Answer the quetions that follow using complete sentences.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published March 20, 1852. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to show slavery as a thing so cruel and unjust. Uncle Tom's Cabin was not the first anti-slavery novel, but it was by far the most successful. In the first year over 300,000 copies of her book were sold. In 1856, over two million copies were sold. Her book was translated into 13 different languages.

When President Lincoln went to meet her he said, "So you're the little lady that started this big war."

1. Why did Harriet Beecher Stowe write Uncle Tom's Cabin?
2. Why do you think Lincoln thought she started the war?

Look at the picture below.
3. What are the African-American people wearing?
4. Are the African Americans standing or sitting?
5. What expressions are on the faces of the African Americans?
6. What are the white people wearing?
7. Are the white people standing or sitting?
8. What expressions are on their faces of the white people?

9. Pick one of the people in the illustration and write a paragraph about why he or she is at the auction sale, what his or her feelings are, and what it is like to be there.

Read the excerpt from Uncle Tom's Cabin and answer the questions that follow using complete sentences.

Narrator: Eliza, a slave, has run away from her master with her son Harry. Her master had sold Harry away from her, but Eliza fled before they could be separated. After a long journey, Eliza finally managed to cross the Ohio River by leaping across the floating blocks of ice. At the far bank of the river, a man helps her to shore:

Mr. Symmes: "Yer a brave gal, now, whoever ye ar!"

Narrator: Eliza recognized the voice and face of a man who owned a farm not far from her old home.

Eliza: "O, Mr. Symmes!--save me--do save me--do hide me!"

Mr. Symmes: "Why, what's this? Why, if 'tan't Shelby's gal!"

Eliza: "My child!--this boy!--he'd sold him! O, Mr. Symmes, you've got a little boy!"

Mr. Symmes: "So I have. Besides, you're a right brave gal. I like grit, wherever I see it. I'd be glad to do something for ye but then there's nowhar

I could take ye. The best I can do is to tell ye to go thar."

Narrator: Mr. Symmes pointed to a large white house which stood by itself, off the main street of the village.

Mr. Symmes: "Go thar; they're kind folks. Thar's no kind o' danger but they'll help you,--they're up to all that sort o' thing."

Eliza: "The Lord bless you!"

Mr. Symmes: "No 'casion, no 'casion in the world. What I've done's of no 'count."

Eliza: "And, oh, surely, sir, you won't tell any one!"

Mr. Symmes: "Go to thunder, gal! What do you take a feller for? Of course not. Come, now, go along like a likely, sensible gal, as you are.

You've arnt your liberty, and you shall have it, for all of me."

Narrator: The woman folded her child to her bosom, and walked firmly and swiftly away. The man stood and looked after her.

Mr. Symmes: "Shelby, now, mebbe won't think this yer the most neighborly thing in the world; but what's a feller to do? If he catches one of my gals in the same fix, he's welcome to pay back. Somehow I never could see no kind o' critter a strivin' and pantin', and trying to clar theirselves, with the dogs arter 'em and go agin 'em. Besides, I don't see no kind of 'casion for me to be hunter and catcher for other folks, neither."

Narrator: So spoke this poor, heathenish Kentuckian, who had not been instructed in his constitutional relations, and consequently was betrayed into acting in a sort of Christianized manner, which, if he had been better situated and more enlightened, he would not have been left to do.

10. What reasons does Mr. Symmes give for not returning Eliza and Harry to their masters?

Two slaves, Cassy and Emmeline, are hiding from their cruel master, Simon Legree. Simon threatens to beat Tom if he will not tell where Cassy and Emmeline are hiding. Tom, a Christian who has always been a loyal, hard-working slave, refuses and Simon swears that he'll conquer Tom or kill him:

"Tom looked up to his master, and answered, "Mas'r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I'd give ye my heart's blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I'd give 'em freely, as the Lord gave his for me. O, Mas'r! don't bring this great sin on your soul! It will hurt you more than 't will me! Do the worst you can, my troubles'll be over soon; but, if ye don't repent, yours won't never end!"

"Like a strange snatch of heavenly music, heard in the lull of a tempest, this burst of feeling made a moment's blank pause. Legree stood aghast, and looked at Tom; and there was such a silence, that the tick of the old clock could be heard, measuring, with silent touch, the last moments of mercy and probation to that hardened heart. It was but a moment. There was one hesitating pause,--one irresolute, relenting thrill,--and the spirit of evil came back, with seven-fold vehemence; and Legree, foaming with rage, smote his victim to the ground.

"Scenes of blood and cruelty are shocking to our ear and heart. What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear. What brother-man and brother-Christian must suffer, cannot be told us, even in our secret chamber, it so harrows the soul! And yet, oh my country! these things are done under the shadow of thy laws! O, Christ! thy church sees them, almost in silence!"

11. How does Stowe describe Simon Legree in this scene?
12. How does Stowe describe Uncle Tom?
13. How do you think white Southerners felt when they read about Simon Legree's cruelty in Uncle Tom's Cabin?
14. How do you think white Northerners felt when they read about Simon Legree's cruelty in Uncle Tom's Cabin?