Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom · Chapter
Endnotes explained
The endnotes provide explanatory context on Southern slave society, including laws against intermarriage and the demeaning naming conventions for enslaved people, which influenced literary characters like those in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
What happens
The endnotes provide explanatory context on Southern slave society, including laws against intermarriage and the demeaning naming conventions for enslaved people, which influenced literary characters like those in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Themes in this chapter
Race and Identity
The endnotes highlight the legal and social construction of racial identity through marriage laws and naming practices.
Dehumanization of Slavery
The use of infantilizing terms like 'boy' and 'girl' for enslaved adults underscores their dehumanization.
Characters to notice
- Mrs. Stowe
Referenced as the author who used the naming conventions 'Uncle Tom,' 'Aunt Chloe,' etc., in her novel.
Key passages
“It is unlawful in the slave States for anyone of purely European descent to intermarry with a person of African extraction; though a white man may live with as many coloured women as he pleases without materially damaging his reputation in Southern society.”
In the slave states, interracial marriage was illegal for white people, but white men could have relationships with multiple black women without social penalty.
This note exposes the hypocrisy of Southern laws that prohibited formal marriage across races while tolerating exploitative relationships.
“I may state here that every man slave is called boy till he is very old, then the more respectable slaveholders call him uncle. The women are all girls till they are aged, then they are called aunts. This is the reason why Mrs. Stowe calls her characters Uncle Tom, Aunt Chloe, Uncle Tiff, etc.”
Enslaved men were addressed as 'boy' until old age, when they might be called 'uncle'; women were called 'girl' until old, then 'aunt.' This explains the names in Mrs. Stowe's novel.
This note explains the origin of the familiar titles in Uncle Tom's Cabin, rooted in the infantilizing language of slavery.