# XII: Select Incident of Lawful Trade explained — Uncle Tom’s Cabin

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

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/uncle_tom_s_cabin_se/chapters/volume-i-xii-select-incident-of-lawful-trade
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/uncle_tom_s_cabin_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/uncle_tom_s_cabin_se/chapters