The story opens on a Kentucky farm home to the kind and revered Uncle Tom, and young Eliza and her child. The story has several major characters, but centers around Tom and Eliza. The owners of the farm owe money to a slave trader, and are forced to sell Tom and Eliza's son. "Mas'r" George, the son of the farm's owners, is dismayed at the selling of Tom. Eliza hears the news the night before the trader is to come, and she flees the farm with her child, intending to find asylum in Canada and possibly to reunite with her husband. Tom takes this potentially terrible turn of events heavily, though without
