God Vs. Law: Standing Against the Government When Needed

God vs. Law: Standing Against the Government When Needed

A member of the Senate, John Bird, spoke of a law that was passed that outlawed harboring and assisting a fugitive slave in their escape. Mrs. Bird, being a fair and morally inclined Christian woman argued against this law stating, "Now John, I don't know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow (93). This raises the issue of which "side" is the more moral of the two; the side of God, which entails being a fair and just person by helping those in need, or siding with the government by blindly creating and following the Law even though it is a cruel and seemingly pointless plan of action.

To analyze this issue equally from both sides, one must think of reasons why the government and society even allowed slavery. This can be summed up by the passage, "...the Law considers all these human beings, with beating hearts and living affections, only as so many things belonging to a master" (11). Simply put, the white "superiors" never viewed their forced laborers as people, the same as a farmer does not view his horses and cows as people. To masters, the Negroes were glorified pets that were present only to make life easier, and so they did not view mistreating them as cruel at all, seeing as they were not people. However, to the individuals against slavery, and against mistreating these people, the law forbidding them to assist fugitives was as outrageous as the idea of enslaving them in the first place.

Furthermore, the character Eva, who is so overcome with stress about the monstrosity that is enslavement, makes herself ill. This represents the masses of people that wish to abolish slavery and want to do away with the horror of racism. Tom then befriends her, which can be a metaphor for how the African Americans support and cherish their white counterparts who are trying to assist them.

Oppositely, George Harris' master is the representation of racism and unfairness. He not only demands all of George's wages while he worked in a bagging factory, but he took credit for an invention of his, simply because George was his property. George fairly stated the ridiculousness of this by saying, "...And who made him my master? ...I am