The novel takes place in the early 1850s. in USA. He opens with a conversation between the "good" Shelby planter and the slave trader Galey, to whom he wants to sell his best black man, Uncle Tom, to pay his debts. Speaking about humanism, understood very peculiarly, Galey expresses the point of view of many slave traders: he should not, he believes, sell the child in front of his mother so that there are no unnecessary tears and, thus, the goods are not spoiled. It’s also not worth it to flog them too much, but you don’t need to rush too much - “kindness comes out to them sideways”. In addition to Tom, Galey asks to sell him Harry, the son of the quarter-house Eliza, the maid of the hostess.
Eliza's husband George Harris is a slave to a nearby planter. Once he worked in a factory, where he proved himself very well, but the owner did not want to tolerate the independence of the black man and put him on the hardest work. Two children of Eliza and George died in infancy, so Eliza is especially attached to her baby.
On the same day, George comes to Eliza and informs her of his intention to flee to Canada, as the owner forces him to marry another, although they were crowned with Eliza by a priest.
By signing the merchants to Tom and Harry, Mr. Shelby talks about everything to his wife. Eliza hears their conversation and decides to run to save the child. She calls Uncle Tom with her, but he is ready to submit to fate.
About the escape becomes known only in the morning. The runaway has been chased, but she manages to cross the ice to the state of Ohio, where slavery is prohibited.
Missing runaway Gayley accidentally meets Tom Locker and his companion named Marx, runaway slave hunters who agree to help him.
Eliza ends up in Senator Byrd’s house, who does not share the ideas of the slave trade and helps her hide with reliable people.
Meanwhile, Galey takes Tom from Shelby's estate, shackling him in shackles. The eldest son of the owners George gives Tom a silver dollar as a keepsake and swears that when he grows up, he will neither sell nor buy slaves.
Arriving in the city, Galey buys at the auction a few more slaves, separating the children from their mothers. Then the blacks are loaded onto the ship - they need to be transported to the southern states. Shackled slaves are taken on the lower deck, and on the upper one whites ride freely, discussing the slave trade. Some believe that blacks on plantations live better than free, others believe that the worst thing in slavery is “abuse of human feelings, affection,” others believe that God himself judged Africans to be slaves and be content with their position.
During one of the parking lots, Galey returns with a young black woman who is nursing a ten-month-old baby. He immediately sells the child for $ 45, and he is secretly taken from his mother. In desperation, she throws herself into the water.
A rich and noble gentleman from New Orleans named Saint-Clair with a six-year-old daughter and an elderly relative travels on the same boat. "Tom watched the girl with interest, for the blacks with their characteristic kindness and sensitivity always reach for everything clean, childish." Somehow, a girl, leaning over the side, falls into the water, and Tom saves her. A grateful father buys Tom from Galey.
Augustin Saint-Clair, the son of a wealthy Louisiana planter, returns home to New Orleans. An elderly relative is his cousin Miss Ophelia, the embodiment of accuracy and order. Her basic life principle is a sense of duty. In Augustin’s house, she will manage the household, as her cousin’s wife is in poor health.
Saint-Clair's wife, Marie, turns out to be an ebullient, selfish creature favoring slavery. Saint-Clair has a purely pragmatic attitude towards slavery - he understands that you cannot eradicate it, as long as it is profitable for white. Looking at Ophelia, he notes the ambivalence towards the blacks of the northerners: "You treat them with disgust <...> and at the same time intercede for them."
Meanwhile, Eliza and George, sheltered by the Quaker community, are preparing to flee to Canada. Together with them goes the black man Jim. He has been living in Canada for a long time, but returned to the USA to take his elderly mother with him.
Suddenly they learn that a chase has been organized behind them, in which Tom Locker, two police officers and a local rabble are participating. During the shootout, George injures Tom Locker. The accomplices abandon him, and the fugitives pick up and take him to a house where good care is organized for him.
The action is again transferred to the house of Saint-Clair. Its inhabitants are intensely discussing the problem of slavery. Augustin condemns slavery, but cannot confront it alone. In order not to encounter his most rude manifestations every hour, he refused to own the plantation. He is sure that in the end the Negroes, like the masses of the whole world, will conquer freedom for themselves.
Once he brings Ophelia a black woman of about eight named Topsy, whom the former owner brutally beat. The girl is very smart. She is described as a prankster and a thief, but kind and sympathetic in her soul.
It takes two years. It turns out that the daughter of Saint-Clair Evangeline (abbreviated Eve) suffers from consumption. This is a very tender and responsive girl. Her dream is to let all blacks go free and educate them. But most of all, she is attached to Uncle Tom.
One day, talking with her father, she tells him that she will die soon, and asks after her death to release Uncle Tom. Saint-Clair promises her this, but his promise is not destined to be fulfilled: shortly after the death of his daughter, he tragically dies in a drunken brawl. Well, at least Miss Ophelia manages to get a gift from him on Topsy.
After the death of Saint-Clair, the oppressive Marie takes matters into her own hands. She is going to sell her husband’s house and all her slaves and leave for her father’s plantation. For Tom, this means eternal slavery. The landlady does not want to hear that, in fulfillment of the will of her deceased daughter, they were given freedom, and together with other blacks he is sent to a slave hut, where they collect a lot of blacks for auction.
A slave hut is the same as a trading warehouse: several blacks, women and men are exhibited in front of it as samples of goods. It is difficult to describe the suffering of blacks before the auction - they are mentally prepared for being separated from their families, torn from their familiar, familiar environment, and given into the hands of evil people. “One of the most terrible circumstances associated with slavery is that a Negro <...> at any moment can fall into the hands of a cruel and rude tyrant, just like the table that once decorated a luxurious living room, is living out its life in a dirty restaurant. The only difference is that the table does not feel anything, while a person <...> cannot be taken away his soul, <...> memories and attachments, desires and fears. "
Tom gets to Simon Legry. He immediately makes him change into the coarse clothes of a slave, and sells his things to the sailors of the steamship on which he is going home. On the Legri plantation, new slaves are settled in miserable shacks, where it is so crowded that the apple has nowhere to fall. They sleep here right on the ground, laying a little straw. The diet is extremely scarce: after exhausting labor at the cotton picking - only one tortilla from cornmeal.
One day, a beautiful, stately quarter of Cassi, the owner’s mistress, comes out to pick cotton. She works very fast, helps the weak and lagging behind. Tom also shares the collected cotton - with Lucy, a sick mulatto. In the evening, the owner, seeing Tom’s good work, decides to appoint him overseer and first wants to make him flog Lucy and several more slaves. Tom resolutely refuses, for which he himself is beaten.
In the evening, Cassie comes to him, lubricates his wounds and talks about himself. Her father was a wealthy planter, and she received a good education. However, his father died suddenly and did not have time to give her free. She was bought by a young man whom she loved very much and from whom she gave birth to two children, but he, having made debts, also sold it. Her children were taken away, and she began to move from one owner to another. Cassie has a great influence on Legry and persuades him to leave Tom alone - at least for the duration of the field work.
For Eliza and George, the hour of long-awaited freedom is drawing near. Struck by their nobility, Tom Locker (having recovered, he decided to abandon the hunt for people and go hunting for bears) warns them that detectives can wait for them on the ship on which they are going to cross to Canada. Then Eliza changes into a men's suit; Harry is dressed up as a girl and temporarily given to Mrs. Smith, a white Canadian who is returning to her homeland. They manage to safely cross the border lake Erie to the town of Amherstberg, where they stay in the house of a local priest.
And at Leggry's estate, Tom waits in vain for news from the old masters. Cassie offers him to kill the master, but he does not want to take sin into his soul. He also refuses to run, but Cassie with the new lover Legri young Emmeline is plotting an escape. Pretending to run to the swamps, women are hiding in the attic, causing all inhabitants of the estate, including Legri, superstitious fear. In an attempt to find out where Cassie and Emmeline had gone, he orders his henchmen to beat Tom. Those very zealously carry out the order.
Suddenly, George Shelby arrives at the estate, miraculously looking for Uncle Tom, but cannot take the black man with him - he dies in his arms. At the grave of Tom, George, who, after the death of his father, became the owner of the estate, swears that he will never have slaves.
Taking advantage of the situation, Cassie and Emmeline run from the attic. On the boat, they meet with George Shelby and a certain Madame de Tu, who travels with her daughter. It turns out that she is the sister of George Harris. Young Shelby begins to tell her about the fate of George, and Cassi accidentally hearing their conversation realizes that his wife Eliza is her daughter.
Together with Madame de Tu Cassi, he goes to Canada, where he finds a daughter. Upon mature thought, the reunited family decides to move to France. On the boat Emmeline marries the 1st assistant captain.
In France, George Harris receives a good education and moves to Liberia, which he considers his homeland. Madame de Tu finds the son of Cassi, who is also going to Africa.
Having learned about the death of her husband, Aunt Chloe, who went on special work to buy him, finds no place for grief, and George Shelby fulfills the oath made on the grave of Uncle Tom and gives freedom to all his slaves.
