Uncle Tom’s Cabin · Chapter
Dark Places explained
Tom and other slaves are transported to Simon Legree's decaying plantation.
What happens
Tom and other slaves are transported to Simon Legree's decaying plantation. Legree forces them to sing, terrifies Emmeline with his advances, and separates a mulatto woman from her husband. Tom is taken to the squalid slave quarters, where he witnesses the brutal, dehumanizing conditions. That night, he dreams of Eva reading scripture, offering him a moment of comfort.
Themes in this chapter
Slavery and Inhumanity
The chapter vividly portrays the physical and psychological brutality of slavery, from Legree's cruelty to the squalid living conditions and the dehumanization of the slaves.
Resistance and Agency
Tom's internal faith and his dream of Eva represent a form of spiritual resistance, while the slaves' forced song carries an inarticulate prayer that Legree cannot hear.
Christianity and Morality
Tom's reliance on his Bible and the dream of Eva reading scripture highlight the role of Christian faith as a source of comfort and moral strength in the face of evil.
Characters to notice
- Uncle Tom
Tom is transported to Legree's plantation, forced to sing, and assigned to a squalid cabin. He dreams of Eva for comfort.
- Simon Legree
Legree drives the wagon, drinks, forces the slaves to sing, and makes threatening advances toward Emmeline.
- Emmeline
Emmeline is terrified by Legree's touch and words, and clings to the mulatto woman for protection.
- Sambo
Sambo is one of Legree's brutal overseers, who assigns Tom to a cabin and receives the mulatto woman as a 'gift.'
- Quimbo
Quimbo is another of Legree's overseers, standing ready to enforce Legree's will alongside Sambo.
- Lucy
Lucy is the mulatto woman separated from her husband and given to Sambo; she is later given a bag of corn by Sambo.
Key passages
“The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.”
The most hidden and forsaken parts of the world are filled with cruel dwellings.
This epigraph sets the tone for the chapter, emphasizing the pervasive cruelty of Legree's plantation.
“It was sung very boisterouly, and with a forced attempt at merriment; but no wail of despair, no words of impassioned prayer, could have had such a depth of woe in them as the wild notes of the chorus.”
The song was loud and pretended to be cheerful, but the wild chorus expressed more sorrow than any cry of despair or prayer could have.
This highlights the hidden anguish behind the forced merriment of the slaves.
“Tom looked in vain among the gang, as they poured along, for companionable faces. He saw only sullen, scowling, imbruted men, and feeble, discouraged women, or women that were not women—the strong pushing away the weak—the gross, unrestricted animal selfishness of human beings, of whom nothing good was expected and desired; and who, treated in every way like brutes, had sunk as nearly to their level as it was possible for human beings to do.”
Tom searched the crowd for friendly faces but found only brutalized men and broken women, where the strong bullied the weak, and everyone had been reduced to an animal-like state by their treatment.
This describes the dehumanizing effect of slavery on the enslaved community.
“In dreams, a gentle voice came over his ear; he was sitting on the mossy seat in the garden by Lake Pontchartrain, and Eva, with her serious eyes bent downward, was reading to him from the Bible; and he heard her read.”
Tom dreamed he was back in the garden by Lake Pontchartrain, where Eva read the Bible to him with her earnest eyes.
This dream provides Tom with spiritual comfort and a reminder of faith amid his suffering.
