Slaves Exposed In Uncle Tom's Cabin

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A plantation owner from Kentucky named Arthur Shelby had large amounts of debt, and he faced losing all that he had. Although he and his wife, Emily were nice to the slaves that they owned, Shelby sold a couple of his slaves to a man named Mr. Haley, a slave trader. The two slaves that he sold are named Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man, and Harry, the son of Emily’s maid named Eliza. When Shelby informs his Emily about the sale of their two slaves, she is disgusted because she has sworn to Eliza that Shelby would not sell Harry. Eliza hears their talk and she warns Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe, his spouse. After doing this, she takes Harry and flees north, wanting to get to freedom with her husband George in Canada. Haley tries to find her, but two …show more content…
Most people that deny the credibility of the novel say that it was unfair to the southern plantation owners, saying that it gives an inaccurate portrayal of how the slaves live, and how the plantation owners treated their slaves. One thing that the critics of her book can’t deny is the fact that many families of slaves were broken up, which is something featured in this book. With the slaves being treated as objects that can be bought and sold at whim, there wasn’t regard for families, and some members of a family could be sold to a different plantation, or even a different state than another member of the same family. One thing that appeared in the novel is that the slave owners could abuse their slaves with impunity, or even kill them without being prosecuted, an example of this being the murder of Tom. This is at least somewhat inaccurate because critics of the novels found that there are several cases of slave owners getting tried and found guilty of killing their slave. Another accuracy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is that it showed both the cruel and brutal slave owners, and the ones that treated their slaves like people. The examples of this in the novel are Legree, being the cruel one, and Shelby being the kinder one. It also shows that, in the end, slaves were just their property. It shows this by Legree being abusive, and Shelby, although caring, sold his slaves for money instead of treating them as people. Even with a few inaccuracies, Uncle Tom’s Cabin provides a great insight into the lives of many slaves and slaves owner and is one of the most accurate books detailing that era in American

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