Uncle Tom's Cabin Notes | Chapter 2

Eliza has been raised properly and has cultivated manners, intelligence, and bearing. George Harris, Eliza's husband, lives on a neighboring farm; he is also intelligent and well-mannered, and has been allowed by his master to work in a factory off the plantation. Though George's master collects the wages for himself, George is grateful for the opportunity to exercise his intellectual capacities. He invents a machine for the cleaning of hemp, and his boss at the factory remarks to George's master that George is an uncommonly smart and efficient employee.

George's master, an ungrateful and jealous man, quickly yanks George back to the farm, telling him that he will remind George of his proper station. George becomes angry and bitter about his station:

"'Yes Eliza, it's all misery, misery, misery! My life is 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 know anything, trying to be anything! What's the use of living? I wish I was dead.'" Chapter 2, pg. 18