Study Questions

1. Why does the author include real life incidents in the final chapter?

2. With what anecdote did the author’s brother provide her regarding the character for Simon Legree?

3. What does Stowe say is the only thing that would protect a slave from abuse?

4. What law prompted Stowe to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

5. What effects does slavery have on its victims?

6. What is the most sought after goal that freed slaves desire?

7. Where did Stowe gain some of her personal knowledge of slavery?

8. How does the author view the role of the church?

9. What is the author’s intent by listing several free blacks’ occupations?

10. Where does the author think is a good refuge for freed and escaped slaves?

Answers

1. She includes these incidents because some of her readers have inquired whether her story had been based on facts.

2. Stowe’s brother recounted an incident in which a slave holder displayed his own fist with which he used to knock down slaves.

3. She states that only a master’s character can protect a slave from abuse.

4. The Fugitive Slave Law prompts Stowe to write her book.

5. She cites that slavery destroys the hearts and minds of the slaves, as well as breaking up families.

6. They desire education.

7. She gains her knowledge of slavery from living in Ohio, on “the frontier-line of slave states.”

8. She viewed the church as the provider of intellectual and moral education.

9. Her intent was to show that freed slaves were capable of working on their own and earning a living.

10. She thinks that Africa is a good refuge.