I was shocked when I saw how bravely Tom stood up to his ‘master’ and refused to obey the order to whip his fellow slave, knowing that the price would inevitably be a painful death. I see that the sacrifice is now-a-days considered to be giving in, but in that context, under those circumstances, his only choices were obey or dis-obey, non-violently or make life even worse for the others and himself. Given those realities, he acted heroically, not as we currently use the phrase ‘an Uncle Tom.’

   Obviously, this meticulously researched book provided me with both linguistic background for my wip Who By Fire    (in terms of how various classes of people spoke during this period), and with the author’s extensive notes at the back of the copy I borrowed from the DC Public Library, with her annotations responding to contemporary criticisms…