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Shelby Farm Slavery

Decent Essays

"So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." - President Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Beecher Stowe about Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1862. Though Stowe wrote this book, not to start a war, but to recognize the horrors of slavery. This can be appropriately addressed by comparing the three main places Uncle Tom was sold to: The Shelby Farm, the St. Clare Homes, and the Legree Plantation. They vary from each other, especially concerning family dynamics, religion, the treatment of slaves, and what kind of people are there.
Which brings us to Mr. Shelby, owner of the Shelby Farms, he believes slavery to be a necessary evil. His wife, Mrs. Shelby feels that it goes against Christianity, made evident when she states “This is …show more content…

Clare Homes. It’s located in Louisiana, almost the southernmost you can go, like Simon Legree but unlike Legree they aren’t situated in the rural portion. St. Clare, master of the Homes, has a drinking problem, but despite this he is a kind slave owner much like Mr. Shelby. They are also similar in that they both promised to free Uncle Tom and that they both believed slavery wasn’t a good and happy thing, specifically St. Clare believed that the Bible didn’t justify slavery as he states “When I look for religion, I must look for something above me, and not something beneath.” (Uncle Tom’s Cabin 156). The St. Clare's whole family dynamic is different from the Shelby's, Marie St. Clare was oblivious to the thoughts and feelings of others, she is described as having “not much capability for affection… sensibility” and a case of extreme selfishness (Uncle Tom’s Cabin 131), whereas Mrs. Shelby was defined as a woman of high class, high morals, and high principle (Uncle Tom’s Cabin 10), Cassy, Simon Legree’s mistress, too, was high class even as a mulatto woman and though she has had a difficult time of it, retains the poise and intelligence that once came with her station. Miss Ophelia, the cousin from New England with strict mannerisms, most opposite to Augustine St. Clare, she is the embodiment of religious duty. Eva though adored didn’t have much of a relationship with her parents, unlike George Shelby. Like George though, Eva …show more content…

Clare Homes are and far from the Shelby farm, is where this story takes a turn for the worse. The treatment of slaves is really bad, this seems to come from the fact that Legree’s own father was a vicious man. Though his mother was kindhearted, it did not save Legree from taking after him. Simon Legree, with no family or friends to speak of, takes on a black mistress, Cassy, and her maybe replacement Emmaline. He doesn’t allow slaves to practice any religion and took away everything Tom owns except his bible because he hid it. Though religion isn’t tolerated the slaves sing hymns anyway. The closest thing Simon has to friends are the two black overseers on his plantation who he encourages to be cruel “Legree had trained [the overseers] in savageness and brutality as systematically as he had his bull-dogs; and, by long practice in his hardness and cruelty, brought their whole nature to about the same range of capacities.” (Uncle Tom’s Cabin 292-93). This is such a different reality than the Shelby Farm and the St. Clare Homes, until Marie was in

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