4.1.1 Slaves As Properties
Slaves are used as a tool of trading between the slave owners in a transaction. After getting money, they will buy some more slaves in never ending
circle. Slave is brought to the slave market or warehouse which later will be sold in an auction. Slave owners will bid the certain price to get slaves they’re expected.
Before buying, slaves will be inspected from head to toe to know they are good or not to work on their plantation or house. Slave is bought for getting profit. They’re
used for working overtime and earn much money. The changing owners from one to another by selling or buying slaves shows the inhumanity act in slavery. Slaves
are treated as masters’ properties or personal belonging who has no rights rather than as a human being.
As we can see, in the beginning of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, practice of slavery is clearly shown. Mr. Shelby discusses how many slaves he will sell to pay his debt
with Mr. Haley, otherwise he will lose all his land and property. It’s one of the scene that shows how the slave owner treats their slaves as tools to clear debt by
selling them. The conversation between Mr. Shelby and Haley can be seen below :
“Well, then, Haley, how will you trade?” said Mr. Shelby, after an uneasy interval of silence. “Well, haven’t you a boy or a gal
that you could throw in with Tom?” I. 4
“Well, you’ll let me have the boy, though? said the trade; “You must own I’ve come down pretty handsomely for him.” “What
on earth can you want with the child” said Shelby. “Why, I’ve got a friend that’s going into this yer branch of the bussiness –
wants to buy up handsome boys to raise for the market. Fancy articles entirely – sell for waiters, and so on, to rich ‘uns, that
can pay for handsome ‘uns. It sets off one of yer great places – a
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real handsome boy to open door, wait, and tend. They fetch a good sum; and this little devil is such a comical, musical
concern, he’s just the article.” I. 6-7
The quotations below shows that Mr. Shelby agrees to sell both Tom and Harry to slavetrader named Haley and tell this to his wife, Emily. It clearly
describes the reason why he has to sell both of them because they will earn a lot of money compared to other slaves. Haley gives them a high bid.
“Well, Emily,” said her husband, “so I have always felt and said; but the fact is, my bussiness lies so that I cannot get on
without. I shall have to sell some of my hands.” “I am sorry to say that I am,” said Mr. Shelby. “I’ve agreed to sell Tom.” ....
“Well, I can’t believe anything now; I can believe now that you could sell little Harry, poor Eliza’s only child said Mrs. Shelby,
in a tone between grief and indignation.” “Well, since you must know all, it is so. I have agreed to sell Tom and Harry both; and
I don’t know why I am to be rated as if I were a monster for doing what everyone does everyday.” ... “Because they will
bring the highest sum of any – that’s why. I could choose anotheer, if you say so. The fellow made me a high bid on Eliza,
if that would suit you any better” said Mr. Shelby. V. 32
“... I can’t help myself. I didn’t mean to tell you this, Emily; but, in plain words, there is no choice between selling these two and
selling everything. Either they must go, or all must. Haley has come into possession of a mortgage, which, if I don’t clear off
with thim directly, will take everything before it. i’ve raked, and scraped, and borrowed, and all but begged, and the price of
these two was needed to make up the balance, and I had to give them up. Haley fancied yhe child; he agreed to settle the matter
that way, and no other. I was in his power, and had to do it. if you feel so to have them sold, would it be any better to have all
sold?” V. 33
Slaves are brought to the slave market, and the master puts a heavy pair of shackles around each of their ankle and a pair of handcuffs. This shows how the
slave owner treats slaves badly like a cattle with chaining them. “Get in” said Haley to Tom, as he strode through the crowd of
servants, who looked at him with lowering brows. Tom got in, and Haley, drawing out from under the wagon-seat a heavy pair
of shackles, made them fast around each ankle. ... Haley whipped
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up the horse, and, with a steady, mournful look, fixed to the last on the old place, Tom was whirled away. X. 92
“Haley suddenly drew up at the door of a blacksmith’s shop, when, taking out with him a pair of handcuffs, he stepped into the
shop to have a little alteration in them. “These yer’s a little too small for his build,” said Haley, showing the fetters and pointing
out to Tom. ... Haley now came to the door with the handcuffs in his hands” X. 93, 95
On the boat, when the selling begins, Haley, the slave owner, inspects a few good slaves and buys several more.
“Haley here forced his way into the group, walked up the old man, pulled his mouth open and looked in, felt of his teeth, made
him stand and straighten himself, bend his back, and perform various evolutions to show his muscles; and then passed on to the
next, and put him through the same trial. Walking up to the last boy, he felt his arms, straightened his hands, and looked at his
fingers, and made him jump. To show his agility.”XII. 111 “What think of ‘em?” said a man who had been following
Haley’s examination, as if to make up his own mind from it. “Wal,” said Haley, spitting, “I shall put in, I think, for the
youngerly ones and the boy.” “They wantt to sell the boy and the old woman together,” said the man. “Find it a tight pull; why,
she’s an old rack o’bones – not worth her salt.” “You woudn’t then?” said the man. “Anybody’d be a fool ‘twould. She’s half
blind,crooked with rheumatis, and foolish to boot.” XII. 111- 112
He puts all the purchased slaves in a jail then boards them all on a ship for the Deep South where they will be sold for plantation work.
“Now” said Haley, pushing his three purchases together, and producing a bundle of handcuffs, which he proceeded to put on
their wrists; then fastening eacg handcuff to a long chain, he drove them before him to the jail. Afew days Haley, with his
possessions, safely deposited on one of the Ohio boats.”XII. 113
In chapter XIV, Tom is sold to the new master named Augustine St. Clare. The new master use Tom to take care his horse.
“Can you drive horses, Tom?” “I’ve been al’ays used to horses,” said Tom. Mas’r Shelby raised helps on ‘em.” “Well, I think I
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shall put you in a coachy, on condition that you won’t be drunk more than once a week, unless in case of emergency, Tom.”
XIV. 141-142
In chapter XVIII, we are introduced to Prue, a slave from down the street. She tells Tom that her former master use her to breed children to sell at the slave
market. “Up in Kentuck. A man kept me to breed chil’en for market, and
sold ‘em as fast as they got big enough; last of all, he sold me to a speculator, and my mas’r got me o’ him.” XVIII. 201
After being sold to her current master, she gave birth to another baby. However, her mistress sick and Prue spends long hours at her bedside, away from
the baby which caused her milk to dry. Her owner refuses to pay for purchased milk and the baby die from starvation.
“What set you into this bad way of drinkin’?” “ To get o’ my misery. I had one child after I come here; and I thought then I’d
have one to raise, ‘cause mas’r wasn’tt a speculator. It was the peartest little thing and missis she seemed to think a heap on’t, at
first; it never cried – it was likely and fat. But missis tuck sick and I tended her; and I tuck the fecer, and my milk all left me,
and the child it pined to skin and bone, and missis wouldn’t buy milk for it.”
XVIII. 201-202
Different from her husband, Marie is very attached to the institution of slavery. In her mind the slaves are there to do her bidding. She take out her anger
and frustration at her husband on the slaves. After the death of her husband, the slaves become her properties. She sell all the slaves because she thinks it would be
worse to set slaves free than to keep them in the system of slavery. So, she sends them off to the slave warehouse.
“Do ye know Tom, that we’ve all got to be sold?” said Adolph. “How did you hear that?” said Tom. “I hid myself behind the
curtains when missis talking with the lawyer. In a few days we
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shall all be sent off to auction, Tom.” “We’ll never get another such a master,” said Adolph, apprehensively; “but I’d rather be
sold than take my chance under missis.”XXIX. 299 “The next day, Tom and Adolph, and some half a dozen other
servants, were marched down to a slave-warehouse to await the convenience of the trader, who was going to make up a lot for
auction.” XXIX. 302 In the slave-warehouse, slave master named Simon Legree buys both Uncle
Tom and Emmeline as well as two other men. Legree chains Tom’s hands and feet and puts the slaves on a boat headed for his plantation.
“This man proceeded to a very personal examination of the lot. He seized Tom by the jaw, and pulled open his mouth to inspect his
teeth; made him strip up his sleeve, to show his muscle; turned him round, made him jump and spring, to show his paces.” XXX. 309
“Her master is Mr. Legree, who owns a cotton plantation on the
Red River. She is pushed along into the same lot with Tom and two other men, and goes off, weeping as she goes.” XXX. 311
Later, we are introduced to Cassy, slave woman who is treated as sexual object by Legree. He buys another young girl, Emmeline, to replace her. Under the
slave system, young girls are purchased to act essentially as prostitutes and Legree purchases Emmeline with this purpose in mind. In chapter XXXIV, Cassy tells
Tom that she has several children but they’re sold to a new master. That master sell her and the children to a third man by whom she had a child. She continues to be
passed from man to man until she comes to Legree’s plantation. Uncle Toms Cabin focuses mostly on the struggles of Tom, who has been
sold numerous times. Tom is undeniably character that portrays slavery. He is of absolute importance to the major plot. With each of his masters, from Shelby to
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Legree, Tom is pitted against materialism, which is the basis of slavery. This materialism denies the spiritual, denies human love, turns every human connection
or virtue into something to be used for profit. Topsy is also an example of what happens when human beings are treated as commodities. She is raised on a farm
like a herd animal, not knowing who her mother was or, probably, that she even had a mother, taught absolutely nothing that she could not learn from her own
observation. Her only use is as physical labor since she is not light-skinned and thus potentially beautiful to white men, and since she is not yet old enough to be
worth much as breeding stock herself. Slaves has no control over their own lives and are considered as property,
just like cattle or other livestock. They are often sold at slave auctions, where they could be inspected from head to toe by potential buyers. Slave families are not
recognized as valid. All of the scenes above shows how slave masters treat their slaves badly which is just to be bought and sold and has no value in their eyes.
Their only purpose is only to make profit and work overtime. It is also shows many woman slaves is used as master’s sexual satisfaction.
4.1.2 Object of Physical Abuse
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