# What are the origions of the phrase "Uncle Tom" and was this as actual person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2004, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origions-of-the-phrase-uncle-tom-and-was-this-as-actual-person/244601 "2004-05-11T10:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Starguard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Starguard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starguard)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origions-of-the-phrase-uncle-tom-and-was-this-as-actual-person/244601/1 "2004-05-11T10:27:06Z")
Over the years, I have been hearing the phrase “Uncle Tom” used to describe any African American person, that refuses to follow the average media stereotype image that todays generation has been brainwashed into following. This is an insulting term that seems to be increasingly aimed at black businessmen and women (especially those with higher education levels) that are devoted to the fields of science and technology. There are even some people that routinely refer to the more advanced Black colleges of America as “Uncle Tom’s Cabins”. Although I am very sure that those that are accused, (who have more than a basic education in phychology), understand that todays generation of African Americans have been deeply brainwashed and therefore do not allow these accusations to bother them, so I won’t dwell on it right now ( thats another topic that I’ll start later) My General Question is: “Was this (uncle tom) ever a real person, and if so, how did his name come to represent any black person that has supposedly betrayed his people?” [CITE](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Uncle+Tom) I have managed to get my hands on several cites covering this, but none of them seem to be able to answer my question…Can anyone out there do it “and list cites for reference?” ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origions-of-the-phrase-uncle-tom-and-was-this-as-actual-person/244601/2 "2004-05-11T10:38:04Z")
I don’t know how the term is generally used today, but generally it referred to a black person who acted subservient to whites. It doesn’t refer to a real person but to a character from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 book, _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. I’ll leave discussion of why that character’s name took on this meaning to Dopers who have actually read the book, as I have not. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origions-of-the-phrase-uncle-tom-and-was-this-as-actual-person/244601/3 "2004-05-11T11:15:28Z")
Everybody should read _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_–it’s one of the great American novels and the most powerful anti-slavery screed ever written. As for Tom himself, he fights with passive resistance, which I guess people nowadays misread. Basically, he is the Christ figure–he sacrifices his life rather than reveal the whereabouts of an escaped slave family. Simon Legree is the overseer who supervises his torture (by two black overseers, as it happens) and he ultimately is killed, not revealing any of his secrets and saving lives. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origions-of-the-phrase-uncle-tom-and-was-this-as-actual-person/244601/4 "2004-05-11T12:06:44Z")
Also, because “Uncle Tom” was a highly recognizable name for a Black man (due to the popularity of the book) the name was given to the lead character in many of the “minstrel shows” of the early 20th century. These shows invariably had white actors in blackface (think Al Jolson for an example, although most were worse) making horrible coon jokes and doing happy pickaninny sing-songs. (As an aside, Stepin Fetchit seems to be now viewed with pity as a victim, a good actor who was forced to accept demeaning roles.) A black man acting the fool to curry favour with white men (or otherwise acting against his own best interests) thus was equated with the minstrel-show “Toms” and not the heroic character in **Uncle Tom’s Cabin**. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origions-of-the-phrase-uncle-tom-and-was-this-as-actual-person/244601/5 "2004-05-11T12:14:25Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > These shows invariably had white actors in blackface (think Al Jolson for an example, although most were worse) making horrible coon jokes and doing happy pickaninny sing-songs. Not necessarily. Most of the jokes involved Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo pulling a fast one on Mr. Interlocutor. A lot was wordplay and just plain silliness. And the blackface was not necessarily racial, any more than a mime’s white makeup was. > [@](#): > > (As an aside, Stepin Fetchit seems to be now viewed with pity as a victim, a good actor who was forced to accept demeaning roles.) Many of Fetchit’s roles cast him as the sidekick and confidante to the hero. It was Willie Best who was in the truly demeaning roles. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-origions-of-the-phrase-uncle-tom-and-was-this-as-actual-person/244601/6 "2004-05-11T15:52:20Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > Everybody should read _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_–it’s one of the great American novels and the most powerful anti-slavery screed ever written. > > As for Tom himself, he fights with passive resistance, which I guess people nowadays misread. Basically, he is the Christ figure–he sacrifices his life rather than reveal the whereabouts of an escaped slave family. Simon Legree is the overseer who supervises his torture (by two black overseers, as it happens) and he ultimately is killed, not revealing any of his secrets and saving lives. Tom definitely gets a worse rap than he deserves. He is not servile in the book, but resists Legree to the point of death, although passively: From the [on-line text:](http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/ecp/10/223/0001/html/00010040.html) > [@](#): > > “Well, Tom!” said Legree, walking up, and seizing him grimly by the collar of his coat, and speaking through his teeth, in a paroxysm of determined rage, “do you know I’ve made up my mind to KILL YOU?” “It’s very likely, Mas’r,” said Tom, calmly. “I have,” said Legree, with a grim, terrible calmness, “done–just–that–thing, Tom, unless you’ll tell me what you know about these yer gals!” Tom stood silent. “D’ye hear?” said Legree, stamping, with a roar like that of an incensed lion. “Speak!” “I han’t got nothing to tell, Mas’r,” said Tom, with a slow, firm, deliberate utterance. “Do you dare to tell me, ye old black Christian, ye don’t know?” said Legree. Tom was silent. “Speak!” thundered Legree, striking him furiously. Do you know anything?" “I know, Mas’r; but I can’t tell anything. I can die!” Legree drew in a long breath; and, suppressing his rage, took Tom by the arm, and, approaching his face almost to his, said, in a terrible voice, “Hark ‘e, Tom!–ye think, ‘cause I’ve let you off before, I don’t mean what I say; but, this time, I’ve made up my mind, and counted the cost. You’ve always stood it out again’ me: now, I’ll conquer ye, or kill ye!–one or t’ other. I’ll count every drop of blood there is in you, and take 'em, one by one, till ye give up!” Tom looked up to his master, and answered, "Mas’r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give 'em freely, as the Lord gave his for me. O, Mas’r! don’t bring this great sin on your soul! It will hurt you more than 't will me! Do the worst you can, my troubles’ll be over soon; but, if ye don’t repent, yours won’t never end! > > . . . > > “He’s most gone, Mas’r,” said Sambo, touched, in spite of himself, by the patience of his victim. “Pay away, till he gives up! Give it to him!–give it to him!” shouted Legree. I’ll take every drop of blood he has, unless he confesses!" Tom opened his eyes, and looked upon his master. “Ye poor miserable critter!” he said, “there ain’t no more ye can do! I forgive ye, with all my soul!” and he fainted entirely away. A small nitpick: Legree is Tom’s owner, not an overseer.