Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet wrote the book to awaken people to the horrors of slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin is the best selling piece of American literature of all time. .
The book starts in Kentucky on the farm of Mr. Shelby. Mr. Shelby is a kind man who cares for his slaves and teaches them to be good Christians. Unfortunately Mr. Shelby has fallen into debt and must sell some of his slaves to a slave trader. He decides to sell Uncle Tom and the son of his wife's favorite slave, Eliza. Eliza is married to a slave on a nearby farm named George Harris. George is a very smart man who works at a factory and is one of the best workers there. His owner decides to pull him away from the factory he loves though so he can show him he's still a slave. Eliza soon finds out that her boy has been sold and runs away in an attempt to save him. She also warns Uncle Tom he has been sold but he decides to stay and let himself be sold because if he isn't all the slaves will have to be. .
Uncle Tom is sold to a kind man in New Orleans named Sinclair. He is bought to watch his perfect little girl, Eva. Eva loves Uncle Tom and they become good friends. Eva becomes ill and passes away, deeply saddening Uncle Tom. Then his kind master passes away after trying to break up a dispute. So Uncle Tom is sold a second time, and this time he is not so lucky. He is sold to a plantation owner, the cold hearted Simon Legree. Simon is a faithless man who has big plans for the pious Tom. Legree wants Tom to be an overseer who would discipline other slaves but quickly sees Tom could never do that. When Tom refuses to beat a slave woman he is whipped. Eventually, he is whipped so badly he passes away. .
Eliza gets help from a group of Quakers who help her and her family escape. They settle in Canada where George gets a job as a mechanic. They are finally seen as equal to white people, and control their own future.
