History Literature / UncleTomsCabin

Then Mr. Shelby gets into debt, and a slave trader gets his hands on a mortgage on the farm. He proposes to settle the debt with Mr. Shelby in exchange for his best slave. Uncle Tom is sold to the 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]]. Little Harry is included in the deal, and his mother happens to eavesdrop on the conversation. Rather than have her child ripped from her, Eliza scoops him up and makes a run for freedom. She tells Tom and his wife Chloe about everything she heard and Chloe urges Tom to go with her. Tom refuses to go on hearing that his sale will fix Shelby’s financial woes, else he will have to break up the farm and sell all the slaves. Knowing his suffering will save the others, Tom resigns himself to his fate and Eliza slips off with Harry.

At the opening of the story, Uncle Tom, Eliza, and her son Harry are all living relatively happily on a large farm in Kentucky. They have a good and kind master, Mr. Arthur Shelby.

In the beginning, Uncle Tom, Eliza, and her son Harry are all living relatively happily on a large farm in Kentucky. They have a good and kind master, Mr. Arthur Shelby.

Then Mr. Shelby gets into debt, and a slave trader gets his hands on a mortgage on the farm. He proposes to settle the debt with Mr. Shelby in exchange for his best slave. Uncle Tom is sold to the 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]]. Little Harry is included in the deal, and his mother happens to eavesdrop on the conversation. Rather than let literally unspeakable things happen to her child, Eliza scoops him up and makes a run for freedom. She tells Tom and his wife Chloe about everything she heard and Chloe urges Tom to go with her. Tom refuses to go on hearing that his sale will fix Shelby’s financial woes, else he will have to break up the farm and sell all the slaves. Knowing his suffering will save the others, Tom resigns himself to his fate and Eliza slips off with Harry.

Tom is bought by Augustine St. Clare after saving the life of his daughter [[IllGirl daughter]], Evangeline. Tom is taken to live on their estate in New Orleans, and sends word home that he is safe and with a good family. Chloe and Mrs. Shelby resolve to raise the money and buy him home. They calculate it should only take about… four years.

Eliza makes a daring escape across the Ohio River and lucks into the care of the Underground Railroad. She and Harry make the dangerous trip North, all the while hoping to find her husband, George, who told her his intent to run away from his cruel master and flee to Canada, where he would work to buy her and Harry’s freedom.

Augustine resolves to set Tom free, but before the papers are drawn up, tragedy strikes and the entire estate is broken up and sold off, including the human assets.

Then Mr. Shelby gets into debt, and a slave trader gets his hands on a mortgage on the farm. He proposes to settle the debt with Mr. Shelby in exchange for his best slave. 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]]. Little Harry is included in the deal, and his mother happens to eavesdrop on the conversation. Rather than let literally unspeakable things happen to her child, Eliza scoops him up and makes a run for freedom. She tells Tom and his wife Chloe about everything she heard and Chloe urges Tom to go with her. Tom refuses to go on hearing that his sale will fix Shelby’s financial woes, else he will have to break up the farm and sell all the slaves. Knowing his suffering will save the others, Tom resigns himself to his fate and Eliza slips off with Harry.

Eliza and George are eventually reunited when they are taken in by a community of Quakers. Unfortunately, this is after the Fugitive Slave Act, so they have to run for the northern border.

Tom is bought by Augustine St. Clare after Tom befriends and rescues his IllGirl daughter Evangeline. [[MagicalNegro Tom]] and [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Eva]] combined eventually straighten Augustine out — he was good for a New Orleans native, but he was also a fatalistic atheist. All of them combined help his sister Ophelia, a New Englander who hates slavery but didn't think of slaves as people until Augustine gave her one.

Augustine resolves to set Tom free in the aftermath of Eva's death. Unfortunately, [[DiabolusExMachina his evil wife refuses to be made aware of this]] after Augustine is suddenly and meaninglessly killed in a tavern; she sells all the slaves that aren't her own property. (Yes, there were debts.) Tom ends up in the hands of the vicious sadist Simon Legree, who soon becomes determined to break Tom's Christian spirit or kill him in the attempt.

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]]. Little Harry is included in the deal, and his mother happens to eavesdrop on the conversation. Rather than let literally unspeakable things happen to her child, Eliza scoops him up and makes a run for freedom. She tells Tom and his wife Chloe about everything she heard and Chloe urges Tom to go with her. Tom refuses to go on hearing that his sale will fix Shelby’s financial woes, else he will have to break up the farm and sell all the slaves. Knowing his suffering will save the others, Tom resigns himself to his fate and Eliza slips off with Harry.

In the beginning, Uncle Tom, Eliza, her husband George (belonging to another owner, but allowed to have a family), and her son Harry are all living relatively happily in a cabin behind a house in Kentucky. They have a good and kind master, Mr. Arthur Shelby. George is even earning money at another establishment.

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 had previously escaped from his own owner who treats him ''real'' bad, and years ago separated him from his older sister Emily. Eliza and George are eventually reunited when they are taken in by a community of Quakers. Unfortunately, this is after the Fugitive Slave Act, so they have to run for the northern border.

* AdultFear: Several slave parents are put to the horrendous situation of seeing their children or other relatives being sold away from them into slavery or prositution and presumably never see them again. The planned sale of Eliza's son Harry away from her kicks off the plot of the book. Stowe repeatedly asks her readers what they would do if their children were threatened with a fate like this.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: A major theme.

Tom is bought by Augustine St. Claire after Tom befriends and rescues his IllGirl daughter Evangeline. [[MagicalNegro Tom]] and [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Eva]] combined eventually straighten Augustine out — he was good for a New Orleans native, but he was also a fatalistic atheist. All of them combined help his sister Ophelia, a New Englander who hates slavery but didn't think of slaves as people until Augustine gave her one.

* AntiVillain: Mr. St. Clair is a kindly Southern dandy who is extremely lenient with his slaves and maintains them in a prosperous lifestyle. While he admits (when pressed) that keeping fellow Christians as possessions is probably immoral, he can't stand to inconvenience himself by losing all his slaves.

* ShelteredAristocrat: George and Alfred. St. Clair is a more cynical version.

* SouthernGentleman: Augustine St. Clair, who represents the slave-owning class at its best. Tom nevertheless makes it clear to him that slavery is wrong even under the most benign circumstances.

* AndThatsTerrible: ''Constantly'' in the book, which Creator/GustaveFlaubert provided the page quote about. Indeed, even some contemporary abolitionist critiques of the novel could be boiled down to "people seriously need this spelled out for them?!" Sadly, they did, as numerous Southern people (and some Northerners) defended slavery (her book soon garnered a ''huge'' number of responses trying to rebut it). Not just as a necessary evil too, but in some cases even ''a positive good''. This often came from leading thinkers, mind you (and not all were even slave owners themselves). '''[[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped Yes, it was necessary.]]'''

Tom is bought by Augustine St. Claire after Tom befriends and rescues his IllGirl daughter Evangeline. [[MagicalNegro Tom]] and [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Eva]] combined eventually straighten Augustine out -- he was good for a New Orleans native, but he was also a fatalistic atheist. All of them combined help his sister Ophelia, a New Englander who hates slavery but didn't think of slaves as people until Augustine gave her one.

The eponymous Uncle Tom has been subject to ''serious'' AudienceColoringAdaptation thanks to MinstrelShows. A modern reader could be forgiven for being shocked to learn that, far from a villainous traitor or a bumbling fool, Tom is wise figure, self-sacrificing in the extreme. Thanks to the determined propaganda of the Sons and Daughters of Confederate Veterans spreading the myth of the Lost Cause, and a surge in white supremacist racism following UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, MinstrelShows turned Uncle Tom into a by-word for servile clowns across the nation, giving him a terrible reputation in the black community. He is thus the TropeNamer for the trope UncleTomFoolery, in which a black performer acts the fool to entertain a white audiences.

* AndThatsTerrible: ''Constantly'' in the book, which Creator/GustaveFlaubert provided the page quote about. Indeed, even some contemporary abolitionist critiques of the novel could be boiled down to "people seriously need this spelled out for them?!" Sadly they did, as numerous Southern people (and some Northerners) defended slavery (her book soon garnered a ''huge'' number of responses trying to rebut it). Not just as a necessary evil too, but in some cases even ''a positive good''. This came from leading thinkers often mind you (and not all were even slave owners themselves). Yes, it was necessary.

* BadassPreacher: 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]].

* 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 (except when a newly reformed Sambo gives the mortally wounded Tom some brandy to quench his thirst--that's simply what they had on hand).

* HeroicBSOD: Tom, during his first days in Legree's plantation. [[spoiler: Luckily for him, when Legree tries to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown twist the knife even more]], Tom reacts and deal a ShutUpHannibal to him]].
* 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 Quimbo]].

** [[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 de Thoux, who turns out to be the long-lost and now grown-up Emily. With his help, the siblings are eventually reunited.]]
** [[spoiler: Cassie actually had a daughter, who was taken away from her when she was sold as a slave. Said daughter? Eliza Harris. Again, they're reunited thanks to George Shelby.]]

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

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Stowe wrote the story in installments and many elements were taken from real events happening at the time (see VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, below), but also from the tragically common personal ads in Southern newspapers saying something like, "$5 reward for escaped slave. Probably headed for Atlanta, where wife and children were sold to." Hence inciting incident of Eliza fearing to lose her son Henry in exactly that fashion.

* TheSociopath: Simon Legree has zero empathy, and has set himself up as a tinpot tyrant. He regards other people as things to be used (and unfortunately the law gives him a group of people to use). It is also heavily implied that he sometimes rapes and tortures slaves to death ForTheEvulz.
* SouthernGentleman: Augustine St. Clair who represents the slave-owning class at its best. Tom nevertheless makes it clear to him that slavery is wrong even under the most benign circumstances.

-->''It was sung very boisterously, 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.''

* SweetPollyOliver: [[spoiler: To escape to Canada with her family without being noticed, Eliza must [[ImportantHaircut cut her long hair]] and crossdress at some point. Reversely, little Harry becomes a pint-sized WholesomeCrossdresser and dress up like a little girl]].

* 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.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth [[spoiler:Tom and little Evangeline]].
* TruthInTelevision: Simon Legree can come off as cartoonishly villainous to modern readers...
* UncleTomFoolery: This book inspired the ''name'' of the trope, but this was due to a case of 'complaining about novels you haven't read.' Tom actually remains subservient because of his strong Christian values, but he was still a strong, respected figure - in fact, a DoomedMoralVictor. It was the plays and movies that came out during the Jim Crow / segregation years that edited Tom to be less "threatening" to white audiences, making him older and turning his Christian meekness into outright groveling.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Eva's soul is shown leaving her body and floating up to angels in Heaven. It's actually more like WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath except she doesn't have wings. At the end Jim's soul ascends to meet Eva.

* CeilingCling: In a tree rather than a ceiling. Escaped slave Jim Vance hides in the branches of a tree while a slave-catcher posse nails a notice offering a reward for him to the trunk of said tree.

* FreeRangeChildren: Eva is skipping along on the edge of a boat when, not surprisingly, she falls off into the river. In the novel she was rushing to the pier to meet her father.

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

* AdultFear: Several slave parents are put to the horrendous situation of seeing their children or other relatives being sold away from them into slavery or prositution and presumably never see them again. The planned sell of Eliza's son Harry away from her kicks off the plot of the book. Stowe repeatedly asks her readers what they would do if their children were threatened with a fate like this.

* ManlyTears: ''"[[{{Tearjerker}} George Shelby wept tears that honored his manly heart..."]]''

* NonRoyalPrincess: Evangeline, Miss Ophelia, Mrs. Alice Shelby, Mrs. Bird.

[[quoteright:284:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2154351_3659.jpg]]
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[[caption-width-right:300:On top, the actual book. On the bottom, the infamous minstrel shows.]]

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

[[caption-width-right:300:On top, the actual book. On the bottom, the (infamous) minstrel shows.]]

* AllLovingHero: Uncle Tom and Evangeline.

* BrainlessBeauty: Marie St. Clare.
* BrattyHalfPint: Topsy.

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

* IllGirl: Evangeline, who has tuberculosis.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Marie St. Clare hasn't a shred of sympathy for anyone but herself.
* KnightInSourArmor: Tom, especially when on Legree's plantation.

* MessianicArchetype: Tom models his life on UsefulNotes/{{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.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Augustine St. Clare]].

* RichBitch: Mary St. Clare.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Tom the slave and Tom Loker the bounty hunter.
** There are several other Toms as well. There are also at least two Georges.

* AdultFear: Several slave parents are put to the horrendous situation of seeing their children or other relatives being sold away from them into slavery or prositution and presumably never see them again. The planned sell of Eliza's son Harry away from her kicks off the plot of the book.

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

* HateSink: Simon Legree is a despicable slaver, who abused his slaves without a shed of remorse and is meant as a character for the readers to hate.