SOURCE: "The Rehabilitation of Uncle Tom: Significant Themes in Mrs. Stowe's Antislavery Novel," in CLA Journal, Vol. XVII, No. 2, December, 1973, pp. 230-40.

In the excerpt that follows, Cassara outlines the features that make Tom a heroic figure, in contrast to those who view him as the obsequious character from which the pejorative term "Uncle Tom" has derived.

The expression "Uncle Tom" in the context of today's racial tensions has come to stand for a servile, cringing, hypocritical Negro who is willing to accommodate to the white power structure and to a less-than-equal place in American society. The melodramatic stage adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin by George L. Aiken in 1852 contributed to this misunderstanding of the character of Uncle Tom, as did a long line of successors in the form of the "Tom shows" which pictured Uncle Tom writhing at the feet of the whip-wielding Simon Legree. This stereotypical...