Uncle Tom's Cabin

One main theme I noticed in the past stories we have read is that children are almost represented as this idea of the "blank slate" from the philosophy of John Locke. In The Lamplighter for instance, Gerty was seen as a good, kind child for the most part except when her temper kicked in but we have this idea that she can be helped and eventually mended into an ideal young woman that will go by the standards of society. This idea also supports the theme about how children are associated with hope and potential. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, we notice the complete opposite idea about children. It is obvious that children are seen as a burden and a bother that will only complicate things, especially for slave traders like Haley.

Haley even mentions how he doesn't see how slave women are so attached to their children when all children do is bring them misery. He says, "I never could n't see into it; youn uns is heaps of trouble to 'em; one would think, now; they'd be glad to be clear on 'em; but they arn't." (259). In the world of slavery, children are not this idea of hope and potential, but rather bring complications, are not very useful, and slave children are certainly not helped by any strangers as with Ellen and Gerty in The Wide, Wide World and The Lamplighter. The only people that seem to value children in Uncle Tom's Cabin are those that are related to the child with the most important relative being the mother. Eliza even emphasizes how important her child is to her when she says, " I have lost two, one after another,-left 'em buried there when I came away; and I had only this one left. I never slept a night without him; he was all I had. He was my comfort and pride, day and night; and ma'am they were going to take him away from me,-sell him,-sell him down south, ma'am, to go all alone,-a baby that had never been away from his mother in his life!" (280). There is also the instance when the slave at the end of chapter 12 commits suicide when Haley sells her baby because that is all she probably had left as a purpose to keep going with her life.

In this instance, we see how cruel slavery was to children and especially their mothers. It is not the same situation as in the past stories where children end up being cared for and grow up to be fine representations of society because slave children did not have that chance. If a slave child grew up with their parent it was by a miracle because children were being traded and sold left and right along with their parents. Also, as Haley saw it, many slave owners saw children as a burden and something that would get in the way of succeessfully trading and selling slaves so it was also a miracle if a slave child grew up to be an exemplary adult because very few people wanted to deal with them.