Chapter 31: The slave owner was
Simon Legree, and he was a mean brutish man. While on the boat that would take them upriver to
his plantation, Legree went through Tom's trunk full of clothing, and gave him the shabbiest set of
clothes he could find. He then sold the rest of Tom's things and told him that he did not like
religious slaves. Tom hid his bible and that was the only way he was able to keep it. In
the corner of the boat, Emmeline was tied to another mulatto woman slave and woman told her about having
to leave her husband and children.
Chapter 32: The slaves had to
walk the rest of the way to the shabby plantation, and when they arrived, they were shown their decrepit
quarters. When the slaves of the plantation came in from the cotton fields, they had to go to
the mill and grind their own corn to make their dinners. The only overseers that Legree kept were
two black slaves named Sambo and Quimbo, and both were as ruthless as their master was. The mulatto
woman was giving to Sambo as a wife, but she rebelled to this idea because she already had a family
at home. Emmeline was taken into the plantation house.
Chapter 33: While out picking
cotton one day, Tom noticed a new woman who appeared to be well bred. The other slaves disdained
her, and she ignored their taunts. She was very good at picking cotton, and when Tom saw the mulatto
woman he had come with falter, he gave her some cotton from his bag. To replenish the cotton in
Tom's bag, Cassy gave him some of hers. At the end of the day, they went to have their cotton
weighed, and all of them came out with enough, but Legree after hearing what was going on, pretended
that the mulatto woman was short. Wanting Tom to eventually become an overseer, he ordered him
to flog the woman. Tom said no, and when threatened, continued to refuse to beat the woman.
Legree turned him over to his overseers for an extremely severe beating.
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