the Lord help ye
Discussion questions: 1.Do you think it was common back then for slaves to rely on the Bible and Jesus as their only hope of happiness?
3.Why do you think after all Cassy has been through she just now finds the courage to runaway? And what plan might she have in mind?
“Father Tom, I’ll try it!”
Cassy has decided to run away, without Tom.
Daniel in the den of lions, that saved the children in the fiery furnace—Him that walked on the sea, and bade the winds be still
All biblical references.
the snakes and the alligators have their places to lie down and be quiet—but there’s no place for us
There's no where safe for runaway slaves.
sift ye as wheat
When you sift wheat you shake it hard to separate the kernels, so this is saying that the devil was trying to shake her emotions to separate her from Jesus.
No! Good never comes of wickedness
After all the terrible things Lebree has done to Tom he still protects him and sticks to his beliefs.
Come along. He’s asleep—sound. I put enough into his brandy to keep him so. I wish I’d had more—I shouldn’t have wanted you. But come—the back door is unlocked; there’s an axe there—I put it there—his room door is open; I’ll show you the way. I’d a done it myself, only my arms are so weak. Come along
Cassy wants to escape and kill Lebree in his sleep.
so that the blessed news had to circulate from individual to individual
On plantations slaves were often not allowed to practice religion or anything of their choice because they were not looked at a people. They had to find other ways to do this, so instead of having things like churches or massing they usually told stories that passed down from person to person
scanty
Small or insufficient.
Jesus of Nazareth
Another name for Jesus Christ, Nazareth was the place where Jesus spent his childhood.
But the blows fell now only on the outer man, and not, as before, on the heart
Tom is not phased by the blows because his heart is too full of happiness and hope derived from the Bible.
There, you dog
He's referring to Tom, a person, as a dog and hitting him for singing and being happy.
, and there was that transparent stillness in the air which it seems almost unholy to disturb
This sort of foreshadows that something is going to disrupt the peace in the near future.
he’s as peart as a cricket
This saying means happy or alert.
down in the mouth
This saying means said or dejected.
oppressed one
She refers to slaves as oppressed people. This shows she thinks slavery is wrong and that slaves are oppressed people, not property.
lowly heart
Another name for this book is life among the lowly, this refers back to that.
Utmost agony, woe, degradation, want, and loss of all things, shall only hasten on the process by which he shall be made a king and a priest unto God!
Tom has now decided that no matter what hardships Legree tries to put him through, he will not be phased because he has God by his side giving him strength through everything.
“The earth shall be dissolved like snow, The sun shall cease to shine; But God, who called me here below, Shall be forever mine. “And when this mortal life shall fail, And flesh and sense shall cease, I shall possess within the veil A life of joy and peace. “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining like the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we first begun.”
A common thing for slaves to do was to sing songs of hope and joy which spread the idea of better days and freedom around plantations.
for firmer than the ground he trod on was his strong faith in Almighty, eternal love
This is a personification, comparing his faith to the ground, saying that his beliefs are stronger than where he is in his life right now.
exultant
"Triumphantly happy"
one crowned with thorns
Here is he referring to Jesus, in the bible it when Jesus is being crucified it describes him wearing a crown of thorns. It symbolizes the pain and suffering Jesus went through for his people (AKA the Christians).
ebb
"The movement of the tide out to sea"
You see the Lord aint going to help you; if he had been, he wouldn’t have let me get you. This yer religion is all a mess of lying trumpery, Tom. I know all about it; ye’d better hold to me; I’m somebody, and can do something
In this quote Legree is trying to even take away Tom's religion, the one thing helping him through his tough times.
cut up and thrashed every day or two
Slave owners often whipped their slaves as either a form of punishment or way to declare dominance. It was used to belittle the slave into thinking they're not human, they are objects.
that God had forgotten him
Giving up hope.
When Tom stood face to face with his persecutor, and heard his threats, and thought in his very soul that his hour was come, his heart swelled bravely in him, and he thought he could bear torture and fire, bear anything, with the vision of Jesus and heaven but just a step beyond
Re-occurring theme of Christianity and God.
Have not many of us in the weary way of life felt in some hours how far easier it were to die than to live?
Their journey is taking a toll on them and they are beginning to question whether it's worth it or not.
You say your fathers did it; if it was right for them, it is right for me!
Here George is referring to the founding fathers succeeding from Britain because they were treating Americans unfairly and wanted to be set free from the ties of Britain. He is correlating this to black people wanting to be set free from America because although it is the land of the free, they are not free.
“My country again! Mr. Wilson, you have a country; but what country have I, or any one like me, born of slave mothers? What laws are there for us? We don’t make them—we don’t consent to them—we have nothing to do with them—all they do for us is to crush us, and keep us down. Haven’t I heard your fourth of July speeches? Don’t you tell us all once a year that Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed? Can’t a fellow think that hears such things? Can’t he put this and that together, and see what it comes to?”
In this quote Stowe is referencing the government of America and the laws which people abide by. They say that the government derives power from the governed, yet slaves who are also people aren't allowed to participate or even think for themselves, making the premise of American law untrue and hypocritical.
“I wonder, Mr. Wilson, if the Indians should come and take you a prisoner away from your wife and children, and want to keep you all your life hoeing corn for them, if you’d think it your duty to abide in the condition in which you were called.
George is trying to make Mr. Wilson see that white people enslaving him is the exact same thing as when the Indians enslave white people. By saying this, Stowe is trying to appeal to the readers and make them see that slavery in any form is wrong, regardless of the skin color.
But you know how the angel commanded Hagar to return to her mistress, and submit herself under her hand; and the Apostle sent back Onesimus to his master.”
Here he is making biblical references trying to clarify why George should go back to his master.
“My country!” said George, with a strong and bitter emphasis; “what country have I but the grave—and I wish to God that I was laid there!”
Many slaves did not consider themselves a part of America. They were forced to come here and forced to adapt to a life of possession and enslavement, and often did not consider themselves American.
John Bunyan
An English writer and puritan preacher. He was in prison for some of his life but was still a famous puritan writer. Source: http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/musiciansartistsandwriters/john-bunyan.html
obsequious
Obedient or attentive to.
“These yer knowin boys is allers aggravatin and sarcy,” said a coarse-looking fellow, from the other side of the room; “that’s why they gets cut up and marked so. If they behaved themselves, they wouldn’t.
This displays the overall attitude of the south about slaves.
. He is an ingenious fellow, too: he invented a machine for the cleaning of hemp—a really valuable affair; it’s gone into use in several factories
This is the machine his last master punished him for because he believed George was disrespecting him by trying to be smarter than him.
Treat em like dogs, and you’ll have dogs’ works and dogs’ actions. Treat em like men, and you’ll have men’s work
This is referring to how slave owners treat the slaves. He's saying that if you treat them poorly they're going to lash out and not work as hard, but if you treat them with respect they will respect you.
cumbrous
Large or heavy.
Ran away from the subscriber, my mulatto boy, George. Said George six feet in height, a very light mulatto, brown curly hair, is very intelligent, speaks handsomely, can read and write, will probably try to pass for a white man, is deeply scarred on his back and shoulders, has been branded in his right hand with the letter H
This is the sign that is being put up the help capture George, Eliza's husband.
valise
Small traveling bag.
nonchalant bonhommie
This means casual friendliness or genuineness.
stars to hold their candles
This is a personification, saying the stars were their light sources.
pantaloons
Tight fitting pants worn by men specifically in the 19th century.
chapeau
Another word for hat or cap.
In fact, everybody in the room bore on his head this characteristic emblem of man’s sovereignty
The hats that each of the men wore said something distinctly about their personalities. By looking at what was on their heads you could tell if there were jolly, thorough, or careless.
game-bags
A bag that you put the dead animal you hunted in.
alighted
To descend from a bus, train, or other form of transportation.