The truth about Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom is a character from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a book that was the world's first best seller and rumored to have started the American Civil War. Uncle Tom wasn't the only character in the book to become a common term in American speech as the name Simeon Legree is used to reference a mean spirited miser.

To verify my understanding of the common usage of the name "Uncle Tom" I asked several people to define the term for me. The term is used to mean a black man who began his intentions to benefit others of his own race but then turned his back on them for his own benefit.

I can understand how someone may arrive at that conclusion. Uncle Tom was a slave that was dedicated to his slave master, loyal to his people,i.e., other blacks in slavery, and consecrated to his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It was his faith that guided all his decisions in life, caused his eventual death, and earned him his place in immortality as a traitor to his people. It is a reputation that is not justified.

The situation he found himself in was as a slave to the powerful and abusive Simeon Legree. Uncle Tom was purchased with the intent of making him an overseer of other slaves which earned him the dislike of the two overseers already working under Simeon Legree. When Uncle Tom refused to raise his hand against another slave Legree had him whipped until he was almost dead. He was nursed by a slave woman who had lived in the main house until she showed her displeasure at Legree bringing home another slave girl to live in the main house.

The woman, Cassey, moved back into the house with the purpose of protecting Tom and the new slave girl. One day she came to Tom with an idea. She had spiked Legrees drinks and he was in a deep stupor and she wished Tom to come to the house and kill Simeon with an ax. As a Christian he refused.

It was this refusal that earned him is reputation as a traitor to his people. A reputation that was, and is, totally undeserved. I would be proud to have the character of Uncle Tom.

Cassie and the other slave girl hatched an elaborate plan to escape and when Legree thought that they had been able to pull that plan off, he sought out Tom. He asked Tom if he knew what became of the two females, Tom admitted that he did but he also refused to tell. Legree beat him so bad that it was evident that Tom could not survive. While laying down to die, he lead the two overseers to a faith in Christ, the two women were able to make good their escape, and Simeon Legree died within a month or two from his weaken condition due to abuse of alcohol.

No one can say what would have happened if Tom had succomed to the temptation to kill Legree but chances are that Tom might have been lynched, his testimony would certainly have been destroyed, and perhaps all the other slaves would have been hunted down like dogs once Legrees death had been discovered.

No, Uncle Tom, wasn't a traitor to his people but a shinning example of a life well lived that all people would do well to follow.