Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Original Edition | Liberty - Chapter 3

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - Chapter 3

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dream Audio Books Presents Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet beecher Stowe,
Chapter three. The husband and father Missus Shelby, had gone
on her visit, and Eliza stood in the veranda rather dejectedly,
looking after the retreating carriage. When a hand was laid
on her shoulder, she turned and a bright smile lighted
up her fine eyes. George, is it you? How you

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frightened me? Well, I am so glad you's come. Missus
gone to spend the afternoon. So come into my little
room and we'll have this time all to ourselves. Saying this,
she drew him into a neat little apartment opening on
the veranda, where she generally sat at her sewing, within
call of her mistress. How glad I am. Why don't

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you smile? And look at Harry how he grows? The
boys stood shyly, regarding his father through his curls, holding
close to the skirts of his mother's dress. Isn't he beautiful?
Said Eliza, lifting his long curls and kissing him. I
wish she'd never been born, said George bitterly. I wish

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I'd never been born myself. Surprised and frightened, Eliza sat down,
leaned her head on her husband's shoulder and burst into tears.
There now, Liza, it's too bad for me to make
you feel so poor, girl, said he fondly. It's too bad. Oh,
how I wish you never had seen me? You might

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have been happy, George, George, how can you talk? So?
What dreadful thing has happened or is going to happen?
I'm sure we've been very happy till lately, so we have, dear,
said George, then, drawing his child on his knee, he
gazed intently on his glorious dark eyes and passed his

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hands through his long curls. Just like you, Eliza, And
you are the handsomest woman I ever saw, and the
best one I ever wished to see. But oh, I
wish I'd never seen you, nor you me. Oh George,
how can you? Yes, Eliza, it's all misery, misery, misery.

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My life as bitter as wormwood. The very life is
burning out of me. I'm a poor, miserable, forlorn drudge.
I shall only drag you down with me, that's all.
What's the use of our trying to do anything, trying
to do no anything, trying to be anything? What's the
use of living? I wish I was dead. Oh now,

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dear George, that is really wicked. I know how you
feel about losing your place in the factory, and you
have a hard master. But pray be patient, and perhaps
something patient, said he interrupting her. Haven't I been patient?
Did I say a word when he came and took
me away for no earthly reason, from the place where

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everybody was kind to me. I've paid him, truly, every
cent of my earnings, and they all say I worked well. Well,
it is dreadful, said Eliza. But after all, he is
your master, you know, my master? And who made him
my master? That's what I think of. What right has
he to me? I'm a man as much as he is.

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I'm a better man than he is. I know more
about business than he does. I am a better manager
than he is. I can read better than he can.
I can write a better hand and I've learned it
all myself, and no thanks to him. I've learned it
in spite of him. And now what right has he
to make a dray horse of me, to take me

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from things I can do and do better than he can,
and put me to work that any horse can do.
He tries to do it. He says, he'll bring me
down and humble me, and he puts me to just
the hardest, meanest and dirtiest work on purpose. Oh, George, George,
you've frighten me. Why I never heard you talk, So

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I'm afraid you'll do something dreadful. I don't wonder at
your feelings at all, But oh, do be careful, Do
do for my sake, for Harry's. I have been careful,
and I have been patient, but it's growin worse, an
worse flesh an blood. Can't bear it any longer. Every
chance he can get to insult and torment me, he takes.

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I thought I could do my work well and keep
on quiet and have some time to read and learn
out of work hours. But the more he see I
can do, the more he loads on. He says that
though I don't say anything, he sees I got the
devil in me, and he means to bring it out,
and one of these days it will come out in
a way that he won't like or I'm mistaken. Oh dear,

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what shall we do? Said Eliza mournfully. It was only yesterday,
said George, as I was busy loading stones into a cart.
That young massa Tom stood there, slashing his whip so
near the horse that the creature was frightened. I asked
him to stop, as pleasant as I could. He just
keept right on. I begged him again. Then he turned

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on me and began to striking me. I held his hand,
and then he screamed and kicked, and ran to his
father and told him that I was fighting him. He
came in a rage and said he'd teach me who
was my master. And he tied me to a tree
and cut switches for young master, and told him that
he might whip me till he was tired. And he
did do it, if I don't make him remember it.

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Some time and the brow of the young man grew dark,
and his eyes burned with an expression that made his
young wife tremble. Who made this man my master? That's
what I want to know, he said, Well, said Eliza mournfully.
I always thought that I must obey my master and mistress,
or I couldn't be a Christian. There is some sense

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in it. In your case. They have brought you up
like a child, fed you, clothed you, indulged you, and
taught you so that you have a good education. That
is some reason why they should claim you. But I
have been kicked and cuffed and sworn at, and at
the best only let alone. And what do I Oh,
I've paid for all my keeping a hundred times over.

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I won't bear it, No, I won't, he said, clenching
his hand with a fierce frown. Eliza trembled and was silent.
She had never seen her husband in this mood before,
and her gentle system of ethics seemed to bend like
a reed in the surges of such passion. You know,
poor little Carlo, that you gave me, added George. The
creature has been about all the comfort that I've had.

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He has slept with me nights and followed me round
days and kinda looked at me as if he understood
how I felt. Well. The other day I was just
feedin him with a few old scraps I picked up
by the kitchen door, and Massa came along and said
I was feeding him up at his expense, and that
he couldn't afford to have every nigga keep in his dog,
and ordered me to tie a stone to his neck

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and throw him into the pond. Oh, George, you didn't
do it? Do it not I? But he did? Massa
and Tom pelted the poor drowning creature with stones, poor thing.
He looked at me so mournful, as if he wondered
why I didn't save him. I had to take a
flogging because I wouldn't do it myself. I don't care.

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Massa will find out that I'm one that whipping won't tame.
My day will come yet if he don't look out,
what are you going to do? Oh George, don't do
anything wicked. If you only trust in God and try
to do right, he'll deliver you. I ain't a Christian
like you, Eliza. My heart's full of bitterness. I can't

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trust in God. Why does he let things be so?
Oh George, we must have faith. Mistress says that when
all things go wrong to us, we must believe that
God is doing the very best. That's easy to say
for people that are sitting on their sofas and riding
in their carriages, but let them be where I am.
I guess it would come some harder. I wish I

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could be good, but my heart burns and can't be
reconciled anyhow. You couldn't in my place. You can't now
if I tell you all I've got to say, know
the hole yet, what can be coming now? Well? Lately
Mass has been saying that he was a fool to
let me marry off the place, that he hates mister

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Shelby and all his try because they are proud and
hold their heads up above him, and that I've got
proud notions from you. And he says he won't let
me come here any more, and that I shall take
a wife and settle down on his place. At first
he only scolded and grumbled these things, But yesterday he
told me that I should take Mina for a wife
and settle down in a cabin with her, or he

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would sell me down river. Why but you were married
to me by the minister, as much as if you'd
been a white man, said Eliza, Simply, don't you know
a slave can't be married? There is no law in
this country for that. I can't hold you for my
wife if he chooses to part us. That's why I
wish i'd never seen you. Why I wish I'd never

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been born, and would have been better for us both.
It would have been better for this poor childil if
he had never been born, all this may happen to him. Yet. Oh,
but master is so kind. Yes, but who knows? He
may die, and then he may be sold. Nobody knows
who what pleasure is it that he is handsome and
smart and bright. I tell you, Eliza, that a sword

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will pierce through your soul. For every good and pleasant
thing your child is or has, it will make him
worth too much for you to keep the words smote
heavily on Eliza's heart. The vision of the trader came
before her eyes, and as if some one had struck
her a deadly blow, she turned pale and gasped for breath.
She looked nervously out on the verandah, where the boy,

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tired of the grave conversation, had retired, and where he
was riding triumphantly up and down on mister Shelby's walking stick.
He would have spoken to tell her husband her fears,
but checked herself. No, no, he has enough to bear,
poor fellow, She thought, No, I won't tell him. Besides,
it ain't true. Missus never deceives us. So Liza, my girl,

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said the husband mournfully. Bear up now and good bye,
for I'm going going, George, going where to Canada, said he,
straightening himself up. And when I'm there, I'll buy you.
That's all the hope that's left us. You have a
kind master that won't refuse to sell you. I'll buy you,

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and the boy God helping me. I will, oh, dreadful,
if you should be taken. I won't be taken, Eliza.
I'll die first. I'll be free, or I'll die. You
won't kill yourself, no need of that. They will kill
me fast enough. They never will get me down the
river alive. Oh George, for my sake, to be careful.

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Don't do anything wicked. Don't lay hands on yourself or
anybody else. You are tempted too much, too much, But
don't go. You must, but go carefully, prudently. Pray God
help you well. Then, Eliza, hear my plan. Massad took
it into his head to send me right by here
with a note to mister Symes that lives a mile past.

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I believe he expected I should come here to tell
you what I have. It would please him if he
thought it would aggravate Shelby's folks. As he calls him,
I'm going home, quite resigned. You understand as if all
was over. I've got some preparations made, and there are
those that will help me, and in the course of
a week or so I shall be among the missing.

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Some day. Pray for me, Eliza. Perhaps the Good Lord
will hear you. Oh, pray yourself, George, and go trusting
in him. Then you won't do anything wicked. Well, now,
good bye, said George, holding Eliza's hands and gazing into
her eyes. Without moving, they stood silent. Then there were

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last words, and sobs and bitter weeping. Such parting as
those may make whose hope to meet again is as
the web and the husband and wife were parted. End
of Chapter three. Dream Audio Books hopes you have enjoyed
this program.