Summary: Chapter X
Haley has returned to the Shelbys’ home to collect Uncle
Tom. Aunt Chloe cooks her husband one last meal before he leaves
and laments the evils of slavery. He asks her to trust in God to
protect them, and tells her that their master is good. Haley takes
Tom away, putting his feet in fetters. Mas’r George, who was visiting
a friend the previous day, runs up to the wagon in dismay. Haley
goes into the blacksmith’s to fix Tom’s handcuffs, and Tom and Mas’r
George converse. George tells Tom that, when he grows older, he
will come and save him. For now, he gives Tom a dollar to wear around
his neck.
Summary: Chapter XI
In a small country hotel in Kentucky, a sign announces
a hunt for a slave named George, who has run away from his master.
In the bar room, some men discuss a recently posted sign. The sign
reads, “Very light mulatto . . . will probably try to pass for a
white man . . . has been branded in his right hand with the letter
H . . . I will give four hundred dollars for him alive, and the
same sum for satisfactory proof that he has been killed.” Mr. Wilson,
the owner of a bagging factory, is in the inn and says that this
same George once worked for him. Just then, a tall man with Spanish
coloring arrives at the inn. He calls himself Henry Butler and is
accompanied by a slave named Jim. He looks at the sign and dismisses
it, saying he seems to recall meeting a man of that description
near a farm they passed along the way. Mr. Wilson looks at the “Spanish
man” and realizes that he is George Harris. George invites Mr. Wilson
up to his room and tells him that he is now a free man and is escaping
to a place that will recognize his freedom. Mr. Wilson, well-meaning
but rather unenlightened, tells George he is sorry to see him “breaking the
laws of [his] country.” George protests that the United States is not
“his” country, for slaves neither make nor consent to American laws
and gain no protection by them. He asks Mr. Wilson to bring a pin
to his wife, whom George believes is still a slave; he also asks Wilson
to tell her that he is going to Canada and that she should join him
if she can.
Summary: Chapter XII
Meanwhile, Haley and Tom continue toward the slave market. When
they stop for the night, Tom must stay in a jail. This insults his dignity
as a man who has always been honest and upright. At eleven o’clock
the next day, the selling begins, and Haley buys several more slaves. He
then boards them all on a ship headed for the Deep South, where
they will be sold for plantation work. On the ship, a slave woman
jumps overboard after her son is taken from her. Tom hears the splash.
Summary: Chapter XIII
Eliza and Harry arrive at a Quaker settlement, where they
stay with a woman named Rachel Halliday. After learning that Eliza’s
last name is Harris, the Quakers realize that she is the wife of
George Harris, who is on his way to the settlement. That night,
amid tears, the couple reunites. The next morning, the Quakers and
former slaves eat breakfast together, and George and Eliza learn
they will have to wait until evening to escape.
Analysis: Chapters X–XIII
Since the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
the term “Uncle Tom” has entered into the English language as a
generic phrase denoting a black person eager to win the approval
of whites. This section of the novel gives us our first insight
into the term’s aptness. Especially in contrast to George, Uncle
Tom proves a docile and submissive character. He serves his white
owners dutifully, never making any attempt to escape, and praises
his master’s goodness even as he is forced to part from his wife
as a result of Shelby’s actions. In the figure of Tom, we see evidence
of Stowe’s “romantic racialism.” Romantic racialism describes an
attitude whereby a person regards another race with a paternalistic
kindness—a sense of sympathy tainted by condescension. For while
Stowe argues for the fair and humane treatment of African Americans,
she also frequently idealizes and romanticizes them, portraying
them as quaint or charmingly good-hearted rather than as complex,
full human beings.
Yet while we may criticize Stowe’s idealized black characters,
it is important to note that most of her characters, both white
and black, receive rather sentimental treatment. Like Upton
Sinclair’s The Jungle, Uncle Tom’s Cabin does not
aim to present a realistic vision of the world, but rather to argue
for a different one—to persuade a particular audience to adopt a
particular political position. In the case of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, Stowe sets out to convince her Northern audience
of the evil of slavery; she uses the figure of Uncle Tom not to
explore the psychology of a slave, but to assist her thematic arguments.
Although Uncle Tom’s sense of duty and self-sacrifice have, at times,
made Stowe’s book an object of ridicule, it was precisely these
qualities of magnanimity and gentle patience that made Tom an admirable
and moving figure to Stowe’s white Northern audience in 1852.
