Mothers are women who cherish their family and would do anything for their children. The women in Harriet Beecher Stowe's, Uncle Tom's Cabin play a very important role concerning the importance of the family and their increasing acts of courageousness. Women throughout the novel are portrayed as leaders and mothers who would risk almost anything for their family.
             Eliza is a main character who plays an important role regarding her family. Her son Harry is her number one priority. She is also very close with Mr. And Mrs. Shelby, her owners. When she finds out that her son is going to be sold she takes her son and risks her life just to escape. Although she is close with her masters, she makes sacrifices for Harry because he is extremely significant to her. She becomes an extremely courageous woman when she escapes and crosses the Ohio River on sheets of ice. This also in a way disputes the belief that slave mothers have less affection for their children than white mothers. Eliza also deals with the separation from her husband George, which adds to the deterioration of the family. The break up of the family shows how slavery destroys a mother's intrinsic bond with her child and the relationship between a wife and her husband.
             Mrs. Shelby is an important character that associates with the importance of family. When she finds out that Mr. Shelby has sold Tom and Eliza's son Harry, she ironically becomes concerned. This is ironic because she is portrayed as caring about the slaves but only because of her Christian values of mothering these "poor simple creatures" (UTC,38). Slavery is in fact wrong but she is more concerned with her Christian values of
             raising children but yet slavery is an act of cruelty. She even raises the family's slaves with Christian values which is even more ironic.
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