Part II

In this longest section of the book, Uncle Tom's saintly character is revealed as he accepts the indignity of being sold "down the river" to New Orleans. On the steamboat Uncle Tom makes friends with a little girl named Eva St. Clare, who is as good-hearted as he is. When Uncle Tom saves Eva after she falls into the river, her father agrees to purchase him in gratitude. Uncle Tom is taken to the St. Clare plantation where he lives a relatively easy life as the head coachman. The mistress of the house, St. Clare's sister Miss Ophelia, who moved from New England to the South, is extremely critical of lazy southern ways. St. Clare buys her an eight-year-old slave, Topsy, to distract her from reorganizing the household. Topsy is contrasted with Eva, who is the same age, but whose saintliness is the opposite of Topsy's...