Uncle Tom’s Cabin · Chapter
Concluding Remarks explained
In this concluding chapter, the author directly addresses the reader, condemning the institution of slavery and the complicity of both the North and South.
What happens
In this concluding chapter, the author directly addresses the reader, condemning the institution of slavery and the complicity of both the North and South. She appeals to the mothers of America, Christian men and women, and all citizens to recognize the horrors of the slave trade and to act with justice and mercy. The chapter includes anecdotes illustrating both the cruelty and the occasional generosity within the system, and ends with a prophetic warning of divine judgment against the nation's injustice.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy of American Society
The author condemns the hypocrisy of both North and South, particularly the complicity of free states and Christians in the slave system.
Motherhood and Sacrifice
The author appeals directly to mothers, invoking the pain of losing a child to the slave trade and urging them to pity enslaved mothers.
Slavery and Inhumanity
The chapter vividly describes the heartbreak, despair, and horrors of slavery, including mothers driven to kill their children to escape worse fates.
Characters to notice
- Cassy
Mentioned as having a story that may have many counterparts in real life.
- Emmeline
Mentioned alongside Cassy as having a story that may have many counterparts in real life.
- Augustine St. Clare
His fairness of mind and generosity are noted as having parallels in real life, as illustrated by an anecdote.
Key passages
“The slave-trade is now, by American law, considered as piracy. But a slave-trade, as systematic as ever was carried on on the coast of Africa, is an inevitable attendant and result of American slavery.”
Although American law labels the slave trade as piracy, it continues as systematically as the African slave trade, an unavoidable consequence of American slavery.
The author highlights the contradiction between law and practice.
“Nothing of tragedy can be written, can be spoken, can be conceived, that equals the frightful reality of scenes daily and hourly acting on our shores, beneath the shadow of American law, and the shadow of the cross of Christ.”
No tragedy ever described can match the daily horrors occurring in America under both its laws and the Christian religion.
The author emphasizes the unimaginable reality of slavery.
“If the mothers of the free states had all felt as they should, in times past, the sons of the free states would not have been the holders, and, proverbially, the hardest masters of slaves.”
If mothers in the free states had properly opposed slavery, their sons would not have become slaveholders, often known as the cruelest masters.
The author holds northern mothers accountable for their sons' actions.
“There is one thing that every individual can do—they can see to it that they feel right.”
Each person can ensure their own feelings and sympathies are aligned with justice and humanity.
The author urges personal moral reflection as a starting point for change.
“A day of grace is yet held out to us. Both North and South have been guilty before God; and the Christian church has a heavy account to answer.”
There is still time for repentance, but both regions and the church are guilty and will be held accountable by God.
The author calls for national and religious repentance.