SOURCE: "A Lie More Palatable than the Truth': Fictional Sisterhood in a Fictional South," in Black and White Women of the Old South: The Peculiar Sisterhood in American Literature, The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1985, pp. 19-43.

In the following excerpt, Gwin discusses the relationships between white and black female characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin, emphasizing the strength of these bonds against the threat of slavery.

In Uncle Tom's Cabin, where slavery is linked to the male sphere, the bonds between white and black women not only provide succor but can generate enormous power against that sphere. The bonds between Mrs. Shelby and two of her female slaves, Eliza and Aunt Chloe, provide a literal and metaphorical frame for the novel. All three women characters are stereotypes. Stowe herself acknowledged Mrs. Shelby as "a fair type of the very best class of Southern women"—and the Shelbys' Kentucky...