There are seldom cases of slaves loving their masters and rarer occurrences of masters loving their slaves. One occasion transpired when Uncle Tom was sold to Augustine St. Claire after his daughter Evangeline (Eva) begged her father to buy him. The child became smitten with Uncle Tom through conversations and the moment that he leapt into the waters to save her after she had fallen in. Regrettably, Eva was ailed by sickness to the extremity that she was on her death bed. But, before she passed away she requested that all the slavers be present and proclaimed “I sent for you all, my dear friends,” said Eva, “because I love you. I love you all; and I have something to say to you, which I want you always to remember….I am going to leave you. In a few more weeks you will see me no more—“ (Stowe 419). The love Eva displayed for her slaves would have been forbidden during her time. Even so, her final wish was to convey her last words to them and present them with a token to remember her by. She decides to “give all of you a curl of my hair; and, when you look at it, think that I loved you and am gone to heaven, and that I want to see you all there” (420). This is important because as noted by her father, her hair is her trademark characteristic and his pride. It symbolizes that she considers her slaves to be on her equal and that regardless of the color of their skin that can reach heaven as well. This in its self is a sacrifice because she gives her hair away to encourage the salves that they will have peace after
There are seldom cases of slaves loving their masters and rarer occurrences of masters loving their slaves. One occasion transpired when Uncle Tom was sold to Augustine St. Claire after his daughter Evangeline (Eva) begged her father to buy him. The child became smitten with Uncle Tom through conversations and the moment that he leapt into the waters to save her after she had fallen in. Regrettably, Eva was ailed by sickness to the extremity that she was on her death bed. But, before she passed away she requested that all the slavers be present and proclaimed “I sent for you all, my dear friends,” said Eva, “because I love you. I love you all; and I have something to say to you, which I want you always to remember….I am going to leave you. In a few more weeks you will see me no more—“ (Stowe 419). The love Eva displayed for her slaves would have been forbidden during her time. Even so, her final wish was to convey her last words to them and present them with a token to remember her by. She decides to “give all of you a curl of my hair; and, when you look at it, think that I loved you and am gone to heaven, and that I want to see you all there” (420). This is important because as noted by her father, her hair is her trademark characteristic and his pride. It symbolizes that she considers her slaves to be on her equal and that regardless of the color of their skin that can reach heaven as well. This in its self is a sacrifice because she gives her hair away to encourage the salves that they will have peace after