Modern Day Joseph

Stowe’s extensive use of Scripture throughout Uncle Tom’s Cabin is amazing. Truly, one must have a knowledge of the Bible in order to fully understand many of the author’s driving thoughts. We’ve enjoyed several laughs as the editors of the Norton Anthology consistently take Scripture references out of context or reference the wrong passage all together.

Despite Norton’s rather ineffective insight on Biblical references, I have learned much from the inclusion of Scripture in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Multiple times throughout the novel Stowe references Uncle Tom as a modern day Joseph.

Joseph, sold as a slave by his jealous brothers, found himself in the home of Potiphar, one of the most influential men in Egypt. Though a slave, Joseph won Potiphar’s trust and eventually became the overseer of all of Potiphar’s property. Genesis 39:2-4 says, “And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master waw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he [Potiphar] made him [Joseph] overseer over his house, and all that he [Potiphar] had he put into his [Joseph’s] hand.”

As Stowe introduces Uncle Tom’s character through a discussion between Haley, Shelby says, “Tom is an uncommon fellow; he is certainly worth that sum anywhere,—steady, honest, capable, manages my whole farm like a clock” (2). Like Potiphar trusted Joseph with all he had, Shelby blindly trusted Tom to manage everything.

After Tom is sold to Haley and then to St. Clare, Stowe reinforces Tom’s connection with Joseph. In the first sentence of Chapter XVIII Stowe remarks that, “Our friend Tom, in his own simple musings, often compared his more fortunate lot [living with the St. Clares], in the bondage into which he was cast, with that of Joseph in Egypt; and, in fact, as time went on, and he developed more and more under the eye of his master, the strength of the parallel increased” (185). The careless St. Clare recognizes Tom’s management skills and places the care of the household finances in Tom’s hands. What remarkable trust! Tom could have done anything—he “had every facility and temptation to dishonesty; and nothing but an impregnable simplicity of nature, strengthened by Christian faith, could have kept him from it” (186).

Just as Joseph fled from the temptation of Potiphar’s wife, Tom fled from the temptation of misusing the trust given him by God. You can almost hear him incredulously quote Joseph to skeptics: “how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9).

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