# II: The Mother explained — Uncle Tom’s Cabin

> Chapter companion for Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

## What happens

This chapter introduces Eliza, a beautiful quadroon slave raised as a favored servant by her mistress, and her husband George Harris, a talented mulatto slave who invented a hemp-cleaning machine. Despite his ingenuity, George is cruelly torn from his factory job by his tyrannical master, Mr. Harris, who resents his slave's intelligence and manliness. George is forced into menial farm labor, while Eliza, now mother to little Harry, mourns the loss of their earlier happiness. The chapter highlights the dehumanizing power of slave owners and the fragility of slave families.

## Themes in this chapter

### Freedom and Escape

George's loss of his factory job and his forced return to drudgery represent the denial of freedom and the crushing of hope for a better life.

### Family and Separation

The chapter emphasizes the fragility of slave families: George is torn from his wife and child by his master's whim, and Eliza mourns the loss of two infants.

### Hypocrisy of American Society

Mr. Harris's claim that 'it's a free country' while exercising absolute tyranny over George exposes the hypocrisy of American ideals of liberty in the context of slavery.

## Character check-ins

### Eliza Harris

Introduced as a refined, beautiful quadroon slave, petted by her mistress, married to George Harris, and mother to Harry.

### George Harris

A talented mulatto slave who invented a hemp-cleaning machine; his master, Mr. Harris, forcibly removes him from the factory and subjects him to degrading farm labor.

### Harry

Eliza and George's young son, whose birth helped Eliza recover from the loss of two earlier children.

### Mrs. Shelby

Eliza's kind mistress who approved of Eliza's marriage to George and adorned Eliza's hair with orange-blossoms at the wedding.

### Mr. Shelby

Mentioned indirectly as the master of the Shelby estate; Mrs. Shelby is his wife.

## Key lines

> Nevertheless, as this young man was in the eye of the law not a man, but a thing, all these superior qualifications were subject to the control of a vulgar, narrow-minded, tyrannical master.

Despite George's talents and humanity, the law considered him property, leaving his fate in the hands of a cruel and petty owner.

_Highlights the legal dehumanization of enslaved people._

> A very humane jurist once said, The worst use you can put a man to is to hang him. No; there is another use that a man can be put to that is worse!

A supposedly kind judge claimed execution is the worst fate, but the author argues that enslaving a person is even more cruel.

_Stowe's direct commentary on the moral evil of slavery._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/uncle_tom_s_cabin_se/chapters/volume-i-ii-the-mother
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/uncle_tom_s_cabin_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/uncle_tom_s_cabin_se/chapters