Tom is undeniably the central character of the novel that bears his name. He is of absolute importance to the major plot; he is the embodiment of the struggle that carries the major theme (the impact of slavery on human morality — or, to state it in more universal terms, the problem of evil as it threatens the human spirit). Tom is not a developing character in the usual sense — he experiences hope and joy, pain and despair, but he does not really change. He is in no way a better or a wiser or a different person at the end of the novel than he is at the beginning. Yet Tom is real and believable, and above all he is not the "Uncle Tom" of the twenty-first-century dictionary definition, the "elderly slave" who behaves "fawningly" towards whites.
Tom is described, early in the book, as a physically powerful man, very dark-skinned, with African features. We can calculate his age approximately: He is eight years older than Shelby, both he and Shelby are the fathers of sons in their early teens; thus he must be, when the book opens, somewhere in his middle 40s — still in the prime of life. Although some of Stowe's African-American characters are of racially mixed ancestry — almost always, it seems, for a specific reason related to plot or theme — Tom, although apparently born in the United States, is said to be "truly African," and this is also for a reason: Stowe believed that specific psychological characteristics were peculiar to people of different races or ethnicities — for example, that Italians were volatile and excitable, "Anglo-Saxons" aggressive and adventurous, "Irishmen" (and women) overly sentimental and quick to anger or tears. She believed that members of the "African race" were more gentle, more loving and devoted to family (and thus potentially better Christians) than whites, especially those she called "Anglo-Saxons." Thus we feel that she intended Tom's unmixed African blood to show these traits in his character. Her narrator also says of Tom, several times, that he is "childlike" and "simple"; she does not mean that he is intellectually slow, but that he is what we would call entirely focused, unburdened by complexities of motive or doubt, confident (Stowe would say) of the goodness of God.
