Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Uncle Tom manages the Shelby plantation. Strong, intelligent, capable, good, and
kind, he is the most heroic figure in the novel that bears his name. Tom’s most
important characteristic is his Christian faith. God has given Tom an
extraordinary ability. He can forgive the evil done to him. His self-sacrificing
love for others has been called motherly. It has also been called truly
Christian. AUNT CHLOE- Aunt Chloe, Uncle Tom’s wife, is fat, warm, and jolly.
She is a good housekeeper and a superb cook, and justly proud of her skill. She
loves Tom, and urges him to escape to Canada rather than to go South with Haley.
After Tom is sold, she convinces the Shelbys to hire her out to a baker in
Louisville and to use her wages to buy Tom’s freedom. She is heartbroken to
learn of his death. – MOSE, PETE, AND POLLY – Mose, Pete, and Polly, the
children of Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe, are playful and rambunctious. Polly is
Tom’s special favorite, and she loves to bury her tiny hands in his hair. ELIZA
HARRIS – Eliza Harris is raised by her mistress, Mrs. Shelby, to be pious and
good. Described as light-skinned and pretty, Eliza dearly loves her husband,
George Harris, and their little boy, Harry. When she learns that Harry is about
to be sold, Eliza carries him in her arms to the Ohio River, which she crosses
on cakes of ice. Although generally a modest and retiring young woman, Eliza
becomes extraordinarily brave because of her love for her son. GEORGE HARRIS-
George Harris, portrayed as a light-skinned and intelligent slave, belongs to a
man named Harris. He is married to Eliza, who lives on the Shelby plantation,
and they have a son, Harry. HARRY AND LITTLE ELIZA – Harry and little Eliza are
the children of George and Eliza Harris. Harry, born a slave on the Shelby
Plantation, is bright and cute, and sings and dances for Mr. Shelby and Haley.
He is so beautiful that he is disguised as a girl in order to escape into
Canada. Once there, he does very well in school. Little Eliza is born free in
Canada. – SAM AND ANDY- Sam and Andy, slaves on the Shelby plantation, provide
comic relief through their mispronunciations and deliberate mishaps. Andy, who
likes to makes speeches, is meant to satirize politicians. But Sam and Andy make
an important contribution to the novel’s plot- their clowning allows Eliza to
escape across the Ohio River. MR. SHELBY – Mr. Shelby, the owner of a Kentucky
plantation, generally treats his slaves well, but he decides to sell two of
them, Uncle Tom and little Harry, to pay off a debt. Although he regrets the
sale, Shelby feels he has no other choice. MRS. SHELBY – Mrs. Shelby, a kind,
religious woman, tries to raise the family’s slaves with Christian values. She
attempts to convince her husband not to sell Tom and Harry, and she helps Eliza
escape. Warm-hearted Mrs. Shelby treats her slaves like people, crying with Aunt
Chloe when Uncle Tom leaves and consoling her when they learn he is dead. –
GEORGE SHELBY- George Shelby, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, is thirteen years
old when the novel begins, and eighteen when it ends. He likes to spend time
with Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe, basking in their kindness and attention. He
teaches Uncle Tom to read and write, and reads the Bible at the slaves’
religious meeting. On Uncle Tom’s grave, he swears to do whatever he can to
fight against slavery, and he begins by freeing the slaves on his own
plantation. George is one of the few characters who changes during the course of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as he develops from a good-hearted but somewhat self-centered
boy into a noble and effective man. HALEY-Haley sets the plot of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin in motion by insisting that Mr. Shelby sell him Tom and little Harry.
Haley curses, smokes, drinks, and dresses badly. He claims to be humane because
he is not completely cruel to the slaves he buys. But you can see that he’s a
nasty person. He doesn’t believe slaves have feelings, so he doesn’t think twice
about separating a mother and child- like Eliza and little Harry, or about the
woman who jumps off the steamboat on the Ohio River after he sells her baby.
Haley can’t understand why these things keep happening to him. TOM LOKER, AND
MARKS- Tom Loker and Marks are crude fellows, who make their living catching
escaped slaves. You often see them in taverns. Tom Loker is shot by George
Harris, but the Harrises and the Quakers forgive him, and he is nursed back to
health in the Quaker settlement. He gives the Quakers the information that helps
George and Eliza disguise themselves so they can elude Marks at the Sandusky
ferry. – MR. AND MRS. BIRD- Mr. and Mrs. Bird live in Ohio with their three
children. Tiny Mrs. Bird is a wonderful housekeeper and mother. Mr. Bird, a
senator, has just voted for the Fugitive Slave Law. Mrs. Bird tries to convince
him that he is wrong, and that one must allow the heart to guide the head. The
appearance of Eliza on their doorstep makes him realize that he isn’t capable of
turning in a fugitive. One of the Birds’ children has recently died, and their
loss makes them more sympathetic to Eliza. RACHEL HALLIDAY, SIMEON HALLIDAY,
RUTH STEDMAN, DORCAS, AND PHINEAS FLETCHER- These Quakers practice their
religious beliefs in their daily lives. They risk fines by helping escaped
slaves. Rachel Halliday and Ruth Stedman are motherly and sympathetic; Simeon
and Phineas are quietly brave. They take good care of George and Eliza and make
it possible for them to escape to Canada. Dorcas nurses Tom Loker back to health
after George Harris shoots him. She doesn’t quite convert him to her beliefs,
but she does get him to give up slave-catching. AUGUSTINE ST. CLARE – Augustine
St. Clare, Tom’s second master, is handsome, worldly, and charming. He indulges
his slaves in his elegant New Orleans house and debates the issue of slavery
with his cousin from Vermont. Most of all, St. Clare hates hypocrisy. Believing
that slavery is wrong, he left the plantation he inherited with his twin brother
because he didn’t really want to be a slavemaster. St. Clare thinks black people
will eventually gain their freedom, but he isn’t sure how it will come about. In
the meantime, he rails with equal fervor against Southern ministers who claim
slavery is supported by the Bible, and Northerners who criticize slavery but
won’t let black children into their schools. EVANGELINE ST. CLARE – Evangeline
St. Clare is a beautiful child, spiritually as well as physically. She is filled
with goodness and love. Her kindness to those around her, especially the slaves,
brightens their lives, and leads some of them to embrace the Christianity she so
instinctively radiates. Eva is responsible for St. Clare’s purchase of Uncle
Tom, and Tom becomes her special friend. The two spend hours poring over the
Bible and discussing religion. The black slave and the little blonde girl are
kindred spirits. But Eva- whose name suggests the Evangelist- becomes ill and
dies. On her deathbed, she distributes locks of her hair and loving wishes to
everyone around her. MARIE ST. CLARE- Marie St. Clare is a beautiful but spoiled
woman who ignores everyone’s feelings but her own and takes advantage of her
servants. A hypochondriac, constantly claiming to have headaches, she cannot
understand either her husband or their daughter. She doesn’t pay much attention
to either of them, except to complain. Because Marie can’t act for anyone but
herself, she fails to prevent Uncle Tom’s sale to Simon Legree. OPHELIA- Ophelia
St. Clare comes from Vermont to manage her cousin Augustine’s New Orleans
household. Her thrifty New England ways contrast with the easy-going St. Clare
style. One of Ophelia’s functions in the novel is to contrast the North and the
South. An abolitionist, Ophelia finds slavery “perfectly horrible,”
and she rails against it in her running debate with Augustine. ALFRED AND
HENRIQUE ST. CLARE- Alfred St. Clare, Augustine’s dark, forceful twin brother,
is a stern but decent slaveowner. The contrast between the twins contrasts their
two approaches to slavery. Similarly, dark, handsome, proud, and angry Henrique,
Alfred’s son, contrasts with his blonde, loving cousin Eva. Henrique is cruel to
his slave, Dodo, but Eva reaches him with her love. TOPSY- Ignorant but
energetic, Topsy is brought by Augustine into the St. Clare household to see
whether the high-principled Ophelia is actually capable of managing a slave.
Topsy, who can’t tell the difference between right and wrong. ADOLPHE, ROSA,
JANE, DINAH, AND MAMMY- The well-treated slaves in the St. Clare household seem
to be divided into two groups. Some, such as Adolphe, Rosa, and Jane, are
light-skinned servants who borrow the St. Clare family’s airs as well as much of
its wardrobe. Others, such as Dinah the cook, and Mammy, are dark-skinned
hardworking, and realistic. PRUE-A worn-out, hard-drinking woman, Prue is beaten
to death by her owners. Tom discovers the cause of her misery- like so many
other slave women, she has lost her children to the slave-trader. – SIMON LEGREE-
Simon Legree is the owner of a plantation on the Red River in Louisiana.
Sadistic and cruel, he breaks his slaves in body and soul and works them to
death. Legree has no real human ties. He has sexual relations with slave women
whom he buys for that purpose, and his main companions are the barbaric Sambo
and Quimbo. Legree is interested in growing as much cotton as he can, as his bet
with several other plantation owners indicates, but he also seems to enjoy
abusing his slaves, particularly Uncle Tom. CASSY- Cassy, the daughter of a
wealthy white man and a slave woman, is sheltered and convent-educated. The
death of her father results in her sale to a man who becomes her lover, and whom
she adores. But after some years, he sells her and her children to pay a
gambling debt. Cassy is driven half-mad by the loss of her son and daughter, and
searches in vain for them. She is owned by a series of masters. By one of them
she has a son, whom she kills with an overdose of opium rather than face the
pain of losing another child to slavery. SUSAN, EMMELINE, AND LUCY- Susan,
Emmeline, and Lucy are sold in the New Orleans slave market with Uncle Tom and
the rest of the St. Clare family slaves. Susan and Emmeline, a religious mother
and daughter, are heartbroken when they are separated and sold. Legree buys
Emmeline to be his mistress, but she resists him. Emmeline marries a crew member
on the ship that carries the Harris family, Madame de Thoux, and Cassy to
France. Lucy is purchased by Legree as a mistress for his second-in-command,
Sambo, although she had a husband and children in New Orleans. Lucy finds it
difficult to work in the fields, and Tom helps her by secretly putting cotton
into her bag so that she will be able to turn in the required amount of cotton
each day. SAMBO AND QUIMBO-Sambo and Quimbo are Simon Legree’s black
lieutenants. Brutal and ignorant, they lord it over the other slaves. Legree
manipulates them so that they fight with each other too. Both Sambo and Quimbo
whip and otherwise abuse Tom, but they are converted by him in the end.
