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Uncle Tom's Cabin Research Paper

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Uncle Tom was a Christian slave owned by Arthur Shelby who had great trust in Tom and treated him well. However, after losing wealth, he sold Tom, along with his wife’s maid Eliza, to slave trader Mr. Haley. Eliza, scared of being separated from her family, decided to escape slavery to Canada with her husband George and son Harry. Tom on the other hand, went to the slave market where he met and saved little Eva by rescuing her from the river she had fallen in. After seeing Tom’s courageous rescue, Eva’s father, St. Clare, bought Tom. In New Orleans Tom and Eva grew close, sharing their passion of faith and christianity, but Eva soon became ill and passed away, and St. Clare passed shortly after. St. Clare’s self-centered wife ended up selling …show more content…

Clare’s cousin, Miss Ophelia, who came from the North, shows her disapproval and opposition of slavery when she muttered, “Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse!” (pg. 189) What Ophelia meant when she expressed this was that people always discussed the abuses people endured while enslaved, yet the who concept of slavery was an abuse. Ophelia’s perspective of slavery was a perspective that most northern Americans shared. This perspective showed how people who opposed slavery, had true feelings of hatred towards it and could not understand what type of people could treat others in this horrible way. Even those in the north who rather did not care for slavery, or had no opinion on whether it should be allowed or not knew of the harshness, brutality, and abuse that the slaves …show more content…

Some owners, like Simon Legree, treated slaves terribly, beating them and making them whip and punish each other. They treated slaves like property and punching bags rather than as human beings, with their own lives and their own feelings. However, some plantation owners, such as Arthur Shelby, treated their slaves with respect, and treated them as people instead of property like other owners. Shelby shows his humane side while talking to Mr. Haley saying “...I’m a humane man, and I hate to take the boy from his mother, sir.” (pg. 6) When Shelby said this, it showed how even slave owners found it hard to separate family members from each other. Owners knew separating families could greatly upset slaves and make them do impulsive things in order to stay together. Although some owners did not like the idea of having to separate families, they had to in order to make a profit and be able to sustain their wealth. Stowe exceedingly displays separation of family as a cruelty of

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