Uncle Tom's Cabin Volume 2, Chapter 39 Summary

Summary

The chapter opens in Legree’s dusty, ghost-haunted garret and explains how Cassy exploits local superstitions to control and terrify her brutal master. Cassy deliberately rearranges rooms and insinuates that sounds and groans are coming from the garret; she rigs a bottle in a knot-hole so wind will produce moaning, and uses whispered hints and a cold, unnerving stare to provoke fear in Legree. On a stormy night, Legree finds a book of ghost stories and scoffs, but Cassy’s steady pressure and a well-timed shriek from the garret at midnight break his composure, driving him to dread the place he once commanded.

While Legree is incapacitated by superstition, Cassy prepares a practical escape with Emmeline. She has secretly stocked the garret with provisions, clothing, candles, and money taken from Legree’s desk. When Legree later pursues the women into the swamp, Cassy deliberately leads Emmeline into terrain too difficult for him to follow; she anticipates and manipulates the expected reaction — dogs, torches, and a chaotic hunt led by the overseers and some servants like Sambo and Quimbo. While the plantation is emptied in pursuit, Cassy and Emmeline slip back into the house by the back door and hide in a large packing-box in the garret. They settle in with a lamp, provisions, and resolve. Though Emmeline trembles at stealing and at Cassy’s harsh command to avoid fainting, Cassy reassures her that they will be safer hidden there, especially since Legree’s fear of the garret will keep him away. The chapter closes with the hunt returning defeated and Legree, thwarted and enraged, going to bed — while Cassy and Emmeline wait in their hideout, poised for the next stage of their flight.

Key events

1. Description of Legree’s garret and its ghostly reputation among the slaves.
2. Cassy deliberately provokes Legree with stories and eerie hints about noises from the garret.
3. She installs a bottle in a knot-hole to make haunting wails on windy nights.
4. On a stormy night Cassy and Legree are driven to the garret; a loud shriek terrifies him.
5. Cassy and Emmeline plan and enact an escape: lure pursuit into the swamp, then slip back into the house.
6. They hide in a packing-box in the garret, stocked with provisions and money taken from Legree’s desk.
7. The hunt fails; Legree returns angry, while the women remain concealed for the night.

Analysis

This chapter advances both plot and theme by pairing psychological strategy with practical action. Cassy’s manipulation of Legree’s superstition reveals how power can be reversed: though legally enslaved and physically vulnerable, she attains control through cunning and understanding of his inner weaknesses. The garret functions as a charged symbol—once a place of horror and rumored violence, it becomes an instrument of liberation. Cassy weaponizes folklore and atmosphere, showing how narrative and performance can reshape reality for the powerful. The contrast between Legree’s brute force and Cassy’s resourceful cunning highlights a recurring theme: moral and spiritual emptiness in slaveholders vs. moral complexity and resilience in the enslaved.

Stylistically, Stowe uses close third-person narration with descriptive, atmospheric detail to build suspense; the slow reveal of Cassy’s preparations and the tactile descriptions of the garret produce a claustrophobic tension. Foreshadowing appears in the repeated references to the garret’s past violence and in Cassy’s alternating despair and resolve—signaling both the danger and the necessity of risk. The chapter also develops Cassy’s character from passive victim to active agent: her cool cruelty toward Emmeline (threatening to stop fainting) is pragmatic, not malicious—emphasizing survival over sentiment. Finally, the scene resets the power dynamic on the plantation, isolating Legree in fear while the fugitives secure anonymity, setting up the immediate next steps of their flight.

Important quotes

“The garret of the house that Legree occupied, like most other garrets, was a great, desolate space, dusty, hung with cobwebs, and littered with cast-off lumber.”

NarratorSets the eerie physical scene of the garret that Cassy will use to frighten Legree.

“You may sleep there, yourself,”

CassyCassy taunts Legree, daring him to occupy the room she implies is haunted and thereby escalating his unease.

“We will steal out of the back door, and run down by the quarters.”

CassyCassy outlines the detailed plan for their escape, showing her strategic thinking and leadership.

Characters in Volume 2, Chapter 39

• Simon Legree
• Cassy
• Emmeline
• Sambo
• Quimbo
• Tiger
• Fury