The Capriciousness and Uncertain Nature of Slavery

The Capriciousness and Uncertain Nature of Slavery
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The Capriciousness and Uncertain Nature of Slavery
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is an abolitionist novel first published in serialized form in America between 1851 and 1852 and finally in book form in 1852. The book attained widespread popularity, especially among white readers in the North, for its sentimental portrayal of slavery and helped fuel anti-slavery rhetoric in the U.S. The book illustrates the inherent capriciousness and uncertain nature of slavery as slaves change owners repeatedly throughout the story. Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a family and the main protagonist in the book, is first introduced as a slave of the Shelby's but is later sold to Augustine St. Clare and then to Simon Legree, whose cruelties ultimately lead to his death. This essay will analyze the variable and indeterminate life of a slave as portrayed in Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
The book is an attempt by Stowe, a confessed abolitionist, to illustrate the incompatibility of slavery with democratic liberties. Individual dissenters against slavery experienced challenges fighting against the majority, and therefore the freedom of speech gave abolitionists the capacity to act as defenders of the "rights of every freeman" (Foner, 2017). Uncle Tom's Cabin is one such attempt at bringing the question of slavery to the fore. The book begins by describing ongoing negotiations between Mr. Shelby (Tom's current owner) and Dan Haley (a slave trader) concerning the sale of Tom. Tom is a trusted slave whose piety has earned him the responsibility of managing his master's finances. Haley also wants to buy Harry and Eliza, his mother, but since Shelby will not agree to sell the latter due to his wife's attachment to the slave, he devises a plan to part Harry from his mother. Although Haley claims to be a humane slave trader, he does not have any qualms with the plan to steal the child away from his mother. Shelby is a kind and generous slave owner who does not entirely agree with the institution of slavery. However, the fact that he got into bad speculation and owed Haley money leaves him with no option but to upturn the lives of both Tom and Harry irrevocably.
Eliza is also a victim of the capriciousness of slavery after she was separated from her husband, George Harris, shortly after their marriage. George is an intelligent and confident mulatto slave who worked at a bagging factory and invented the revolutionizing hemp-cleaning machine. However, his tyrannical and jealous master forced him to abandon his wife. It is not until much later that George is eventually reunited with his family among the anti-slavery Quakers. However, the negotiations between Shelby and Haley begin a series of unexpected events that change the lives of the affected slaves for good. For instance, Eliza overhears the evil plan hatched by Haley to steal Harry from her when she is not around, which prompts her to make the treacherous escape to the North. Interestingly, George points out to Eliza that her fate could change drastically if anything happened to Shelby (SuperSummary, 2021). Unbeknownst to them, things ...