Having run up large debts, a
Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby faces the prospect of losing
everything he owns. Though he and his wife, Emily Shelby, have a
kindhearted and affectionate relationship with their slaves, Shelby
decides to raise money by selling two of his slaves to Mr. Haley,
a coarse slave trader. The slaves in question are Uncle Tom, a middle-aged
man with a wife and children on the farm, and Harry, the young son
of Mrs. Shelby’s maid Eliza. When Shelby tells his wife about his
agreement with Haley, she is appalled because she has promised Eliza
that Shelby would not sell her son.
However, Eliza overhears the conversation between Shelby
and his wife and, after warning Uncle Tom and his wife, Aunt Chloe,
she takes Harry and flees to the North, hoping to find freedom with
her husband George in Canada. Haley pursues her, but two other Shelby
slaves alert Eliza to the danger. She miraculously evades capture
by crossing the half-frozen Ohio River, the boundary separating
Kentucky from the North. Haley hires a slave hunter named Loker
and his gang to bring Eliza and Harry back to Kentucky. Eliza and
Harry make their way to a Quaker settlement, where the Quakers agree
to help transport them to safety. They are joined at the settlement
by George, who reunites joyously with his family for the trip to
Canada.
Meanwhile, Uncle Tom sadly leaves his family and Mas’r George,
Shelby’s young son and Tom’s friend, as Haley takes him to a boat
on the Mississippi to be transported to a slave market. On the boat,
Tom meets an angelic little white girl named Eva, who quickly befriends
him. When Eva falls into the river, Tom dives in to save her,
and her father, Augustine St. Clare, gratefully agrees to buy Tom
from Haley. Tom travels with the St. Clares to their home in New
Orleans, where he grows increasingly invaluable to the St. Clare
household and increasingly close to Eva, with whom he shares a devout
Christianity.
Up North, George and Eliza remain in flight from Loker
and his men. When Loker attempts to capture them, George shoots
him in the side, and the other slave hunters retreat. Eliza convinces
George and the Quakers to bring Loker to the next settlement, where
he can be healed. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, St. Clare discusses
slavery with his cousin Ophelia, who opposes slavery as an institution
but harbors deep prejudices against blacks. St. Clare, by contrast,
feels no hostility against blacks but tolerates slavery because
he feels powerless to change it. To help Ophelia overcome her bigotry,
he buys Topsy, a young black girl who was abused by her past master and
arranges for Ophelia to begin educating her.
After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years,
Eva grows very ill. She slowly weakens, then dies, with a vision
of heaven before her. Her death has a profound effect on everyone
who knew her: Ophelia resolves to love the slaves, Topsy learns
to trust and feel attached to others, and St. Clare decides to set
Tom free. However, before he can act on his decision, St. Clare
is stabbed to death while trying to settle a brawl. As he dies,
he at last finds God and goes to be reunited with his mother in
heaven.
St. Clare’s cruel wife, Marie, sells Tom to a vicious
plantation owner named Simon Legree. Tom is taken to rural Louisiana
with a group of new slaves, including Emmeline, whom the demonic
Legree has purchased to use as a sex slave, replacing his previous
sex slave Cassy. Legree takes a strong dislike to Tom when Tom refuses to
whip a fellow slave as ordered. Tom receives a severe beating, and Legree
resolves to crush his faith in God. Tom meets Cassy, and hears her
story. Separated from her daughter by slavery, she became pregnant
again but killed the child because she could not stand to have another
child taken from her.
Around this time, with the help of Tom Loker—now a changed man
after being healed by the Quakers—George, Eliza, and Harry at last
cross over into Canada from Lake Erie and obtain their freedom.
In Louisiana, Tom’s faith is sorely tested by his hardships, and he
nearly ceases to believe. He has two visions, however—one of Christ
and one of Eva—which renew his spiritual strength and give him the
courage to withstand Legree’s torments. He encourages Cassy to escape.
She does so, taking Emmeline with her, after she devises a ruse
in which she and Emmeline pretend to be ghosts. When Tom refuses
to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, Legree orders
his overseers to beat him. When Tom is near death, he forgives Legree
and the overseers. George Shelby arrives with money in hand to buy
Tom’s freedom, but he is too late. He can only watch as Tom dies
a martyr’s death.
Taking a boat toward freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George
Harris’s sister and travel with her to Canada, where Cassy realizes
that Eliza is her long-lost daughter. The newly reunited family
travels to France and decides to move to Liberia, the African nation
created for former American slaves. George Shelby returns to the
Kentucky farm, where, after his father’s death, he sets all the slaves
free in honor of Tom’s memory. He urges them to think on Tom’s sacrifice
every time they look at his cabin and to lead a pious Christian
life, just as Tom did.
