Uncle Tom's Cabin Volume 2, Chapter 20 Summary

Summary

Augustine St. Clare presents a little negro girl, Topsy, to his cousin Miss Ophelia, saying he has purchased her and offers her for Ophelia to educate. The child is described in lively, grotesque detail—filthy, ragged, with braided tails, bright eyes, and a mixture of cunning and doleful gravity. Ophelia is at first horrified and reluctant, but, moved by conscience and St. Clare’s taunt about preaching education without action, she consents to take Topsy in and attempts to reform her. The kitchen staff receive Topsy with scorn; Ophelia cleans and clothes her despite their reluctance and discovers on the child’s back the welts and callouses of past abuse.

Miss Ophelia initiates a regimen of instruction—catechism, reading, sewing, and household duties—while St. Clare alternately amuses himself and philosophizes about the causes of such degraded characters. Topsy proves quick at learning reading and at physical tasks when she chooses, but mischievous, evasive, and resistant to sewing. She frequently lies or gives grotesque answers, and her antics—stealing small trinkets, staging tumbling performances, and arranging comic disruptions—both exasperate and baffle Ophelia. Little Eva shows spontaneous sympathy and kindness to Topsy, offering friendship and protection; Ophelia worries about the influence of Topsy on Eva but St. Clare reassures her. Over time Topsy becomes a household character: sometimes insubordinate and destructive, sometimes efficient and surprising, adored by the other children and protected by St. Clare’s indulgence.

Key events

1. St. Clare brings Topsy into the parlor and introduces her to Miss Ophelia.
2. Ophelia reluctantly washes, clothes, and examines Topsy, finding marks of abuse.
3. Ophelia begins instruction: catechism, reading, sewing, and bed-making lessons.
4. Topsy steals and lies; misunderstandings with household items (ribbon, gloves, coral) occur.
5. Little Eva shows spontaneous kindness, unsettling Ophelia's assumptions.
6. Topsy alternates between astonishing skill and mischievous chaos, becoming a noted household figure.

Analysis

This chapter establishes Topsy as a vivid, ambivalent figure who embodies several of the novel’s concerns: the human damage wrought by slavery, the limits of moralizing instruction, and the clash between prejudice and genuine compassion. St. Clare functions as both provocateur and protector—he purchases Topsy to tease and test Miss Ophelia’s professed zeal for conversion, and his amusement complicates the moral atmosphere of the household. Miss Ophelia represents a rigid, doctrinal New England benevolence: earnest, practical, and often unable to imagine lives formed by brutality; her efforts at catechizing and domestic training highlight the novel’s interest in education as moral reform but also its blunt inadequacy when applied without empathy or social change. Little Eva’s immediate kindness contrasts with Ophelia’s corrective zeal and suggests a softer, more intuitive form of moral influence.

Narratively, the chapter mixes comic portraiture and satire with moments that reveal Topsy’s past suffering (welts and callouses) and resilient cunning; this juxtaposition complicates simple readings of Topsy as merely a comic foil. Symbolically, Topsy’s repeated claim that she “never was born” or “never had a mother” gestures at the erasure and dispossession slavery effects on identity and origin. The technique alternates close, often exaggerated description and dialogue to dramatize cultural misunderstandings and to interrogate the limits of reform through private piety and pedagogy alone. The chapter prepares Topsy to recur as both a source of household upheaval and a mirror to the varied moral tones of St. Clare’s world.

Important quotes

“Never was born!”

TopsyTopsy responds to Miss Ophelia’s questions about her origins with a grotesque, evasive claim that unsettles Ophelia and signals Topsy's damaged, dispossessed past.

“I was raised by a speculator, with lots of others. Old Aunt Sue used to take car on us.”

TopsyTopsy gives a brief account of being bought and raised for market, directly pointing to the trafficking and abuse underlying her condition.

Characters in Volume 2, Chapter 20

• Augustine St. Clare
• Ophelia St. Clare
• Topsy
• Dinah
• Rosa
• Jane
• Miss Eva
• Miss Feely
• Prue
• Old Aunt Sue
• Mas'r St. Clare
• Old Missis