Uncle Tom’s Cabin · Chapter
VII: The Mother’s Struggle explained
Eliza, driven by maternal love and desperation, flees from the Shelby plantation with her son Harry after learning of his sale.
What happens
Eliza, driven by maternal love and desperation, flees from the Shelby plantation with her son Harry after learning of his sale. She walks through the night, praying for strength, and reaches the Ohio River only to find the ferry has stopped running. A sympathetic woman offers her shelter, but Eliza remains anxious. Meanwhile, at the Shelby estate, the household deliberately delays Haley's pursuit through a series of accidents and slow service, orchestrated by the servants who sympathize with Eliza. Sam and Andy further mislead Haley about the route to the river, buying Eliza more time.
Themes in this chapter
Motherhood and Sacrifice
Eliza's desperate flight is driven by maternal love, risking everything to save her son from being sold.
Freedom and Escape
Eliza's journey toward the Ohio River symbolizes the perilous quest for liberty from slavery.
Resistance and Agency
The Shelby servants, including Sam, Andy, and Aunt Chloe, actively resist Haley's pursuit through deception and delay.
Characters to notice
- Eliza Harris
Flees with her son Harry through the night, driven by maternal love and desperation, praying for divine help.
- Harry
Eliza's young son, who sleeps trustingly in her arms during the escape.
- Haley
The slave trader pursuing Eliza, frustrated by delays and misled by Sam and Andy.
- Sam
A servant who deliberately misleads Haley about the route to the river, aiding Eliza's escape.
- Andy
Another servant who assists Sam in delaying and misleading Haley.
- Aunt Chloe
The cook who deliberately delays the dinner to hinder Haley's pursuit, expressing righteous anger against slave traders.
Key passages
“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.”
No one could imagine a person more completely abandoned and hopeless than Eliza as she left Uncle Tom's cabin.
Describes Eliza's emotional state at the start of her escape.
“But stronger than all was maternal love, wrought into a paroxysm of frenzy by the near approach of a fearful danger.”
Yet the most powerful force was her motherly love, which turned into a frantic desperation because of the imminent threat.
Highlights the driving force behind Eliza's actions.
“Sublime is the dominion of the mind over the body, that, for a time, can make flesh and nerve impregnable, and string the sinews like steel, so that the weak become so mighty.”
It is magnificent how the mind can control the body, temporarily making flesh and nerves invincible and muscles as strong as steel, turning the weak into the powerful.
Reflects on Eliza's superhuman strength born from desperation.
“If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, tomorrow morning—if you had seen the man, and heard that the papers were signed and delivered, and you had only from twelve o’clock till morning to make good your escape—how fast could you walk?”
If it were your own child about to be taken by a cruel trader tomorrow, and you had only from midnight until morning to escape, how quickly could you move?
Directly appeals to the reader's empathy by imagining a similar threat to their own child.
“For some singular reason, an impression seemed to reign among the servants generally that Missis would not be particularly disobliged by delay; and it was wonderful what a number of counter accidents occurred constantly, to retard the course of things.”
For some strange reason, the servants believed that the mistress would not mind a delay, and so a surprising number of mishaps kept happening to slow things down.
Describes the servants' deliberate sabotage of Haley's departure.
