The Theme of Humanity Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
The First Seven Chapters
By Shelby Hammonds

In the first seven chapters of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe the novel shows slave-owning families who think they are being humane, but in reality, no business with owning human beings is in any way humane. “I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evil...” says Mrs. Shelby. As she said this, she was coming out of her denial, and finally realizing how slavery can destroy families. She continues in saying, “... I thought I could gild over it. I thought by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the condition of mine better than freedom. Fool that I was (Stowe, 33)!” It seems that Mrs. Shelby never did think of slavery as being a good, Christian thing to do, rather the opposite. But she never admitted it to herself, until now. The situation is that, Harry, a young slave boy, is being ripped from his mother Eliza and sold to a ruthless trader, Mr. Haley, to pay a large debt. Uncle Tom, the most trusting and loyal slave of the Shelby’s, is also part of the deal. Uncle Tom, the man who held his master Mr. Shelby as a newborn in his arms, is being sold. For Mrs. Shelby, there is nothing to be done, though. As a woman in her time, she has no rights to business decisions. This brings in another situation. Mr. Shelby considers himself to be a humane man. He says it succinctly to Mr. Haley in eight words, “The fact is, sir, I’m a humane man, and would hate to take the boy away from his mother (Stowe, 7).” But what is the definition of a humane man in the slave-owning Kentucky of the 1840s? One cannot slip into the thinking that slave owners or the people of the South simply did not know any better or that this is just the way in which they were brought up. Could the Shelby’s be called “nice slave owners”? Is there such a thing? Slaves are human beings, and this is what many people chose to ignore. Again, they did not want to admit it to themselves. Mr. Haley says of slaves in general, “These critters an’t like white folks, you know; they gets over things (Stowe, 7),” referring to the situation of the purchasing of Harry and him being taken from Eliza and her from him. Mrs. Shelby seems to see the slaves differently than many people in her situation. Even though she may not see her slaves as equals, she does have some empathy toward their feelings as human beings; although she is not an abolitionist, per say. As it was previously stated, it was this predicament that brought Mrs. Shelby to her senses of realizing what slavery can do to families. Mr. Shelby says to her that he had no choice. It was to sell these two or everything they owned. Mr. Haley will not stop until he gets what he wants; he is that kind of person. But were there other roads that Mr. Shelby could have gone down? What is the humane choice here? Since Mrs. Shelby is incapable of reversing the situation at hand, Eliza takes matters into her own hands to protect Harry. She overhears the Shelby’s talking of Harry and Tom’s being sold and she knows what she must do. She must run to Canada with Harry. Now that the Fugitive Slave Law has been passed, the North is not good enough for the freedom of slaves. Any aid of a runaway slave is a punishable crime. This law is another example of inhumanity. This law is the complete opposite of the abolition of slavery! Mrs. Shelby praises the Lord that Eliza has run away, and aids in the delay of Mr. Haley as he sets out in attempt to catch her and her son especially. Eliza makes it to the Ohio River, and in one of the novel’s most famous scenes she crosses the ice into Ohio. At Ohio’s banks a man reaches to help her up and directs her to a house of safety. This is a brave thing to do because he must know he is helping fugitives, which is now a crime. He did the humane thing. The first seven chapters of this great novel are merely the beginning, but readers can already tell that a goal of the author’s is to illustrate the inhumanity of slavery. At the time in which this book was written, saying anything against slavery was a highly controversial topic, and Stowe wanted the nation to know of slavery’s evils.