Toms Three Owners-Shelby, St. Clare and Legree - Essay Example

? of the Tom’s Three Owners-Shelby, St. Clare and Legree Tom, a slave in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is owned by three owners during the course of the novel. The central theme of the story is slavery of Tom and other slaves. Tom is portrayed as a honest and good person who is very happy with his first two owners. However, his third owner, Simon is really cruel and beats Tom to death. His first owner is Mr. Shelby who owns him and his family, but later on because of financial crisis, Tom is sold to slave trader after which, he is sold to St. Clare. Mr. Shelby and St. Clare are shown as kind and God fearing people portrayed in contrast to the evil Legree. However, they are also part of the slave trade system and never try to free any of their slaves during their life time. Initially, Tom is with a more generous slave holder, then he goes to a person having contradictory personality and in the end, to the worst of the slave holders who kills him. This paper discusses the three owners in terms of their comparison to each other. Mr. Arthur Shelby is Tom’s first owner. He appears to be kind to his slaves, but his approach towards leading his life is care free due to which, he gets trapped in debts. He is not a good manager as he has heavy financial loses and consequently, because of being under heavy debts, he sells Tom and Harry. Harry is the son of Eliza who is also well liked as a slave. Mr. Shelby holds slaves on Kentucky farm and has a reputation of behaving well with his slaves as compared to other slave holders. He is kind, but when he sells Eliza’s son, Harry, his attitude towards the slaves appears unkind. Considering this act as unjustified and wrong, Eliza plans to escape with his son and husband to Canada. Shelby draws comparison between him and other slave holders and traders and regards himself better off than those as he regards Haley low as compared to him to whom, he sells Tom and Harry. However, as a slave holder, he is in no way disconnected to the slave traders, slave holders and slavery as a whole. He is a part of the system. Mr. Shelby has a small part in the story, but he appears to be counterpart to St. Clare, who is also a slave holder, but he continuously ponders over the moral association of slave trade and slavery with the Christian society (Yarborough 71). St. Clare like Mr. Shelby is unable to take any action against slavery or for his abolition. Both of the characters are connected with slavery as both of them have slaves of their own. They are comparatively kind to the slaves, but being part of the system, they never free any of their slaves. St. Clare thinks about the ethical and moral condition of slavery while the other two owners, Mr. Shelby and Simon Legree, never think about the morality of the issue. Mr. Shelby never trusts his wife in terms of his financial expenditure and financial condition. His wife acts as the housekeeper of the house, but by keeping important financial information up to himself, Mr. Shelby refuses her full control of the household. He denies her right to know about his financial debts. After the death of Mr. Shelby, his wife and son, George are capable to handle the financial affairs of his property quite easily and within less time indicating towards the ill management of Mr. Shelby in handling his financial affairs. Mr. Shelby as a person is quite irresponsible and careless due to which, he faces lose of his finances. As a slave holder, he is kind and forgiving, but he never considers the moral bearing of his having slaves and proves himself as a part of the system (Yarborough 75). The figure of St. Clare, the second slave holder of Tom is quite incongruous as he is unable to take any action as per his ideas and thinking. He is a good thinker, but a bad doer. He intends to do something, but never does so. St. Clare regards his incapability to perform what he feels and considers his life as “a contemptible non sequitur” and informs that he do not act as per his opinions showing contradiction in his personality (Stowe 98). St. Clare got a slave holding farm in Louisiana. He is an aristocratic figure. As a person, he is aware about slavery as an evil of the society, but he never takes a step to abolish it or never tries to be a part of the abolitionist cause considering the aftereffects of his actions. His mother has died early and he also lost his first love causing him to have a personality drawback. He is not a hard slave owner as he never harms any of his slaves, but he also never tries to free them. He tries to follow Christian values, but is unable to practice the religion wholeheartedly because of the fact that by following the religion, he has to be a part of the abolitionists of slavery. He considers abolition as a huge step against slave owning society of which, he is an active part and he regards Christianity as a solution to the evil’s eradication due to which, he never tries to follow the religious obligations. Stowe explains in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “St. Clare had never pretended to govern him by any religious obligation” (p. 28). St. Clare feels that Christianity has the power to reject slavery. Considering the power, he never tries to act fully on Christian values. Resultantly, covered his notions and give them rationalized wordings that suited his position in society. St. Clare has a cruel brother, Alfred who also owns many slaves, but his attitude is far more changed than St. Clare. He lays the burden of his failure to work against slavery over the shoulders of his brother stating that he cannot do it alone. However, this is untrue, even a single man can do much for fighting against something that is wrong. His personality is contradictory as he knows what is right and what is wrong, but he never does anything to get things right. He shows interest towards having a life that is as easy as possible without taking care of the right. He thinks that the slaves after gaining freedom will have a lot of problems such as existent racism in the society, educational lacking and much more. St. Clare loses his daughter Eva and her lose makes difference in St. Clare’s life as he becomes ready to free Tom. However, before taking the step of freeing Tom, he is killed in an accident after which, his owned slaves are auctioned by his wife, Marie. Simon Legree is Tom’s last owner who is very obnoxious and cruel in his dealing with the slaves. Legree appears as a cruel and oppressive figure who misuses his power over powerless slaves. His character appears after a long time, but his dealing with the slaves makes him quite prominent as a loathsome figure. Tom in his first sight identifies Legree as an evil character (Ducksworth 209). He is inhuman as he beats his slaves to death and is able to get new slaves on cheaper prices. He never cares for the lives of slaves and considers them commodities to be used for own interest. He has no motive towards his malignant approach of leading life. With the appearance of Legree, Tom’s doom can be foreseeable. Legree prefers financial gains and governing people. He seeks pleasure in agonizing people and making them to work through fear. Legree hates Tom because of his goodness considering him a contrast to his own personality. Both of the characters face a personality contrast of evil versus good, which eventually hunts Tom to death. The American laws of the time allowed the punishment of slaves at the hands of their masters as legal and authorized (Ducksworth 211). Legree as the slave holder enjoys the right of harming, beating and killing his slaves on the basis of any faults he may see in them. He also has the right to deny them their right to practice their religion. He was even authorized to impose starvation on them. He is even allowed to keep women slaves as prostitutes or sex slaves. The evil of slavery had Legree at its top most categories and comparatively good men like Mr. Shelby and St. Clare also became a part of the sinful happening. The law allowed people to keep as many slaves as they wished and do whatever they seem appropriate for the slaves without any check or obligation towards caring the slaves. Legree is able to kill Tom and other slaves on the basis of his authority over the slaves that American laws of the time have allowed him. His personality is contemptuous. Tom dislikes him since his first meeting with the man. Legree wants to make him the overseer of the farm, but Tom is not ready for the job as Legree expects him to be cruel and bad like him. All the three owners share some qualities such as owning slaves and accepting slavery as part of society. Mr. Shelby and St. Clare are kind to the slaves as they do not punish the slaves, but show interest in selling slaves to rectify their financial problems. However, Legree is only concerned with his money and dominance. Works Cited Ducksworth, Sarah Smith. "Stowe's Construction of an African Persona and the Creation of White Identity for a New World Order." The Stowe Debate: Rhetorical Strategies in (1994): 205-235. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's cabin. Oxford University Press, 1998. Yarborough, Richard. "Strategies of Black Characterization in Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Early Afro-American Novel." New Essays on Uncle Tom's Cabin45 (1986): 45-84. Read More