Eliza overhears their conversation. Realizing that her
son is going to be sold, she takes him, tells him to be quiet, and
carries him to Uncle Tom’s cabin. There, the prayer meeting has
ended, and Eliza tells Tom and Chloe what she has heard. Tom says
that he will not try to escape, but Eliza must. Eliza states her
intention to head to Canada and asks Tom and Chloe to tell George
to look for her. Taking her child, she glides into the night.
Analysis: Chapters I–V
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin with
a particular purpose in mind: to educate readers in the North about
what was happening in the South. At the time of the book’s publication
in the early 1850s, the two regions stood
so culturally divided that in some ways they seemed like two separate
nations—indeed, the South would try to formalize this during the
Civil War—and there was often little communication between them.
The novel starts in Kentucky, then progresses into the Deep South.
This gradual move southward is designed to give the Northern reader
time to become familiar with the foreign world of the South.
Stowe uses relentless irony to expose the moral hypocrisies
of the slave trade. The idea of the good slaveholder, as embodied
by Shelby, is one such hypocrisy. After guiltily concluding the
deal with Haley in Chapter IV, Shelby indulges in a cigar to soothe
his nerves. At the same time as he smokes this comforting cigar,
two families are being torn apart by his actions. The scenes in
Chapter IV, in which we first see a seemingly happy evening in Uncle
Tom’s cabin, and then see Shelby signing the papers that will destroy
Uncle Tom’s family, use understatement and contrast to point out
the horror of slavery. Elsewhere, Stowe uses biting sarcasm, as
when she refers to Haley as a “man of humanity.” Stowe mocks contemporary
thinkers who claimed the possibility of a “humane” or “benign” slavery. Although
Tom and Harry may be comparatively well-off under the ownership
of Shelby, Stowe shows how easily a slave can slip from a decent
life to an abusive one. Even a relatively kind slaveholder makes
no difference in the system. Such a construction, in which one cruel
slaveholder can imperil the well-being of any slave, is inherently
wrong. Indeed, the institution makes an otherwise decent man into
an instrument of cruelty.
Stowe employs a direct and conversational style. She writes
to the reader using the pronouns “us” and “you,” very conscious
of the book’s status as her own personal expression of opinion, intended
for a specific audience. Before Stowe wrote Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, she wrote parlor literature—long, detailed
letters intended to be read out loud before a group. In these texts
Stowe would allow her voice to emerge strong and clear. Uncle
Tom’s Cabin was first published in episodes in a newspaper,
and took a form similar to these letters.
These first chapters also serve to introduce the main
themes of the book. While the book most conspicuously emphasizes
the evils of slavery, it also discusses issues of feminism and religion.
Mrs. Shelby provides the voice of morality in the conversation between herself
and Mr. Shelby in Chapter V, and she plays a similar role throughout
the novel; indeed, in general, the novel’s women are presented as
much more virtuous and pious than its men. Yet Stowe was conscious
of her society’s reluctance to regard women as equal to men. Therefore,
although she uses female characters as gentle sources of prodding
to male characters, she never allows them to gain full authority
in any situation. Mrs. Shelby influences her husband only through
tempered and polite remarks; Stowe may have believed that such techniques
were needed in order to avoid alienating the men in her audience as
well. Nonetheless, Stowe seems to show a deep faith in the power
of a woman’s influence over a man, whether exerted timidly or more
forcefully. In writing her book, Stowe may have been banking on
the influence of women to make her text’s message fully heard. In
many ways, the novel is an appeal to female readers. For instance,
Stowe focuses on the relationship between women such as Eliza and
their families, demonstrating how slavery breaks these bonds. Stowe
may have hoped that her women readers would identify particularly
with these wronged women characters, come to believe in the evil
of slavery, and then convert their husbands, brothers, fathers,
and sons.
