“If it were your Harry, mother, or your Willie, that were going to be torn from you by a brutal trader, tomorrow morning,—if you had seen the man, and heard that the papers were signed and delivered, and you had only from twelve o’clock till morning to make good your escape,—how fast could you walk”. This passage describes the night of how Eliza was running away with her son so their master wouldn’t sell and separate them. Stowe tried to give an emotional passage here in attempts to gain sympathy from reader for the reader for the black character. It is very relatable to ask a parent what you would do for your child and using that as a point of common interest for the reader with the plight of the black characters.
“The trader was not shocked or amazed; because, as we said before, he was used to a great many things that you are not used to. Even the awful presence of Death struck no solemn chill upon him. He had seen Death many times,—met him in the way of trade, and got acquainted with him,—and he only thought of him as a hard customer”. This text from the passage describes the numbness that Slave traders have felt toward the slaves that they had with them when Tom was on the ship at the sale. This is another example of the brutality that the author is trying show. Not only the mental and physical abuse that slaves but also numbness, cruelty, and death that the slaveholders has come to be to accustomed to in this line of work.