Uncle Tom's Cabin

Revelations is a motif that features prominently in the novel because of the implications it has for an ostensibly Christian society that commits the great moral sin of upholding slavery. Due to its fantastic imagery, it captures the childish imaginations of Tom, Eva, and young George Shelby, the last of whom introduces the motif by reading it to a rapt audience of slaves.

Much of Stowe’s argument against slavery in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is based on Christian thought, imagery, and doctrine, as well as on biblical scripture. The Book of Revelations is the final book of the New Testament. It depicts the apocalypse, the rise and fall of the Antichrist, the second coming of Christ, and the Last Judgement. The Last Judgement is the apocalyptic event wherein all of the dead of human history are resurrected to be judged, either sent to Heaven or banished to Hell based on the degree of their virtue or sin.

Revelations shows the hypocrisy of a Christian society that believes that black people have souls yet subjects them to a horrific degree of degradation. Eva, who reads Revelations frequently with Uncle Tom, makes it clear that this hypocrisy is damaging not only to the souls of the slaves, but also to the souls of their white masters.