Uncle Tom’s Cabin · Chapter
XII: Select Incident of Lawful Trade explained
Mr.
What happens
Mr. Haley and Tom travel by wagon, each absorbed in their own thoughts: Haley calculates Tom's market value and congratulates himself on his 'humanity,' while Tom meditates on scripture about a heavenly city. They stop in Washington, Kentucky, where Tom is jailed while Haley attends a slave auction. On a steamboat, a mother named Lucy is separated from her child and sold away, falling into silent despair. Tom witnesses her anguish and tries to comfort her with faith, but she is inconsolable. The chapter also features a debate among passengers about slavery, including a clergyman who justifies it using the curse of Canaan.
Themes in this chapter
Slavery and Inhumanity
The chapter depicts the brutal reality of the slave trade, including auctions, family separation, and the dehumanization of enslaved people.
Family and Separation
Lucy's child is sold away from her, and Tom reflects on his own lost family, highlighting the cruelty of family dissolution under slavery.
Hypocrisy of American Society
Passengers debate slavery with self-serving justifications, and a clergyman twists scripture to defend bondage, exposing moral hypocrisy.
Characters to notice
- Uncle Tom
Tom meditates on scripture, is jailed, and witnesses Lucy's separation from her child, trying to offer spiritual comfort.
- Haley
Haley calculates Tom's value, reads auction advertisements, and callously separates Lucy from her child, justifying it as business.
- Lucy
Lucy is a slave mother whose child is sold away from her; she falls into silent, stunned despair despite the trader's hollow reassurances.
Key passages
“We have here no continuing city, but we seek one to come; wherefore God himself is not ashamed to be called our God; for he hath prepared for us a city.”
Tom recalls a Bible verse about not having a permanent home on earth but looking forward to a heavenly city prepared by God.
This scripture comforts Tom amid his despair, contrasting with Haley's worldly calculations.
“The most dreadful part of slavery, to my mind, is its outrages on the feelings and affections—the separating of families, for example.”
A passenger argues that the worst aspect of slavery is how it tears families apart.
This statement directly challenges the pro-slavery views expressed by other characters.
“Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be.”
A clergyman cites the biblical curse on Canaan to claim that God intended Africans to be enslaved.
This misused scripture was a common pro-slavery argument, which the chapter critiques through the drover's sarcastic response.