History YMMV / UncleTomsCabin

* FairForItsDay: The book is an example in regard to UnfortunateImplications--the blacks are caricatures, but they're at least treated as human beings, and the whole point of the novel was to condemn slavery. When released, the novel outraged the Southerners, and an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tom_literature entire genre]] was created to respond to it. Over the years, supporters of slavery created InNameOnly adaptions of the story that used the worst of the Blackface caricatures. It was these characterizations that stuck in the public's consciousness and gave rise to the concept of the [[UncleTomFoolery "Uncle Tom"]] (the black man who was subservient to white people and was seen as a "sell out" to his own race). The book's Uncle Tom character was anything but the stereotype: he was killed for defying his owner to help other slaves.

* PuritySue: Eva and Uncle Tom are this. Not surprisingly, they are also the least popular characters.
** This is probably ValuesDissonance, as Eva was easily the most popular character when it was first published due to representing what families openly wanted from little girls: a cute and kind ProperLady... leading to an explosion of young girls named Eva in the northern states. Uncle Tom was also popular as a character, considering the popularity of Uncle Tom plays up until past the turn of the century, although racism tended to heavily color his depictions.

* CompleteMonster: Simon Legree is a chilling reminder of the evils of slavery in human form. Legree is brutal to his slaves, working them to death because he considers it a financial boon to himself. It's also made clear he'd do it solely for fun. Legree endeavors to break their spirits and make them despair as he breaks their bodies and minds. Legree is a torturer, rapist and murderer whose only frustration is the good-hearted slave Tom will simply refuse to break, spurring Legree on to greater cruelties to force his submission.

* UncannyValley: Marks, (a bounty hunter that Mr. Haley hires, along with his partner Tom Loker, to track down Eliza), is described as a creepy little blighter with [[CreepyLongFingers "hands like raven's claws"]] and [[SinisterSchnoz "a long, thin nose"]]. He's constantly sniffing and looking at things in a disturbingly catlike manner. He's also a GigglingVilain who finds Haley and Loker's stories about mistreating their slaves hilarious. [[JokingMode Perhaps worst of all is that]] [[RealMenHateSugar he prefers mint julep to whiskey and fruit punch to brandy]].

* UncannyValley: Marks, (a bounty hunter that Mr. Haley hires, along with his partner Tom Loker, to track down Eliza), is described as a creepy little blighter with [[CreepyLongFingers "hands like raven's claws"]] and [[SinisterSchnoz "a long, thin nose"]]. He's constantly sniffing and looking at things in a disturbingly catlike manner. [[JokingMode Perhaps worst of all is that]] [[RealMenHateSugar he prefers mint julep to whiskey and fruit punch to brandy]].

* UncannyValley: Marks, (a bounty hunter that Mr. Haley hires, along with his partner Tom Loker, to track down Eliza), is described as a creepy little blighter with [[CreepyLongFingers "hands like raven's claws"]] and [[SinisterSchnoz "a long, thin nose"]]. He's constantly sniffing and looking at things in a disturbingly catlike manner. Perhaps worst of all is that [[RealMenHateSugar he prefers mint julep to whiskey and fruit punch to brandy]].

* UncannyValley: Marks, (a bounty hunter that Mr. Haley hires, along with his partner Tom Loker, to track down Eliza), is described as a creepy little blighter with [[CreepyLongFingers "hands like raven's claws"]] and [[SinisterSchnoz "a long, thin nose"]]. He's constantly sniffing and looking at things in a disturbingly catlike manner. Perhaps worst of all is that [[SugarIsUnmanly he prefers mint julep to whiskey and fruit punch to brandy]].

* UncannyValley: Marks, (a bounty hunter that Mr. Haley hires, along with his partner Tom Loker, to track down Eliza), is described as a creepy little blighter with [[CreepyLongFingers "hands like raven's claws"]] and [[SinisterSchnoz "a long, thin nose"]]. He's constantly sniffing and looking at things in a disturbingly catlike manner.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The term "Uncle Tom" comes from the minstrel show version, written by people who had nostalgia for the slave trade. This has led people who cannot be bothered to read a book or at least look it up in an encyclopedia or wikipedia before forming an opinion about it to assume the book is an apologia for slavery.

* ValuesDissonance: Aside from the obvious racial issues; there is one point where we're recounted the story of a pair of boys stoning a kitten to death, their mother gets upset, but they never stone a kitten to death again, so lesson learned. It's treated as a case of "boys with be boys", quite at odds with today where a woman putting a cat in a bin was treated with world-wide rage.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The term "Uncle Tom" comes from the minstrel show version, written by people who had nostalgia for the slave trade. This has led many to assume the book is an apologia for slavery.

* CompleteMonster: Simon Legree is a chilling reminder of the evils of slavery in human form. Legree is brutal to his slaves, working them to death because he considers it a financial boon to himself. It's also made clear he'd do it solely for for fun. Legree endeavors to break their spirits and make them despair as he breaks their bodies and minds. Legree is a torturer, rapist and murderer whose only frustration is the good-hearted slave Tom will simply refuse to break, spurring Legree on to greater cruelties to force his submission.

* ValuesDissonance: Aside from the obvious racial issues; there is one point where we're recounted the story of a pair of boys stoning a kitten to death, their mother gets upset, but they never stone a kitten to death again, so lesson learned. It's treated as a case of "boys with be boys", quite at odds with today where a woman putting a cat in a bin was treated with world-wide rage.

* CompleteMonster: Simon Legree is a sociopath and a sadist. He is brutal to his slaves, makes no bones about the fact that he works them to death -- it's cheaper, he says, but it's clear he'd do it ForTheEvulz anyway -- and he endeavors to drag them across the DespairEventHorizon, too. [[spoiler: Fortunately, not only does he fail to break Tom, but Tom revives good and hope in some of the other slaves on Legree's plantation.]]

* OvershadowedByControversy: Not many people would claim to have read the book. It is widely known though that there was intense controversy of its publishing, particularly in years leading up to the AmericanCivilWar.

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: The term "Uncle Tom" comes from the minstrel show version, written by people who had [[AlwaysChaoticEvil nostalgia for the slave trade]]. This has led many to assume the book is an apologia for slavery.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Yes, there's one of these in the whole drama. More exactly, the extremely sly and tricky antics that the Shelby slaves use to delay the slave trader who purchased Harry and Tom so they can help Eliza run away with little Harry.
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: [[spoiler:The reunion of the family at the end]].

** StockholmSyndrome: Tom

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: "Uncle Tom" has become a derogatory term for an ExtremeDoormat black man. However, this kind of character was the only way to effectively get across the book's pro-abolitionist BlackAndWhiteMorality (no pun intended) with minimal alienation of its target audience. Had Tom killed a white man at any point, half of the white Americans at the time might have tuned out.

* WorldOfWoobie:

* TheWoobie: Many.

* CompleteMonster: Simon Legree.

* TearJerker: The whole damn book.
* TheWoobie: So ''very'' many.