Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 or
 Life among the Lowly

by Harriet Beecher Stowe


Contents

 VOLUME I
 CHAPTER I—In Which the Reader Is Introduced to a Man of Humanity
 CHAPTER II—The Mother
 CHAPTER III —The Husband and Father
 CHAPTER IV—An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
 CHAPTER V—Showing the Feelings of Living Property on Changing Owners
 CHAPTER VI—Discovery
 CHAPTER VII—The Mother’s Struggle
 CHAPTER VIII—Eliza’s Escape
 CHAPTER IX—In Which It Appears That a Senator Is But a Man
 CHAPTER X—The Property Is Carried Off
 CHAPTER XI—In Which Property Gets into an Improper State of Mind
 CHAPTER XII—Select Incident of Lawful Trade
 CHAPTER XIII—The Quaker Settlement
 CHAPTER XIV—Evangeline
 CHAPTER XV—Of Tom’s New Master, and Various Other Matters
 CHAPTER XVI—Tom’s Mistress and Her Opinions
 CHAPTER XVII—The Freeman’s Defence
 CHAPTER XVIII—Miss Ophelia’s Experiences and Opinions

 VOLUME II
 CHAPTER—Miss Ophelia’s Experiences and Opinions Continued XIX
 CHAPTER XX—Topsy
 CHAPTER XXI—Kentuck
 CHAPTER XXII—“The Grass Withereth—the Flower Fadeth”
 CHAPTER XXIII—Henrique
 CHAPTER XXIV—Foreshadowings
 CHAPTER XXV—The Little Evangelist
 CHAPTER XXVI—Death
 CHAPTER XXVII—“This Is the Last of Earth”
 CHAPTER XXVIII—Reunion
 CHAPTER XXIX—The Unprotected
 CHAPTER XXX—The Slave Warehouse
 CHAPTER XXXI—The Middle Passage
 CHAPTER XXXII—Dark Places
 CHAPTER XXXIII—Cassy
 CHAPTER XXXIV—The Quadroon’s Story
 CHAPTER XXXV—The Tokens
 CHAPTER XXXVI—Emmeline and Cassy
 CHAPTER XXXVII—Liberty
 CHAPTER XXXVIII—The Victory
 CHAPTER XXXIX—The Stratagem
 CHAPTER XL—The Martyr
 CHAPTER XLI—The Young Master
 CHAPTER XLII—An Authentic Ghost Story
 CHAPTER XLIII—Results
 CHAPTER XLIV—The Liberator
 CHAPTER XLV—Concluding Remarks

List of Illustrations

 Eliza comes to tell Uncle Tom that he is sold, and that she is
 running away to save her child.
 THE AUCTION SALE.
 THE FREEMAN’S DEFENCE.
 LITTLE EVA READING THE BIBLE TO UNCLE TOM IN THE ARBOR.
 CASSY MINISTERING TO UNCLE TOM AFTER HIS WHIPPING.
 THE FUGITIVES ARE SAVE IN A FREE LAND.




VOLUME I

CHAPTER I
In Which the Reader Is Introduced to a Man of Humanity


Late in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were
sitting alone over their wine, in a well-furnished dining parlor, in
the town of P——, in Kentucky. There were no servants present, and the
gentlemen, with chairs closely approaching, seemed to be discussing
some subject with great earnestness.

For convenience sake, we have said, hitherto, two _gentlemen_. One of
the parties, however, when critically examined, did not seem, strictly
speaking, to come under the species. He was a short, thick-set man,
with coarse, commonplace features, and that swaggering air of
pretension which marks a low man who is trying to elbow his way upward
in the world. He was much over-dressed, in a gaudy vest of many colors,
a blue neckerchief, bedropped gayly with yellow spots, and arranged
with a flaunting tie, quite in keeping with the general air of the man.
His hands, large and coarse, were plentifully bedecked with rings; and
he wore a heavy gold watch-chain, with a bundle of seals of portentous
size, and a great variety of colors, attached to it,—which, in the
ardor of conversation, he was in the habit of flourishing and jingling
with evident satisfaction. His conversation was in free and easy
defiance of Murray’s Grammar,[1] and was garnished at convenient
intervals with various profane expressions, which not even the desire
to be graphic in our account shall induce us to transcribe.

 [1] English Grammar (1795), by Lindley Murray (1745-1826), the most
 authoritative American grammarian of his day.


His companion, Mr. Shelby, had the appearance of a gentleman; and the
arrangements of the house, and the general air of the housekeeping,
indicated easy, and even opulent circumstances. As we before stated,
the two were in the midst of an earnest conversation.

“That is the way I should arrange the matter,” said Mr. Shelby.

“I can’t make trade that way—I positively can’t, Mr. Shelby,” said the
other, holding up a glass of wine between his eye and the light.

“Why, the fact is, Haley, Tom is an uncommon fellow; he is certainly
worth that sum anywhere,—steady, honest, capable, manages my whole farm
like a clock.”

“You mean honest, as niggers go,” said Haley, helping himself to a
glass of brandy.

“No; I mean, really, Tom is a good, steady, sensible, pious fellow. He
got religion at a camp-meeting, four years ago; and I believe he really
_did_ get it. I’ve trusted him, since then, with everything I
have,—money, house, horses,—and let him come and go round the country;
and I always found him true and square in everything.”

“Some folks don’t believe there is pious niggers Shelby,” said Haley,
with a candid flourish of his hand, “but _I do_. I had a fellow, now,
in this yer last lot I took to Orleans—’t was as good as a meetin’,
now, really, to hear that critter pray; and he was quite gentle and
quiet like.