Literary Analysis

       One of the main themes of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is women in slavery, and how they were treated. In that day and age, of course slavery was bad, but women in slavery sometimes had to endure much more physical, and mental abuse. “So speaks the poor soul, in sore discouragement; for she knows that to-morrow any man, however vile and brutal, however godless and merciless, if he only has money to pay for her, may become owner of her daughter, body and soul; and then, how is the child to be faithful?” (302). Emmeline, being sold to a different master, is at risk simply because she’s attractive. It’s truly heartbreaking that she has no control over this situation and is being punished because of the life she was born in to. “The curls may make a hundred dollars difference in the sale of her.” (303). Even Emmeline’s mother’s efforts to try and protect her in the only way she could, failed.        “When Legree scolded and stormed, Emmeline was terrified; but when he laid his hand on her, and spoke as he now did, she felt as if she had rather he would strike her. The expression of his eyes made her soul sick, and her flesh creep.” (313). Here, we see Emmeline being terrified of her new master, Legree, for just touching her shoulder. It’s also clear how messed up it is that she would rather have him hit her, instead of having him touch her shoulder. This was how it was for many young women in slavery.          

         According to the scholarly article “On Slaveholders Sexual Abuse of Slaves” published by The National Humanities Center, it was not uncommon for slave women to be sexually abused by their masters. Often times, children would be the outcome of these abuses, then leaving the child to be very mistreated and most likely eventually separated from their mother. Sometimes, slaves would even be used to ‘breed’ as one would breed cattle, “Durin’ slavery if one marster had a big boy en ’nuther had a big gal de marsters made dem libe tergedder. Ef’n de ’oman didn’t hab any chilluns, she wuz put on de block en sold en ’nuther ’oman bought. You see dey raised de chilluns ter mek money on jes lak we raise pigs ter sell.” (Sylvia Watkins, enslaved in Tennessee, interviewed ca. 1937). This was not only hard on the slaves, but for the Master’s wife as well, as she was not allowed to say anything about her husband’s affairs with a slave girl, even though everyone knew what was going on. And this role reverses too, in that sometimes the Master’s wife would have chosen her own slave to satisfy her sexual desires too.

         It is completely unimaginable that something this awful went on for so long. Slavery by itself is bad, but once going in depth to Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the scholarly article “On Slaveholders Sexual Abuse of Slaves”, one has to ask themselves, is this really that far-fetched, considering the living conditions, beatings, treatments, and the type of work slaves had to go through. In my opinion though, the sexual abuse of women (and men) in slavery, is the worst.