harris had an older sister, Emily, who was sold by their cruel owner. Near the end of the story, George Shelby befriends a French woman named Madame the Thoux, who turns out to be the long-lost and now grown-up Emily. With his help, the siblings are eventually reunited.]]

Then Mr. Shelby gets into debt gambling, and he has to split up the establishment to pay the bills. Uncle Tom is sold to a slave trader who will then sell him "down the river"[[note]]slang for "being sold to masters further in the South, where conditions were generally harsher"[[/note]], and goes along with it because if he were to run, he'd just leave many of the other slaves to be sold instead. Harry is also considered for sale as a young and beautiful boy; rather than let literally unspeakable things happen to her child, Eliza scoops him up and makes a run for freedom, going so far as to cross the Ohio river from ice floe to ice floe. This dissuades her pursuers, since they think NoOneCouldSurviveThat. George eventually follows her, escaping from his own owner who treats him ''real'' bad, and years ago separated him from his older sister Emily. Unfortunately, this is after the Fugitive Slave Act, so they have to run for the northern border ''and'' find each other...

TropeNamer for the trope UncleTomFoolery, although that trope was much more exhibited in the [[MinstrelShow minstrel show]] version created out of nostalgia for the slave trade.

TropeNamer for the trope UncleTomFoolery, although that trope was much more exhibited in the minstrel show version created out of nostalgia for the slave trade.

Then Mr. Shelby gets into debt gambling, and he has to split up the establishment to pay the bills. Uncle Tom is sold to a slave trader who will then sell him "down the river"[[note]]slang for "being sold to masters further in the South, where conditions were generally harsher"[[/note]],and goes along with it because if he were to run, he'd just leave many of the other slaves to be sold instead. Harry is also considered for sale as a young and beautiful boy; rather than let literally unspeakable things happen to her child, Eliza scoops him up and makes a run for freedom, going so far as to cross the Ohio river from ice floe to ice floe. This dissuades her pursuers, since they think NoOneCouldSurviveThat. George eventually follows her, escaping from his own owner who treats him ''real'' bad, and years ago separated him from his older sister Emily. Unfortunately, this is after the Fugitive Slave Act, so they have to run for the northern border ''and'' find each other...

* CreepyLongFingers: Marks the bounty hunter has his hands compared to raven claws

-->''It was sung very boisterouly, and with a forced attempt at merriment; but no wail of despair, no words of impassioned prayer, could have had such a depth of woe in them as the wild notes of the chorus. As if the poor, dumb heart, threatened,--prisoned,--took refuge in that inarticulate sanctuary of music, and found there a language in which to breathe its prayer to God! There was a prayer in it, which Simon could not hear.''

* UncleTomFoolery: The {{Trope Namer|s}}
** Which is a problem, because in the original novel Uncle Tom subverts the foolery: while he remains subservient because of his faith, Tom is still a strong, respected figure. It was the plays and movies that came out during the Jim Crow / segregation years that Uncle Tom was altered to be less "threatening" to white audiences, making him older and turning his Christian meekness into outright groveling.

* MessianicArchetype: Tom models his life on Jesus, and does it well enough to shake the lifelong beliefs and habitual cruelties of almost every character he meets. Even Simon Legree, although that one only leads to an IgnoredEpiphany.

* HappinessInSlavery, Averted in the novel itself, but the publication of this book produced a slew pro-slavery novels (Anti-Tom Literature) depicting the slaves as either mentally unfit for freedom or happy with their lot in life.

** Which is a problem, because in the original novel Uncle Tom subverts the foolery: while he remains subservient because of his faith, Tom is still a strong, respected figure. It was the plays and movies that came out during the Jim Crow / segregation years that Uncle Tom was altered to be less "threatening" to white audiences.

* CreepyLongFingers: Marks the bounty hunter has his hands compared to taven claws

Then Mr. Shelby gets into debt gambling, and he has to split up the establishment to pay the bills. Uncle Tom is sold to a slave trader who will then sell him "down the river[[note]]slang for being sold to masters further in the South, where conditions were generally harsher[[/note]]," and goes along with it because if he were to run, he'd just leave many of the other slaves to be sold instead. Harry is also considered for sale as a young and beautiful boy; rather than let literally unspeakable things happen to her child, Eliza scoops him up and makes a run for freedom, going so far as to cross the Ohio river from ice floe to ice floe. This dissuades her pursuers, since they think NoOneCouldSurviveThat. George eventually follows her, escaping from his own owner who treats him ''real'' bad, and years ago separated him from his older sister Emily. Unfortunately, this is after the Fugitive Slave Act, so they have to run for the northern border ''and'' find each other...

* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: Cassie]] smothered her baby to save it from a life of slavery.

* UncleTomFoolery: The Trope Namer

* BrokenBird: Cassie.

Stowe's novel was adapted for the stage not long after it was released and has been adapted for film many times. The 1914 film has been placed in the NationalFilmRegistry.

''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' is a classic anti-slavery work written by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853, a few years before the AmericanCivilWar. It was [[FairForItsDay ferociously controversial in its day.]]

* RoyalBrat: St. Clare's nephew Alfred, though he gets better after Eva gives him a WhatTheHellHero.