How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I would rather not sell him," said Mr. Shelby, thoughtfully; "the fact is, sir, I'm a humane man, and I hate to take the boy from his mother, sir."
"O, you do? – La! Yes – something of that ar ature. I understand, perfectly. It is mighty onpleasant getting on with women, sometimes, I al'ays hates these yer screechin,' screamin' times. They are mighty onpleasant; but, as I manages business, I generally avoids 'em, sir. Now, what if you get the girl off for a day, or a week, or so; then the thing's done quietly, – all over before she comes home. Your wife might get her some ear-rings, or a new gown, or some such truck, to make up with her."
"I'm afraid not."
"Lor bless ye, yes! These critters ain't like white folks, you know; they gets over things, only manage right." (1.41-44)
Mr. Haley expresses a common 19th century racist belief that blacks don’t feel the way whites do about things like family and freedom. According to this bigoted line of thinking, blacks feel differently and less intensely than whites. In this case, Stowe disagrees with the prevailing social opinion that your race affects your ability to feel. The division of any family, black or white, will always cause deep suffering.
Quote #2
"My dear," said Mrs. Shelby, recollecting herself, "forgive me. I have been hasty. I was surprised, and entirely unprepared for this; – but surely you will allow me to intercede for these poor creatures. Tom is a noble-hearted, faithful fellow, if he is black. I do believe, Mr. Shelby, that if he were put to it, he would lay down his life for you." (5.22)
Though she may be against slavery, even Mrs. Shelby thinks black people are inherently different – more childlike, perhaps – than whites. "Tom is a noble-hearted, faithful fellow, if he is black" is a good line to use to sum up race in this novel. While there are virtuous blacks here, the novel always implies that it’s a little bit surprising that they’re both black and virtuous. Mrs. Shelby’s defense of Tom makes us cheer, but her racism makes us cringe.
Quote #3
"The most dreadful part of slavery, to my mind, is its outrages on the feelings and affections, – the separating of families, for example."
"That is a bad thing, certainly," said the other lady, holding up a baby's dress she had just completed, and looking intently on its trimmings; "but then, I fancy, it don't occur often."
"O, it does," said the first lady, eagerly; "I've lived many years in Kentucky and Virginia both, and I've seen enough to make any one's heart sick. Suppose, ma'am, your two children, there, should be taken from you, and sold?"
"We can't reason from our feelings to those of this class of persons," said the other lady, sorting out some worsteds on her lap.
"Indeed, ma'am, you can know nothing of them, if you say so," answered the first lady, warmly. "I was born and brought up among them. I know they do feel, just as keenly, – even more so, perhaps, – as we do." (12.64-68)
Two ladies express vastly different views as to whether blacks are "human" or not – or whether they are "human" in the same way whites are. The "other woman," who believes blacks are better off as slaves, justifies slavery in the same way that Haley does: by claiming that the feelings of blacks aren’t comparable to those of whites. Stowe will continually try to undermine this assumption by establishing sympathetic bonds between mothers of all races, such as Eliza and Mrs. Bird.
Quote #4
"It's undoubtedly the intention of Providence that the African race should be servants, – kept in a low condition," said a grave-looking gentleman in black, a clergyman, seated by the cabin door. "'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be,' the scripture says." (12.70)
This is one of the common 19th century defenses of slavery – the claim that blacks are a race cursed by God and that the Bible condemns them to be slaves forever. (See the theme "Religion" for a more extended discussion of this passage.)
Quote #5
"O, there's Mammy!" said Eva, as she flew across the room; and, throwing herself into her arms, she kissed her repeatedly.
This woman did not tell her that she made her head ache, but, on the contrary, she hugged her, and laughed, and cried, till her sanity was a thing to be doubted of; and when released from her, Eva flew from one to another, shaking hands and kissing, in a way that Miss Ophelia afterwards declared fairly turned her stomach.
"Well!" said Miss Ophelia, "you southern children can do something that I couldn't."
"What, now, pray?" said St. Clare.
"Well, I want to be kind to everybody, and I wouldn't have anything hurt; but as to kissing – "
"Niggers," said St. Clare, "that you're not up to, – hey?"
"Yes, that's it. How can she?" (15.80-86)
Miss Ophelia may be an abolitionist, but she’s still prejudiced against blacks. She cares about blacks as human beings in theory, but her deep-seated racism makes her reluctant to touch them or interact with them on a personal level. Stowe makes Ophelia’s attitude here emblematic of the North as a whole – a place that claims to be interested in the welfare of blacks, but doesn’t really want to have them around. Of course, this is a broad generalization, but an important one.
Quote #6
"Don't you believe that the Lord made them of one blood with us?" said Miss Ophelia, shortly.
"No, indeed not I! A pretty story, truly! They are a degraded race."
"Don't you think they've got immortal souls?" said Miss Ophelia, with increasing indignation.
"O, well," said Marie, yawning, "that, of course – nobody doubts that. But as to putting them on any sort of equality with us, you know, as if we could be compared, why, it's impossible! Now, St. Clare really has talked to me as if keeping Mammy from her husband was like keeping me from mine. There's no comparing in this way. Mammy couldn't have the feelings that I should. It's a different thing altogether, – of course, it is, – and yet St. Clare pretends not to see it. And just as if Mammy could love her little dirty babies as I love Eva! Yet St. Clare once really and soberly tried to persuade me that it was my duty, with my weak health, and all I suffer, to let Mammy go back, and take somebody else in her place. (16.55-58)
Stowe shows us how complicated racism can be. Marie St. Clare is the most extreme kind of racist; like Haley, she believes blacks have duller feelings than whites, and that the sentiments of a black mother and a white mother toward their children can’t be compared. Ophelia is willing to grant that blacks and whites are the same race and have the same kind of immortal souls. She thinks Marie St. Clare should treat her slaves with greater human compassion. But we’ve seen in other passages that she has a standoffish racism of her own.
Quote #7
"You would think no harm in a child's caressing a large dog, even if he was black; but a creature that can think, and reason, and feel, and is immortal, you shudder at; confess it, cousin. I know the feeling among some of you northerners well enough. Not that there is a particle of virtue in our not having it; but custom with us does what Christianity ought to do, – obliterates the feeling of personal prejudice. I have often noticed, in my travels north, how much stronger this was with you than with us. You loathe them as you would a snake or a toad, yet you are indignant at their wrongs. You would not have them abused; but you don't want to have anything to do with them yourselves. You would send them to Africa, out of your sight and smell, and then send a missionary or two to do up all the self-denial of elevating them compendiously. Isn't that it?"
"Well, cousin," said Miss Ophelia, thoughtfully, "there may be some truth in this."
"What would the poor and lowly do, without children?" said St. Clare, leaning on the railing, and watching Eva, as she tripped off, leading Tom with her. "Your little child is your only true democrat." (16.98-100)
At last, Miss Ophelia is made to recognize her prejudice, while St. Clare explains that children are the only truly just and merciful people in the world. Like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, St. Clare suggests that a social system governed by children would prevent a great deal of injustice.
Quote #8
"I've always had a prejudice against negroes," said Miss Ophelia, "and it's a fact, I never could bear to have that child touch me; but, I didn't think she knew it."
"Trust any child to find that out," said St. Clare; "there's no keeping it from them. But I believe that all the trying in the world to benefit a child, and all the substantial favors you can do them, will never excite one emotion of gratitude, while that feeling of repugnance remains in the heart; – it's a queer kind of a fact, – but so it is."
"I don't know how I can help it," said Miss Ophelia; "they are disagreeable to me, – this child in particular, – how can I help feeling so?"
"Eva does, it seems."
"Well, she's so loving! After all, though, she's no more than Christ-like," said Miss Ophelia; "I wish I were like her. She might teach me a lesson."
"It wouldn't be the first time a little child had been used to instruct an old disciple, if it were so," said St. Clare. (25.53-58)
Miss Ophelia resolves to be more loving to Topsy and to conquer her repugnance of blacks due to Eva’s Christ-like, democratic example. The novel suggests that it’s not enough for Ophelia to believe that blacks are human and to treat Topsy with fairness and discipline. She must also learn to change her inward biases and truly love the little black girl without fearing her blackness and racial difference.
Quote #9
"The Anglo Saxon is the dominant race of the world, and is to be so."
"Well, there is a pretty fair infusion of Anglo Saxon blood among our slaves, now," said Augustine. "There are plenty among them who have only enough of the African to give a sort of tropical warmth and fervor to our calculating firmness and foresight. If ever the San Domingo hour comes, Anglo Saxon blood will lead on the day. Sons of white fathers, with all our haughty feelings burning in their veins, will not always be bought and sold and traded. They will rise, and raise with them their mother's race." (23.62-63)
Although twin brothers Alfred and Augustine St. Clare both seem to believe in white supremacy, Augustine reminds us of an important fact: many of the slaves are of mixed-race descent, part white, part black. Thus, there are more than two races in the novel, and racial categorization can quickly become complicated or impossible. Whites and blacks are literally interrelated in 19th century America, and they can’t be completely separated.
Quote #10
"I was brought up in luxury; the first I remember is, playing about, when I was a child, in splendid parlors, – when I was kept dressed up like a doll, and company and visitors used to praise me. There was a garden opening from the saloon windows; and there I used to play hide-and-go-seek, under the orange-trees, with my brothers and sisters. I went to a convent, and there I learned music, French and embroidery, and what not; and when I was fourteen, I came out to my father's funeral. He died very suddenly, and when the property came to be settled, they found that there was scarcely enough to cover the debts; and when the creditors took an inventory of the property, I was set down in it. My mother was a slave woman, and my father had always meant to set me free; but he had not done it, and so I was set down in the list." (34.46)
Here, Cassy tells Tom her history: the daughter of a free white gentleman and a black slave woman, she moves from the a life of privilege and education to one of slavery and degradation as a result of her father’s death. The very fact that Cassy can exist in either condition shows the reader that her racial background doesn’t prevent Cassy from being a refined Victorian lady – only the subjection of the law of slavery does that.
It’s important to notice that Cassy is labeled in this chapter (although not in this passage) as a "quadroon," meaning someone who is one-quarter black. The 19th century was obsessed with developing specialized terminology to describe the exact racial background of people, including terms like "mulatto," "quadroon," and "octoroon." Notice that this implies lots of racial mixing, and the fact that white people are keeping partly white children as slaves, too. Also, if Cassy is a "quadroon," that means her mother must have been half white too – and that her daughter, Eliza, is only one-eighth black, or "octoroon." At this point, black and white are so mixed that it becomes ridiculous to label "blacks" as "slaves" or as a completely different race.
Quote #11
"I feel somewhat at a loss, as to my future course. True, as you have said to me, I might mingle in the circles of the whites, in this country, my shade of color is so slight, and that of my wife and family scarce perceptible. Well, perhaps, on sufferance, I might. But, to tell you the truth, I have no wish to.
"My sympathies are not for my father's race, but for my mother's. To him I was no more than a fine dog or horse: to my poor heart-broken mother I was a child; and, though I never saw her, after the cruel sale that separated us, till she died, yet I know she always loved me dearly. I know it by my own heart. When I think of all she suffered, of my own early sufferings, of the distresses and struggles of my heroic wife, of my sister, sold in the New Orleans slave-market, – though I hope to have no unchristian sentiments, yet I may be excused for saying, I have no wish to pass for an American, or to identify myself with them.
"It is with the oppressed, enslaved African race that I cast in my lot; and, if I wished anything, I would wish myself two shades darker, rather than one lighter." (43.33)
In a letter to his friends, George Harris explains his decision to emigrate to Liberia: he wants to join with others of African descent and form a nation of their own. George is proud of his black heritage and doesn’t want to live in America by "passing" for white. The reader, however, is a little bit concerned about George leaving America: shouldn’t the novel try to create racial harmony within the United States, instead of sending educated freemen like George back to Africa? Is Stowe’s support for Liberian colonialism another kind of racism? Or is it a way to create political power for former slaves?