James Baquet

Few novels have affected their cultures like “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” an 1852 anti-slavery novel by the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe. After the Bible, it was the best-selling American book of the 19th century, and is said to have “helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War.”

So great was its impact that President Abraham Lincoln, upon meeting the author at the start of the Civil War, is said to have declared, “So this is the little lady who started this great war,” though some doubt the anecdote.

The story tells of Uncle Tom, an enslaved older black man on the plantation of a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby. Shelby is in debt, and decides to sell Tom and another slave. The sale will separate Tom and the other slave, Harry, from their families. Harry’s mother, Eliza, learns of the impending sale, and runs away with her son.

Tom, meanwhile, is taken down the Mississippi River to be sold at a slave market. On the way he befriends a little white girl named Eva. When she falls into the river, Tom dives in and saves her life; for this, Eva’s grateful father buys Tom and takes him to their home in New Orleans.

Meanwhile, Eliza and Harry meet up with Eliza’s husband George, and they head for Canada (which did not allow slavery). But along the way, George shoots a slave hunter named Loker, and, worried that he may die, they take him to a group of Quakers for treatment.

In New Orleans, little Eva falls ill and dies. Her father, wishing to become a better man, pledges to free Tom, but is killed before he has the chance. His widow sells Tom to Simon Legree, a vicious plantation owner who abuses Tom, trying to break his spirit.

Uncle Tom encourages two abused female slaves to escape. When he refuses to tell Legree where they have gone, Legree has him beaten to death by his overseers – whom Tom forgives as he lies dying.

George Shelby, son of Tom’s original owner, arrives to buy Tom’s freedom, but he is too late. Shelby returns to Kentucky and, after his father’s death, frees his slaves, reminding them that every time they see Uncle Tom’s old cabin, they should remember the sacrifices he made for others.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. foundation, basis

2. small, simple house

3. becomes friends with

4. promises

5. members of a religious group known for its good works

6. savage, evil

7. about to happen

8. one who wishes to see the end of slavery

9. managers, bosses

10. short story, often amusing