Uncle Tom

I just finished "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and I now know that the negative connotation that the term "uncle tom" had during the civil rights movement was inaccurate. This character was not a happy-go-lucky "Mas'r" pleaser. He thought things through, he was patient and his faith in God made him a survivor. When he left Shelby's plantation, for example, he chose not to run away simply because it would endanger his family. Yet he supported Eliza's decision to run. Slavery was an impossible situation with few choices; Uncle Tom did what he thought was best for his family. <br><br>I read that people also used to criticize the depiction of slave owners in the book. Stowe actually starts the book showing how kind the Shelby's were. Besides, we already now how people with power behave; the famous psychology experiement of role playing with "jailers" and "prisoners" showed that, as the experiment developed, the people with "power" (ie. the "jailers") gradually began to enjoy having "power" and actually became cruel.