Summary Of Tom's Cabin, By Harriet Beecher Stowe

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“Tom looked up to his master, and answered, “Mas’r [Legree], if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give ‘em freely, as the Lord gave his for me. O, Mas’r! Don’t bring this great sin on your soul! It would hurt you more than ‘t me! Do the worst you can, my troubles’ll be over soon; but, if ye don’t repent, yours won’t never end!” (Stowe, 415). This quote is from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin which was written as an abolitionist effort in 1852. This book was set in many different plantations, progressively getting further south and more abusive, about Tom’s troubles as he gets further…show more content…
Mr. Shelby sat in a large hall opening to the room, and running through the whole length of the house, to a balcony tipped to one end” (Stowe, 254). This book has many settings. As stated earlier, Tom was a slave that originally belonged to George Shelby. He was progressively sold deeper and deeper into the South where the plantation owners got more and more abusive. The excerpt that I chose briefly described Mas’r Shelby’s house, which was a Southern Plantation. Though this book was listed as an entertainment novel, it was used by Stowe and other abolitionists to spread the word and the evils of slavery so that other people may know what is going on in the South because they do not live there. This book was slightly exaggerated in the case of Mas’r Legree. Not all slave owners were as cruel as Mas’r Legree was. His character was used by Lincoln Republicans a stereotype of a Southern slave owner and make Northerner's become abolitionists, and if they are already, become stronger footed in their abolitionist…show more content…
Mas’r George was a relatively nice character and treated all his slaves with respect and was loved by his slaves; so much so, that they did not want to leave him, they were content with being slaves for the rest of their lives. Mas’r George gets in trouble with some gambling debts and has to sell Tom in order to pay these debts. He gets sold with another slave named Eliza who escapes to Canada. Tom knows that they are escaping and the extremely cruel slave owner, Mas’r Legree finds out that tom knows and won’t tell Mas’r Legree where Eliza went. Because of this, Mas’r Legree beat Tom to death; however, Tom does not die right away. The original owner, Mas’r George Shelbly hears what has happened to Tom and comes rushing to see Tom and makes it during Tom’s final moments of life. Tom’s death inspired Mas’r George to go back to his plantation and liberate his slaves as seen in the following quote. “To the surprise of all, he [Mas’r George Shelby] among them with a bundle of papers in hand, containing a certificate of freedom to everyone on the place, which he read successively, and presented, amid the sobs and tears and shouts of all present” (Stowe,

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