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Chapter 1

• Mr. Shelby, a Kentucky plantation owner and a "gentlemen," and Mr. Haley, an uncouth, unsophisticated, racist-to-the-bone man from farther south than Kentucky have a discussion on Mr. Shelby's plantation porch about Shelby's unwilling, but necessary, decision to sell his esteemed slave Tom to Shelby.

• In the course of discussion it is apparent that Mr. Shelby is a slave owner who has feelings about the happiness of his slaves and who recognizes the bond that all family members have.

• On the other hand, Mr. Haley sees a child slave, Harry, and wants to buy him or his mother Eliza, but Mr. Selby is very reluctant to separate mother from son.
• The conversation about separating the mother and son in sale serves to offer the reader two opposing views on race at that time--namely, Shelby who recognized blacks' humanity versus Haley's view of the black race lacking humane sentiment...

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