Summary: Chapter VI
The next morning, when Mrs. Shelby rings the bell for
Eliza, she receives no answer. Realizing what has happened, Mrs.
Shelby thanks the Lord. She rejoices that Eliza has fled rather
than permitting her child to be taken from her. Mr. Shelby laments
the escape, however, fearing that Mr. Haley might think he has helped
Eliza to run away in order to avoid selling the boy.
Haley arrives to take Tom and Harry. Hearing from the
other slaves that Eliza has run off with her son, he barges into
the house, confronting Mr. Shelby with the news. Mr. Shelby asks
him to be more polite in Mrs. Shelby’s company. The men talk for
some moments, Mr. Shelby becoming more and more repulsed by Haley’s coarse
manners. Finally, Shelby asks several of the slaves to ready a horse
for Haley, who intends to ride in pursuit of Eliza. The slaves take
as long as possible, and then hide a beechnut under the saddle, in
such a way that any weight on the saddle would cause the horse great
annoyance. Mrs. Shelby tells Sam, one of the slaves, to show Haley
the road and escort him on his way, but cautions not to ride the
horses too fast, ostensibly because one of them was recently lame.
When Haley sits on his horse, the colt feels the beechnut and throws
Haley off, and the whole place erupts into chaos, delaying the man
for some time more. By the time the horses are ready again, it is
nearly lunchtime. Sam suggests that Haley may need to eat before
the journey, and Mrs. Shelby, overhearing, emerges to invite Haley
in to dine.
Summary: Chapter VII
When Eliza leaves Uncle Tom’s cabin, she feels desperate
and lonely, and tortured by a maternal sense of panic for her imperiled
child. She prays to God and travels throughout the night, finally
reaching the Ohio River, the barrier between the South and the North. Springtime
ice covers half of the waterway, preventing the river’s ferry from
running. Eliza learns from the hostess of a bank-side public house
that a boatman might attempt a crossing later in the evening. Eliza
takes a room at an inn so that her son can sleep. From the window,
she gazes out at the river, desperately longing to cross.
Back at Shelby’s farm, Aunt Chloe prepares the meal at
the most leisurely pace possible, in an attempt to delay the chase.
Finally, around two o’clock, the search party embarks. Andy and
Sam, two of the younger slaves, serve as Haley’s escorts. The young
slaves trick Haley into following a route that Eliza would not have
taken. Haley is slowed down considerably, but he finally makes it
to the town on the river, forty-five minutes after Eliza has laid
Harry to sleep in the rented room. Sam sees Eliza standing in the
window, and, allowing his hat to be blown off, shouts as if in surprise.
With this action, he alerts her to their presence. She throws open
the door to her room, which faces the river, grabs Harry, and leaps
over the rushing currents onto a raft of ice. She springs from one
chunk of ice to the next, oblivious to all pain and cold, until
she reaches the other side. A man on the other side helps her up.
Eliza recognizes him as Mr. Symmes, the owner of a farm not far
from her old home. He fears to offer her shelter himself, but points
out a house where she will receive aid.
Summary: Chapter VIII
The bewildered Haley cannot follow Eliza across the river
and must return to the tavern. There he meets up with Tom Loker,
a man who hunts slaves professionally. Haley pays Loker and his
partner Marks fifty dollars to hunt down Eliza and Harry. The three
men make the following deal: if Loker and Marks catch the slaves,
they may take Eliza as long as they bring Harry back to Haley. Meanwhile,
Andy and Sam, unaware of this transaction, return to the Shelby
house with the joyful story of Eliza’s leap.
Summary: Chapter IX
“. . . I don’t know anything about politics,
but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe
the naked, and comfort the desolate.”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Across the river in Ohio, Senator Bird sits in his house
with his wife. The Ohio State Senate has just passed a law forbidding
the assistance of runaway slaves (The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850),
and Senator Bird voted in its favor. Mrs. Bird reprimands her husband, declaring
the law immoral and asking Senator Bird if he could truly turn away
a helpless slave if one were to come to him for help. At that moment,
Eliza and Harry arrive at the Birds’ doorstep, directed there by
Mr. Symmes, and Senator Bird and his wife bring them into the house.
Senator Bird knows he cannot harbor them there for the night, but
he drives them to a safe house in the woods, owned by John Van Trompe,
a former Kentucky slaveholder whose conscience compelled him to
move to the North and free his slaves. Senator Bird hands John a
ten-dollar bill to give to Eliza.
