In the warehouse, Tom meets Mr. Skeggs, who owns the warehouse and ensures that the slaves are "well fed, well cleaned, cared for, and looked after" so they will bring the highest prices at the upcoming auction. Sambo, a big, tough slave that Mr. Skeggs keeps to entertain the other slaves, meets the new slaves right away and makes fun of them. Mr. Skeggs wants the slaves to look happy and joyful, so he forces them to sing and dance even though they are sad.

The warehouse is divided by gender. On the women’s side, Tom meets Susan and Emmeline, an enslaved mother and daughter who were raised by a kind woman in a religious home. However, after the woman’s son was careless with her estate, he sold them to Mr. Skeggs to pay his debts. The pair worry about being sold separately.

Shortly after, Tom catches his first glimpse of Simon Legree, his future owner. When he saw him, he "felt an immediate and revolting horror... that grew as he got closer." Legree has a "round, bullet-shaped head," a "big, rough mouth," and "huge, hairy, sun-burned, freckled, and very dirty" hands. He looks at Tom and Emmeline closely and then buys them at an auction. A kind man buys Susan and, when she asks him to, tries to bid on Emmeline as well to keep the two of them together. Legree, on the other hand, is determined to purchase Emmeline and bids more than anyone else for her.

After buying the slaves, Legree puts them on a boat and heads to his Louisiana plantation on the Red River. He trades Tom's clothes and trunk to the people on the boat, but Tom hides his Bible from Legree. Legree then tells his new slaves that he has no mercy and is used to beating the people he owns. He shows them his huge, iron-like fist, and the threat is clear. Two men, one from the South and one from the North, hear Legree's speech. The Southerner says sorry that Legree cannot be used as an example to show the Northerners how slave owners treat their slaves. The Northerner, on the other hand, criticizes his Southern friend, saying that respectable Southern gentlemen are a big part of the system that makes people like Legree possible.

Emmeline meets Lucy, one of the other slaves that Legree bought. Emmeline finds out that Lucy, her husband, and her four children have been separated. Emmeline and Lucy were both raised in religious homes, but they struggle to find comfort in their faith because Legree scares them so much.

When the group gets to Legree's "desolate and uncomfortable" plantation, Sambo and Quimbo, two slaves who work as Legree's drivers or overseers, welcome them. Legree has cruelly set them against the rest of the fieldhands by making them hate each other. Lucy is given to Sambo as his new wife. Emmeline is forced to go with Legree, and Tom and the other slaves are shown where they will live.

Legree's farmhands go back to their cabins in the late evening. Tom helps two women make dinner because they are too tired to do it themselves. They wonder at his kindness, and Tom tells them about the Bible. That evening, Tom dreams about little Eva, which helps a little.