Arthur Shelby, a Kentucky farmer, is heavily in debt. While on the verge of losing his farm and everything else that he owns, Shelby decides to cope up with the financial crisis by selling two of his slaves—the middle-aged uncle Tom whose faith is unwavering and, the son of Mrs. Emily Shelby's maid Eliza, harry—to a gruff slave trader named Haley for money. But the Shelby family shares a warm and affectionate relationship with their slaves. What happens when Eliza, who was promised by the virtuous Mrs. Emily Shelby that her son would never be sold, comes to know of the arrangement? A heart-wrenching tale giving insights into the lives of the African American slaves in the pre-Civil war America, Harriet Beecher Stowe's uncle Tom’s cabin highlights the evils of slavery. At once fierce and stirring, the book is credited to have fanned the flames of the abolitionist cause.