"[Tom's] Bible seemed to him all of this life that remained" --
Chapter 14, Uncle Tom's Cabin


The Bible & the Novel

Uncle Tom's Cabin contains close to 100 quotations from or direct allusions to the King James version of the Bible. Most often it is the narrator who establishes connections between the story and what most readers in the contemporary audience would have referred to as "the Book"; eight chapter epigraphs, for example, are scriptural texts. Among the characters, the one that most often cites scripture is (not surprisingly) Tom. It may surprise some, however, that the character who evokes or quotes the Bible the second most often is Augustine St. Clare.

These references occur in 38 of the novel's 45 chapters. Chapter 27--right after Eva's death--contains the most (8), Chapter 12--in which several people cite scripture both to defend and attack slavery--the second most (6), and Chapter 38--in which Tom wins his "victory" at Legree's--the third most (5).

This part of the archive contains the complete texts of all the chapters from the various Bible books that Stowe uses as points of reference. The first table below allows you to see, by novel chapters, how the allusions appear in the novel's text; the second will take you, by books, to the biblical source.


PREF 1 3 4 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16
17 18 19 20 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
32 33 34 35 36 38 39 40 41 43 44 45




Cover, 1853 Illustrated Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Clifton Waller Barrett Collection

Old Testament

  • Genesis [25 chapters]
  • Deuteronomy [1 chapter]
  • 1 Kings [1 chapter]
  • 2 Chronicles [1 chapter]
  • Psalms [6 psalms]
  • Proverbs [4 chapters]
  • Ecclesiastes [1 chapter]
  • Song of Solomon [1 chapter]
  • Isaiah [5 chapters]
  • Jeremiah [1 chapter]
  • Habakkuk [1 chapter]
  • Malachi [1 chapter]
  • New Testament

  • Matthew [9 chapters]
  • Mark [1 chapter]
  • Luke [1 chapter]
  • John [2 chapters]
  • Romans [2 chapters]
  • 1 Corinthians [2 chapters]
  • Ephesians [1 chapter]
  • Colossians [1 chapter]
  • Philemon [1 chapter]
  • Hebrews [3 chapters]
  • 1 Peter [1 chapter]
  • 1 John [1 chapter]
  • Revelation [complete]


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