"Eliza Pursued by Bloodhounds." Poster advertising stage production.
1. In chapters seven and nine of Uncle Tom’s Cabin we get more background on the events leading up to Tom’s death at the hand of Legree in chapter 40 and 41. We see Eliza flee from the Shelby farm on the way to cross a river to Ohio. When she reaches the river, it is revealed that there are no ferries crossing at the time because the river is covered in patches of ice. She talks to a man and woman who live on the river, and they inform her that there is a man who is taking cargo across later who would most likely take her as well. She is told to wait, but before the time comes the man who has bought her son finds her and she is forced to run. Eliza then leaps on to sheets of ice on the river and hops across the river. This feat is described as “a desperate leap—impossible to anything but madness and despair.” Eliza later says to her benefactress, Mrs. Bird, that “’The Lord helped me; nobody knows how much the Lord can help ’em, till they try.’”
Community Action
2. . . . the stories are some of the best at [conveying how a community can work together to achieve a moral purpose]. In chapter 7, it starts with a runaway slave named Eliza and her young son named Harry leaving Uncle Tom’s cabin. During the escape, the reader can see how other characters interact with Eliza and her son during their escape. For example, Aunt Chloe prepares dinner slowly to buy them more time, and Sam alerts Eliza of his and Haley’s presence.
3. There are also many instances in which Eliza is helped by sympathetic people. In the last two chapters alone, she runs into about six people who are willing to help her. Out of those six I believe only three were confirmed to be white, but it seems to me like there are a lot of sympathizers. I would not have expected there to be so many people willing to help at the time. Some of the people she talked to possibly were unaware that she was on the run, but most of them certainly did.
Ideology: Sisterhood, Power and Christianity
4. While reading I saw an example of sisterhood between Eliza and Mrs. Bird, “Why do you ask that? I have lost a little one.” One is slave, one is free, one is black, the other is white, yet they find some common ground.
5. These two chapters demonstrate the morality of women. For example, Mrs. Bird scolds her husband for voting to pass a law that would prevent people aiding slaves that are fleeing to the north. Even though Mrs. Bird is described as “gentle” and “timid” she does not hesitate to reprimand her husband for passing an “abominable law” (Chapter 9). These chapters show that while women of the time did not have the same power as men, they did have influence in the house. However, it must be said that many white women did not do this out of a sense of independence and female authority, but rather a religious obligation. Mrs. Bird even says that the law is not “right and Christian” (Chapter 9).
Author and Subject
6. It’s almost as if the character’s a self-insert projecting what Stowe would do if a slave came upon her house, which as someone living in Connecticut is quite unlikely. Though, she suggests that even in her imagination the acts of selflessness displayed would not come with ease, as the character “wept till the tears fell through her fingers into the drawer” as she collected the clothes of her passed child to give to the young escaping slave.
8. The topic that stood out to me most in these chapters of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is parenthood. It consistently asks the reader to put themselves in Eliza’s place and consider what length they would be willing to reach for their own children. There are a few instances where this occurs, one example is when Mr. and Mrs. Byrd are discussing the probability of Eliza’s master showing up to claim her and the boy, “if ‘twas only the woman she could lie quit till it was over; by that little chap can’t be keep quit by a troop of horse and foot” (Ch. 9). While this might not be the most outright selfless reason to help Eliza, I do think it does show empathy for the boy and what he experiences because of what he and his wife have been through losing their own son.
9. Chapter 7 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin contains an interesting parallel to Stowe’s personal life that not only furthers the theme of the novel, but also points towards her motivations for writing the novel to begin with. Shortly after Uncle Tom arrives home, Aunt Chloe begins to reflect on the lack of humanity from those separating families in order to sell them into slavery, becoming disheartened and crushed in the process. When she tearfully asks “Don’t dey tear der suckin’ baby right off his mother’s breast, and sell him, and der little children as is crying and holding on by her clothes”, we get a glimpse into the soulnessness of the institution of slavery, in that an infant was not even granted the human right of being breastfed (Ch. 7); however, this passage becomes elevated when connected to real life events from Stowe’s life, in that her primary motivation for writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin [came] from the death of her son. For her, this put into perspective how enslaved people were torn from their families when sold into slavery or [bore] the burden of watching their loved ones succumb and die to their masters, feeling that they shared her same grief. With this in mind, we can gather that, in writing this novel and sharing the story of Uncle Tom’s life and death, she hoped to spread this image of slavery in that others might share this same feeling, sympathizing with enslaved people as a result, much like she did.
Ideology: Mind, Heart and Politics
10. Coincidentally, Mr. Bird is a senator, and had been discussing the issue of harboring slaves in the state of Ohio just that week. Much to Mrs. Bird’s dismay, Mr. Bird was planning on voting for the bill, which would make it illegal to harbor or help in any way, fugitive slaves. However, Mr. Bird had a very strong conscience, and decided that he needed to help Eliza before her master came looking for her. While driving Eliza to safety, Mr. Bird began to realize just what that bill he was to vote on would do to people. “He had never thought that a fugitive might be a hapless mother, a defenseless child...” (858). He only then, when he was experiencing it firsthand, began to realize the implications of that bill being passed. How it would worsen the lives of people like Eliza, when those who wanted to help could not, in fear or persecution. This experience opened both the eyes and the heart of Mr. Bird, and it was clear that his views had been changed for the better. I think his story also speaks to many of those [white] people who lived through slavery . . .. Many believed it was the right thing to do because it was what they had been told and there seemed to be no other way. However, an experience like this one would most likely have changed most of their minds,
11. Mr. and Mrs. Bird’s conversation about the new law in the Senate also shed some light on the social climate of the time of the publication of the novel. Mrs. Bird believed that the “law forbidding people to give meat and drink to those poor colored folk” was not Christian. Mr. Bird, however, thought that it was an acceptable law, saying the “reckless abolitionists” did enough for enslaved people as it was, and that one must set aside “private feelings” when there were “great public interests involved.” This shows that there were probably many people at the time who did not agree with slavery personally who did not consider themselves either Abolitionists or proslavery and followed the trend of slavery because it was what was popular and the precedent.
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