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Historical Fiction#Anti-Slavery#American History#Classics

Uncle Tom's Cabin

By Harriet Beecher Stowe

An anti-slavery novel that helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War.

Total Chapters: 47•Public Domain Free Read

Table of Contents

CHAPTER XLV—Concluding Remarks

List of Illustrations Eliza comes to tell Uncle Tom that he is sold, and that she is running away to save her child. THE AUCTION SALE. THE FREEMAN’S DEFENCE. LITTLE EVA READI...

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CHAPTER I

In Which the Reader Is Introduced to a Man of Humanity Late in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were sitting alone over their wine, in a well-furnished din...

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CHAPTER II

The Mother Eliza had been brought up by her mistress, from girlhood, as a petted and indulged favorite. The traveller in the south must often have remarked that peculiar air of r...

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CHAPTER III

The Husband and Father Mrs. Shelby had gone on her visit, and Eliza stood in the verandah, rather dejectedly looking after the retreating carriage, when a hand was laid on her sho...

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CHAPTER IV

An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin The cabin of Uncle Tom was a small log building, close adjoining to “the house,” as the negro _par excellence_ designates his master’s dwelling. In...

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CHAPTER V

Showing the Feelings of Living Property on Changing Owners Mr. and Mrs. Shelby had retired to their apartment for the night. He was lounging in a large easy-chair, looking over so...

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CHAPTER VI

Discovery Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, after their protracted discussion of the night before, did not readily sink to repose, and, in consequence, slept somewhat later than usual, the ens...

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CHAPTER VII

The Mother’s Struggle It is impossible to conceive of a human creature more wholly desolate and forlorn than Eliza, when she turned her footsteps from Uncle Tom’s cabin. Her husb...

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CHAPTER VIII

Eliza’s Escape Eliza made her desperate retreat across the river just in the dusk of twilight. The gray mist of evening, rising slowly from the river, enveloped her as she disappe...

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CHAPTER IX

In Which It Appears That a Senator Is But a Man The light of the cheerful fire shone on the rug and carpet of a cosey parlor, and glittered on the sides of the tea-cups and well-b...

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CHAPTER X

The Property Is Carried Off The February morning looked gray and drizzling through the window of Uncle Tom’s cabin. It looked on downcast faces, the images of mournful hearts. The...

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CHAPTER XI

In Which Property Gets into an Improper State of Mind It was late in a drizzly afternoon that a traveler alighted at the door of a small country hotel, in the village of N——, in K...

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CHAPTER XII

Select Incident of Lawful Trade “In Ramah there was a voice heard,—weeping, and lamentation, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted.” Jer...

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CHAPTER XIII

The Quaker Settlement A quiet scene now rises before us. A large, roomy, neatly-painted kitchen, its yellow floor glossy and smooth, and without a particle of dust; a neat, well-b...

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CHAPTER XIV

Evangeline “A young star! which shone O’er life—too sweet an image, for such glass! A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded; A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.” T...

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CHAPTER XV

Of Tom’s New Master, and Various Other Matters Since the thread of our humble hero’s life has now become interwoven with that of higher ones, it is necessary to give some brief in...

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CHAPTER XVI

Tom’s Mistress and Her Opinions “And now, Marie,” said St. Clare, “your golden days are dawning. Here is our practical, business-like New England cousin, who will take the whole b...

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CHAPTER XVII

The Freeman’s Defence There was a gentle bustle at the Quaker house, as the afternoon drew to a close. Rachel Halliday moved quietly to and fro, collecting from her household stor...

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CHAPTER XVIII

Miss Ophelia’s Experiences and Opinions Our friend Tom, in his own simple musings, often compared his more fortunate lot, in the bondage into which he was cast, with that of Josep...

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CHAPTER XIX

Miss Ophelia’s Experiences and Opinions Continued “Tom, you needn’t get me the horses. I don’t want to go,” she said. “Why not, Miss Eva?” “These things sink into my heart, Tom,...

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CHAPTER XX

Topsy One morning, while Miss Ophelia was busy in some of her domestic cares, St. Clare’s voice was heard, calling her at the foot of the stairs. “Come down here, Cousin, I’ve so...

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CHAPTER XXI

Kentuck Our readers may not be unwilling to glance back, for a brief interval, at Uncle Tom’s Cabin, on the Kentucky farm, and see what has been transpiring among those whom he ha...

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CHAPTER XXII

“The Grass Withereth—the Flower Fadeth” Life passes, with us all, a day at a time; so it passed with our friend Tom, till two years were gone. Though parted from all his soul held...

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CHAPTER XXIII

Henrique About this time, St. Clare’s brother Alfred, with his eldest son, a boy of twelve, spent a day or two with the family at the lake. No sight could be more singular and be...

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CHAPTER XXIV

Foreshadowings Two days after this, Alfred St. Clare and Augustine parted; and Eva, who had been stimulated, by the society of her young cousin, to exertions beyond her strength, ...

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CHAPTER XXV

The Little Evangelist It was Sunday afternoon. St. Clare was stretched on a bamboo lounge in the verandah, solacing himself with a cigar. Marie lay reclined on a sofa, opposite th...

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CHAPTER XXVI

Death Weep not for those whom the veil of the tomb, In life’s early morning, hath hid from our eyes.[1] [1] “Weep Not for Those,” a poem by Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Eva’s bed-...

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CHAPTER XXVII

“This Is the Last of Earth”[1] [1] “This is the last of Earth! I am content,” last words of John Quincy Adams, uttered February 21, 1848. The statuettes and pictures in Eva’s r...

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CHAPTER XXVIII

Reunion Week after week glided away in the St. Clare mansion, and the waves of life settled back to their usual flow, where that little bark had gone down. For how imperiously, ho...

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CHAPTER XXIX

The Unprotected We hear often of the distress of the negro servants, on the loss of a kind master; and with good reason, for no creature on God’s earth is left more utterly unprot...

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CHAPTER XXX

The Slave Warehouse A slave warehouse! Perhaps some of my readers conjure up horrible visions of such a place. They fancy some foul, obscure den, some horrible _Tartarus “informis...

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CHAPTER XXXI

The Middle Passage “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue ...

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CHAPTER XXXII

Dark Places “The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.”[1] [1] Ps. 74:20. Trailing wearily behind a rude wagon, and over a ruder road, Tom and his as...

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CHAPTER XXXIII

Cassy “And behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter.”—ECCL. 4:1 It t...

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CHAPTER XXXIV

The Quadroon’s Story And behold the tears of such as are oppressed; and on the side of their oppressors there was power. Wherefore I praised the dead that are already dead more th...

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CHAPTER XXXV

The Tokens “And slight, withal, may be the things that bring Back on the heart the weight which it would fling Aside forever; it may be a sound, A flower, the wind, the ocean, whi...

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CHAPTER XXXVI

Emmeline and Cassy Cassy entered the room, and found Emmeline sitting, pale with fear, in the furthest corner of it. As she came in, the girl started up nervously; but, on seeing ...

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CHAPTER XXXVII

Liberty “No matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery, the moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the God sink together ...

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CHAPTER XXXVIII

The Victory “Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory.”[1] [1] I Cor. 15:57. Have not many of us, in the weary way of life, felt, in some hours, how far easier it were to ...

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CHAPTER XXXIX

The Stratagem “The way of the wicked is as darkness; he knoweth not at what he stumbleth.”[1] [1] Prov. 4:19. The garret of the house that Legree occupied, like most other garr...

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CHAPTER XL

The Martyr “Deem not the just by Heaven forgot! Though life its common gifts deny,— Though, with a crushed and bleeding heart, And spurned of man, he goes to die! For God ...

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CHAPTER XLI

The Young Master Two days after, a young man drove a light wagon up through the avenue of China trees, and, throwing the reins hastily on the horse’s neck, sprang out and inquired...

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CHAPTER XLII

An Authentic Ghost Story For some remarkable reason, ghostly legends were uncommonly rife, about this time, among the servants on Legree’s place. It was whisperingly asserted tha...

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CHAPTER XLIII

Results The rest of our story is soon told. George Shelby, interested, as any other young man might be, by the romance of the incident, no less than by feelings of humanity, was a...

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part very well, had not little Eliza suddenly appeared before her in

exact shape and form, every outline and curl, just as her daughter was when she saw her last. The little thing peered up in her face; and Cassy caught her up in her arms, pressed h...

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CHAPTER XLIV

The Liberator George Shelby had written to his mother merely a line, stating the day that she might expect him home. Of the death scene of his old friend he had not the heart to w...

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CHAPTER XLV

Concluding Remarks The writer has often been inquired of, by correspondents from different parts of the country, whether this narrative is a true one; and to these inquiries she w...

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